“In trying to conform to [an] ideology, you suppress yourself—whereas what is actually true is not the ideology but what you are. If you try to study yourself according to another you will always remain a secondhand human being.”
J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (Page 17)
Inner Work Quotes
“What is important is not a philosophy of life but to observe what is actually taking place in our daily life, inwardly and outwardly.”
J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (Page 16)
“The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality, or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosophers or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself and that is why you must know yourself. Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self. To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.”
J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (Page 12)
Freedom from the Known [Book]
Book Overview: In this classic work, Krishnamurti shows how you can free yourself from the tyranny of the expected. You are free to create your own future, and your departure from the confining expectations of ‘fate’ can be radical and immediate—no matter what your age. By changing yourself, you can change your relationships with others, consequently improving the whole structure of society. The vital need for change and the recognition of its very possibility constitute the rich essence of Krishnamurti’s message in Freedom from the Known.
Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
“It can be very difficult to have one’s own space. But unless you have your own space, you will never become acquainted with your own being. You will never come to know who you are. Always engaged, always occupied in a thousand and one things—in relationships, in worldly affairs, anxieties, plans, future, past—one continuously lives on the surface. If you love yourself deeply and go down into yourself, you will be ready to love others even more deeply, because one who does not know oneself cannot love very deeply.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 153)
“When you have a dream that seems to be significant—maybe violent, nightmarish, but you feel that there is some import in it—in the morning, or even in the middle of the night, before you forget the dream, sit in your bed and close your eyes. Befriend the dream; just tell it, ‘I am with you, and I am ready to come to you. Lead me wherever you want to lead me; I am available.’ Just surrender to the dream. Close your eyes and move with it, enjoy it; let the dream unfold. You will be surprised at what treasures a dream is hiding, and you will see that it keeps on unfolding.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 152)
“The only victory lies in surrender to oneself.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 224)
“All evil is potential vitality in need of transformation.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 223)
“One of the reasons I stopped getting high was that that colorful fog came to seem like the only reality. Living in between highs was too often an empty drag. Many of my fellow hipsters began to bridge the gap with heroin. Some of them are now dead junkies, overdosed with illusion. I never tried heroin myself, because instinctively I knew that I would have liked it so much that in an instant I would have become the hippest of junkies, lost to myself forever. Since that time, chemically induced pilgrimages have seemed to me to be misleading detours. The way must not be sought by putting ecstasy into my body, but by finding it within my Self. Drugs can give pleasure and being high can be fund but the essence of pilgrimage cannot be found in a vial.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 203)
“So it is that there is nothing to be taught, but yet there is something to be learned. There is something we may come to understand, but not if we demand that it be explained to us. There is something that may happen to us, but not if we await its coming from outside of ourselves.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 190)
“As children we owned all of ourselves. As adults, in response to the expectations of others, we have had to hide much of ourselves away, out of sight even from our own eyes. The cost of such voluntary losses is great. No one can afford to give up any part of himself. All of you is worth something. Even the evil can be a source of vitality if only you can face it and transform it.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 141)
“The continuing struggle was once described in the following metaphor by a patient who had successfully completed a long course of psychotherapy: ‘I came to therapy hoping to receive butter for the bread of life. Instead, at the end, I emerged with a pail of sour milk, a churn, and instructions on how to use them.'”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 138)
“We each learned again a bit more clearly that our old problems would remain temptations to messing-up for the rest of our lives, that we must each remember to remember that we will never be beyond error. Nothing important gets solved once and for all, finally and forever.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 138)
“When a psychotherapy patient does do the work of facing up to some of what he must endure, he is often rewarded by a sense of increased freedom and joy. However, as he comes to realize that there will be no light without some darkness, no rest without further toil, he may balk disappointedly to find that troubles never end. New solutions lead to new problems. New freedom leads to new responsibilities.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 136)
“Confronting one’s own personal garbage is the way to begin.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 126)
“If we flee from the evil in ourselves, we do it at our hazard. All evil is potential vitality in need of transformation. To live without the creative potential of our own destructiveness is to be a cardboard angel.”
Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 109)