20 April

J.Krishnamurti’s Last Talk: 4 January 1986 

Krishnamurti In India: The Last Decade

Madras 1985 / 1986 – 3rd   Public Talk

19    So, we are going to first enquire what is meditation. Any conscious effort to meditate is part of your discipline of the office, because you say, ‘If I meditate, I’ll have a quiet mind, or I’ll enter into another state’. And so on and so on. The word ‘meditation’ also means ‘to measure’ – right, sir? – to measure, which means compare. Oh, lord. So, your meditation becomes mechanical – right? – because you are exercising energy to concentrate on a picture, an image, or an idea and that concentration divides. Right? You understand what I mean? Concentration is always division. No? I want to concentrate on that, but thought wanders off. Then I say, ‘I mustn’t wander off, come back’. You repeat that all day long, or half an hour. And then you come off it and say, ‘Well I’ve meditated’. And this meditation is advocated by all the gurus, by all the – you know, lay disciples, and the – so on, so on. And the Christian idea is, ‘I believe in god and I’m sacrificing myself to god’. You understand what I’m saying? And, therefore, I pray to save me, save my soul, save my etc., etc. Is all this meditation? Tell me, I know nothing about meditation, at least not this kind. Will you tell me? Is this meditation? Tell me, sir, don’t be frightened, I’m not your guru, or your boss, or your… Tell me if this is meditation. It’s like an achievement. Right? It’s an achievement. I meditate for half an hour, by Jove I feel bright. Or is there a totally different kind of meditation? Right, sir? Totally different.

20    I’m asking you, but since you won’t answer I must answer. In the word ‘meditation’ which is measurement, as I said, which is comparison of achievement, that’s not meditation. I say don’t accept anything the speaker says, at any price. The speaker says that is not meditation at all. That’s merely a process of achievement. Right? You have been one day not able to concentrate; you take a month and say, ‘Yes, I’ve got it’. That’s like a clerk becoming a manager. Right? So is there a different kind of meditation which is not effort, which is not measurement, which is not routine – please pay attention to what I am saying – which is not mechanical? Is there a meditation in which there is no sense of comparison? Or there is no reward and punishment. You understand all this? So is there any meditation which is not based on thought which is measurement, time, and all that? You understand my question? How can one explain a meditation that has no measurement, that has no achievement, that doesn’t say, I’ll be that; I am this, but I’ll become that. ‘That’ being god or super-angel.