Most
of us are so unconcerned with this extraordinary universe about us; we
never even see the waving of the leaf in the wind; we never watch a
blade of grass, touch it with our hand and know the quality of its
being. This is not just being poetic, so please do not go off into a
speculative, emotional state. I say it is essential to have that deep
feeling for life and not be caught in intellectual ramifications,
discussions, passing examinations, quoting and brushing something new
aside by saying it has already been said. Intellect is not the way.
Intellect will not solve our problems; the intellect will not give us
that nourishment which is imperishable. The intellect can reason,
discuss, analyze, come to a conclusion from inferences, and so on, but
intellect is limited, for intellect is the result of our conditioning.
But sensitivity is not. Sensitivity has no conditioning; it takes you
right out of the field of fears and anxieties. The mind that is not
sensitive to everything about it—to the mountain, the telegraph pole,
the lamp, the voice, the smile, everything—is incapable of finding what
is true.
But
we spend our days and years in cultivating the intellect, in arguing,
discussing, fighting, struggling to be something, and so on. And yet
this extraordinarily wonderful world, this earth that is so rich—not the
Bombay earth, the Punjab earth, the Russian earth or the American
earth—this earth is ours, yours and mine, and that is not sentimental
nonsense; it is a fact. But unfortunately we have divided it up through
our pettiness, through our provincialism. And we know why we have done
it—for our security, for better jobs and more jobs. That is the
political game that is being played throughout the world, and so we
forget to be human beings, to live happily on this earth which is ours
and to make something of it.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Book of Life