"Ideas and ideals are one thing, and the fact, the actual happening,
is another. The two can never come together. Ideals have been imposed
upon facts and twist what is happening to conform to what should be,
the ideal. The utopia is a conclusion drawn from what is happening and
sacrifices the actual to conform to that which has been idealised.
This has been the process for millennia and every student and all the
intellectuals revel in ideations. The avoidance of what is, is the
beginning of the corruption of the mind. This corruption pervades all
religions, all human relationships. The understanding of this process
of avoidance and the going beyond it is our concern.

Ideals corrupt the mind: they are born of ideas, judgments and hope.
Ideas are abstractions of what is and any idea or conclusions about
what is actually happening distorts what is happening, and so
corruption takes place. It takes away attention from the fact, what
is, and so directs attention to the fanciful. This movement away from
the fact makes for symbols, images, which then take on all-consuming
importance. This movement away from the fact is corruption of the
mind. Human beings indulge in this movement in conversation, in their
relationships, in almost everything they do. The fact is instantly
translated into an idea or a conclusion which then dictates our
reactions. When something is seen, thought immediately makes a
counterpart and that becomes the real. You see a dog and instantly
thought turns to whatever image you may have about dogs, and so you
never see the dog.

Can this be taught to the students: to remain with the fact, the
actual happening now, whether psychologically or externally? Knowledge
is not the fact; it is about the fact and that has its proper place,
but knowledge prevents perception of what actually is; then corruption
takes place.

This is really very important to understand. Ideals are considered
noble, exalted, of great purposeful significance, and what is actually
happening is considered merely sensory, worldly and of lesser value.
Schools the world over have some exalted purpose, ideal; so they are
educating the students in corruption."

(Krishnamurti in Letters to the Schools, volume one, p.43-44)