Krishnamurti on Transformation

[Clive]

Question: What do you mean by transformation?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Obviously, there must be a radical revolution.
The world crisis demands it. Our lives demand it. Our everyday
incidents, pursuits, anxieties, demand it. Our problems demand it.
There must be a fundamental, radical revolution, because everything
about us has collapsed. Though seemingly there is order, in fact there
is slow decay, destruction: the wave of destruction is constantly
overtaking the wave of life.

So there must be a revolution - but not a revolution based on an idea.
Such a revolution is merely the continuation of the idea, not a
radical transformation. A revolution based on an idea brings
bloodshed, disruption, chaos. Out of chaos you cannot create order;
you cannot deliberately bring about chaos and hope to create order out
of that chaos.

You are not the God-chosen who are to create order out of confusion
That is such a false way of thinking on the part of those people who
wish to create more and more confusion in order to bring about order.
Because for the moment they have power, they assume they know all the
ways of producing order.

Seeing the whole of this catastrophe - the constant repetition of
wars, the ceaseless conflict between classes, between peoples, the
awful economic and social inequality, the inequality of capacity and
gifts, the gulf between those who are extraordinarily happy,
unruffled, and those who are caught in hate, conflict, and misery -
seeing all this, there must be a revolution, there must be complete
transformation, must there not?

Is this transformation, is this radical revolution, an ultimate thing
or is it from moment to moment? I know we should like it to be the
ultimate thing, because it is so much easier to think in terms of far
away. Ultimately we shall be transformed, ultimately we shall be
happy, ultimately we shall find truth; in the meantime, let us carry
on. Surely such a mind, thinking in terms of the future, is incapable
of acting in the present; therefore such a mind is not seeking
transformation, it is merely avoiding transformation. What do we mean
by transformation?

Transformation is not in the future, can never be in the future. It
can only be now, from moment to moment. So what do we mean by
transformation? Surely it is very simple: seeing the false as the
false and the true as the true. Seeing the truth in the false and
seeing the false in that which has been accepted as the truth. Seeing
the false as the false and the true as the true is transformation,
because when you see something very clearly as the truth, that truth
liberates.

When you see that something is false, that false thing drops away.
When you see that ceremonies are mere vain repetitions, when you see
the truth of it and do not justify it, there is transformation, is
there not?, because another bondage is gone. When you see that class
distinction is false, that it creates conflict, creates misery,
division between people - when you see the truth of it, that very
truth liberates. The very perception of that truth is transformation,
is it not? As we are surrounded by so much that is false, perceiving
the falseness from moment to moment is transformation.

Truth is not cumulative. It is from moment to moment. That which is
cumulative, accumulated, is memory, and through memory you can never
find truth, for memory is of time - time being the past, the present
and the future. Time, which is continuity, can never find that which
is eternal; eternity is not continuity. That which endures is not
eternal. Eternity is in the moment. Eternity is in the now. The now is
not the reflection of the past nor the continuance of the past through
the present to the future.

A mind which is desirous of a future transformation or looks to
transformation as an ultimate end, can never find truth, for truth is
a thing that must come from moment to moment, must be discovered anew;
there can be no discovery through accumulation. How can you discover
the new if you have the burden of the old? It is only with the
cessation of that burden that you discover the new.

To discover the new, the eternal, in the present, from moment to
moment, one needs an extraordinarily alert mind, a mind that is not
seeking a result, a mind that is not becoming. A mind that is becoming
can never know the full bliss of contentment; not the contentment of
smug satisfaction; not the contentment of an achieved result, but the
contentment that comes when the mind sees the truth in what is and the
false in what is. The perception of that truth is from moment to
moment; and that perception is delayed through verbalization of the
moment.

Transformation is not an end, a result. Transformation is not a
result. Result implies residue, a cause and an effect. Where there is
causation, there is bound to be effect. The effect is merely the
result of your desire to be transformed. When you desire to be
transformed, you are still thinking in terms of becoming; that which
is becoming can never know that which is being. Truth is being from
moment to moment and happiness that continues is not happiness.
Happiness is that state of being which is timeless.

That timeless state can come only when there is a tremendous
discontent - not the discontent that has found a channel through which
it escapes but the discontent that has no outlet, that has no escape,
that is no longer seeking fulfilment. Only then, in that state of
supreme discontent, can reality come into being. That reality is not
to be bought, to be sold, to be repeated; it cannot be caught in
books. It has to be found from moment to moment, in the smile, in the
tear, under the dead leaf, in the vagrant thoughts, in the fullness of
love.

Love is not different from truth. Love is that state in which the
thought process, as time, has completely ceased. Where love is, there
is transformation. Without love, revolution has no meaning, for then
revolution is merely destruction, decay, a greater and greater ever-
mounting misery. Where there is love, there is revolution, because
love is transformation from moment to moment.

Source: from Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "The First
and last Freedom"
one of the many books available for the
krishnamurti-nz postal lending library