Jiddu Krishnamurti

and opening the heart in the midst of it.

Change in society is of secondary importance.

That will come about naturally, inevitably, when you as a human being bring about the change in yourself.

A mind that is always comparing, always measuring, will always engender illusion.

If I am measuring myself against you, who are clever, more intelligent, I am struggling to be like you, and I am denying myself as I am.

I am creating an illusion.

Throughout life, from childhood, from school, until we die, we are taught to compare ourselves with another.

Yet when I compare myself with another, I am destroying myself.

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European or anything else, you are being violent.

Do you see why it is violent?

Because you are separating yourself from the rest of humankind.

When you separate yourself by belief,

by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence.

So a person who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system.

They are concerned with the total understanding of humankind.

The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

If I want to understand something, I must observe.

I must not criticize.

I must not condemn.

I must not pursue it as a pleasure or avoid it as a non-pleasure.