Becoming and the Self – Selections from “The Book of Life” by Jiddu Krishnamurti (vegetarian), Part 1 of 2

Jiddu Krishnamurti was an internationally renowned spiritual figure, born in 1895, in southern India, who, to this present day, is still considered one of the greatest thinkers and spiritual teachers of all time. In addition, Jiddu Krishnamurti was an author of numerous books. Among them are “The Awakening of Intelligence,” “The Urgency of Change,” “Freedom from the Known,” and “The Flight of the Eagle.”

Becoming is strife “Life as we know it, our daily life, is a process of becoming. I am poor and I act with an end in view, which is to become rich. I am ugly and I want to become beautiful. Therefore, my life is a process of becoming something. The will to be is the will to become, at different levels of consciousness, in different states, in which there is challenge, response, naming and recording. Now, this becoming is strife, this becoming is pain, it is not? It is a constant struggle: I am this, and I want to become that.”

Opportunities for self-expansion “Hierarchical structure offers an excellent opportunity for self-expansion. You may want brotherhood, but how can there be brotherhood if you are pursuing spiritual distinctions? You may smile at worldly titles; but when you admit the Master, the Savior, the Guru in the realm of the spirit, are you not carrying over the worldly attitude? Can there be hierarchical divisions or degrees in spiritual growth, in the understanding of truth, in the realization of God? Love admits no division.”

“Separation between God or reality and yourself is brought about by you, by the mind that clings to the known, to certainty, to security. This separation cannot be bridged over; there is no ritual, no discipline, no sacrifice that can carry you across it; there is no Savior, no Master, no Guru who can lead you to the real or destroy this separation. The division is not between the real and yourself; it is in yourself. What is essential is to understand the increasing conflict of desire; and this understanding comes only through self-knowledge and constant awareness of the movements of the self.”