“You are really not watching at all, because your mind is concerned with gaining a reward.”
Response to the question: "I have listened to you for many years and I have become quite good at watching my thoughts and being aware of every thing I do, but I have never touched the deep waters or experienced the transformation of which you speak. Why?"
1950s, Freedom From the Self (1955)
Context: The questioner wants to know why, after these many years of watching, he hasn't found the deep waters. Why should he find them? Do you understand? You think that by watching your own thoughts you are going to get a reward: if you do this, you will get that. You are really not watching at all, because your mind is concerned with gaining a reward. You think that by watching, by being aware, you will be more loving, you will suffer less, be less irritable, get something beyond; so your watching is a process of buying. With this coin you are buying that, which means that your watching is a process of choice; therefore it isn't watching, it isn't attention. To watch is to observe without choice, to see yourself as you are without any movement of desire to change, which is an extremely arduous thing to do; but that doesn't mean that you are going to remain in your present state. You do not know what will happen if you see yourself as you are without wishing to bring about a change in that which you see. Do you understand?
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Jiddu Krishnamurti 233
Indian spiritual philosopher 1895–1986Related quotes
“Greater fates gain greater rewards”
As quoted by The Fragments of the Work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on Nature; Translated from the Greek Text of Bywater, with an Introduction Historical and Critical, by G. T. W. Patrick. Page 108 https://books.google.com/books?id=gLxQZb3TMYgC&lpg=PA108&ots=RUCu2BIyRB&dq=Greater%20fates%20gain%20greater%20rewards.&pg=PA108#v=onepage&q=Greater%20fates%20gain%20greater%20rewards.&f=false
Alternative translation: Big results require big ambitions.
[Eubank, William, Ash Thorp, Episode 182 — William Eubank, Interview (event occurs at 43:37–43:50), https://www.thecollectivepodcast.com/episodes/182-william-eubank, MP3; 1h 44m, The Collective Podcast, Los Angeles, California, June 25, 2018, 2018, June]
Jackson, Jim, Walking Together Forever: The Broad Street Bullies, Then and Now
“If you really put your mind to it, anything is possible.”
As quoted in Figure Skater Mirai Nagasu on Asian American Stereotypes, Her Reputation, and Breaking U.S. Olympic Records https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a17806677/mirai-nagasu-interview-olympics-2018/ in Cosmopolitan (February 16, 2018)
