The dogma of a neurosis

 The transformation of the world is brought about by the transformation of oneself, because the self is the product and a part of the total process of human existence. To transform oneself, self-knowledge is essential; without knowing what you are, there is no basis for right thought, and without knowing yourself there cannot be transformation. One must know oneself as one is, not as one wishes to be, which is merely an ideal and therefore fictitious, unreal; it is only that which is that can be transformed, not that which you wish to be. To know oneself as one is requires an extraordinary alertness of mind, because ‘what is’ is constantly undergoing change, and to follow it swiftly the mind must not be tethered to any particular dogma or belief, to any particular pattern of action. It is no good being tethered. To know yourself, there must be the awareness, the alertness of mind in which there is freedom from all beliefs and idealisation because beliefs and ideals pervert true perception. If you want to know what you are, you cannot imagine or have belief in something which you are not. If I am greedy, envious or violent, having an ideal of non-violence or non-greed is of little value. To know that you are greedy or violent, and to understand it, requires an extraordinary perception. It demands honesty and clarity of thought. Whereas to pursue an ideal away from ‘what is’ is an escape; it prevents you from discovering and acting directly upon what you are. The understanding of what you are, whatever it be, without distortion, is the beginning of virtue. Virtue is essential, for it gives freedom. —Krishnamurti

From The First and Last Freedom ---------------------------

Without freedom from the past there is no freedom at all, because the mind is never new, fresh, innocent. It is only the fresh, innocent mind that is free. Freedom has nothing to do with age, it has nothing to do with experience; and it seems to me that the very essence of freedom lies in understanding the whole mechanism of habit,both conscious and unconscious. It is not a question of ending habit, but of seeing totally the structure of habit. You have to observe how habits are formed and how, by denying or resisting one habit, another habit is created. What matters is to be totally conscious of habit; for then, as you will see for yourself there is no longer the formation of habit. To resist habit, to fight it, to deny it, only gives continuity to habit. When you fight a particular habit you give life to that habit, and then the very fighting of it becomes a further habit. But if you are simply aware of the whole structure of habit without resistance, then you will find there is freedom from habit, and in that freedom a new thing takes place.⁠

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J. Krishnamurti⁠

Public Talk 5 Saanen, Switzerland - 31 July 1962⁠

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How would you awaken the mind as a whole? How would you see that you are completely alive inside and outside: in your feelings, in your taste, in everything? And how would you awaken this feeling of non-fragmented living? There are only two ways of doing it: either there is something within you which is so urgent that it burns away all contradiction; or you have to find an approach which will watch all the time, which will deliberately set about investigating everything you are doing, an awareness which will ceaselessly ask the question to find out in yourself so that a new quality comes into being which keeps all the dirt out. Now, which is it you are doing?

From Krishnamurti On Education