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Extracted from Brockwood Talks and Discussions 1969 !st Publc Talk 6th September 1969

Questioner: If you want to live peacefully within yourself, and yet you feel that as part of the society you are responsible for what if going on in the world today, how can you live peacefully or with any degree of happiness, knowing the heartrending things that are happening?

Krishnamurti: I have to change myself, that is all. I have to totally and completely transform myself. Is that possible? As long as I consider myself an Englishman, a Hindu or belong to any particular group or sect, subscribe to any particular belief, conclusion or ideology, I will continue to contribute to this chaos, this madness around me. Can I then drop these conclusions, prejudices, beliefs and dogmas completely - drop them without effort? If I make an effort, I find myself back immediately in this dualistic world. So can I cease completely to be a Hindu, not only in outward form but in essence? Can I, both outwardly and inwardly, end all sense of the competitiveness, the hierarchical approach to life, comparing myself with somebody who is cleverer, richer, more brilliant? Can I do this without any sense of overcoming, without effort? Unless this is done, I am part of this chaos. Such a change is not a matter of time: it must happen now, immediately. If I resolve to change gradually, I will again fall into the trap of a division.

So is the mind capable of observing the fact that I am competitive, wanting to fulfil, with all the frustrations, fears, anxieties, guilts and despairs? Can I watch it, see it as a complete total danger? When one sees something very dangerous, one acts immediately. Approaching a precipice, one doesn't say, `I'll go slowly, I'll think about it' - you sheer away from it. Do we see the danger of separation, not verbally, but actually? You belong to something and I to something else, each with our own beliefs, our isolating pleasures, sorrows and problems. As long as this state of affairs continues, we must live in chaos. Living in this rather mad, sad and despairing world, with only an occasional burst of joy - the beauty of a cloud, a flower - the question is whether there can be total and complete change.