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J. Krishnamurti
Chapter 8
Order and Control
Chapter 8, from Beyond Violence, by J. Krishnamurti
[This chapter has been produced for online distribution and is not a facsimile of any published edition. For
reference purposes, please see an edition published in book form.]
8
CONTROL AND ORDER
I wonder if you would care to ask any questions? You must question
everything, including your pet beliefs, your ideals, your authorities, your
scriptures, your politicians. Which means there must be a certain quality of
scepticism. But scepticism must be kept on the leash; you must let it go when
necessary, so that the mind can see freely, run rapidly. When you question, it
must be your own particular problem, not a casual, superficial question that will
entertain you; it must be something of your own. If this is so, then you will put
the right question. And if it is the right question you will have the right answer,
because the very act of putting that right question shows you the answer in
itself. So one must, if I may point this out, put the right question. Then in
putting the right question we can both of us share, partake together, in that
problem. Your problem is not different from other people’s problems. All
problems are interrelated, and if you can understand one problem completely,
wholly, you have understood all other problems. Therefore it is very important
to put the right question. But even if it is the wrong question, you will find that
in putting the wrong question you will also know when to ask the right question.
You must do both: then we shall come to putting always the fundamental, real,
true question.
Questioner: Would you please define, in the context of which you were speaking, control in
relation to restraint.
Questioner: Can you explain to me how the mind overcomes the body so that it can levitate?
KRISHNAMURTI: Are you really interested in this? I do not know why you
want to levitate. You know, sirs, the mind is always seeing something
mysterious, something hidden, which nobody else will discover except yourself,
and that gives you a tremendous sense of importance, vanity, prestige—you
become the ‘mystic’. But there is real mystery, something really sacred, when
you understand the whole of this life, this whole existence. In that there is great
beauty, great joy. There is a tremendous thing called the immeasurable. But you
must understand the measurable. And the immeasurable is not the opposite of
the measurable.
There have been photographs of people who have levitated. The speaker
has seen it and other forms of unimportant things. If you are really interested in
levitation—I do not know why you should be, but if you are—you have to have
a marvellous, highly sensitive body; you must not drink, nor smoke, nor take
drugs, nor eat meat. You must have a body that is utterly pliable, healthy, that
has its own intelligence, not the intelligence imposed by the mind on the body.
And if you have gone through all that, then you may find that levitation has no
worth in it!