695 Why and How
Do you ever wonder - maybe after watching SBS News, with its reports from Syria and the Middle East - why the world is the way it is? Why do we fight wars like that? The First World War was meant to be the war to end all wars … it was - by all accounts - unspeakably horrible. Commentators at the time could not imagine humanity would ever inflict anything like it again on itself ... yet, just twenty one years later - in the same generation - came World War Two.
I ponder this question regularly ... you could well say, it keeps me awake at night (then I write about it). Friends say, "don't watch the News"; this is a popular, though unimaginative way to deal with the issue: Ignore it. If that's not possible, is there an answer to the questions? Why is the world the way it is? How can it be changed?
Regular readers know I look for answers within the writings by Jiddu Krishnamurti. He was an extraordinary thinker ... he truly was thinking outside the square. So what does K say on the issue? In a nutshell: We are - each one of us - responsible for every war because of the aggressiveness of our own lives, because of our gods, our nationalism, our selfishness, our prejudices, our ideals, all of which divide us.
And ... living in this ugly world, let us ask ourselves, can this society - based on competition, brutality and fear - come to an end? ... so that the mind is made new and innocent and can bring about a different world altogether? It can only happen if each one of us recognises that we are responsible for the whole state of the world.
Krishnamurti urges us to have a revolution. If we truly want a better world we have to revolutionise our minds, our thinking ... we have to re-assess all we know and then we have to gain freedom from that which we know, because that which we know, which we believe in, which we use as the guides to morality and ethics in our lives, does not lead to peace. It again and again leads to war.
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We have contributed to it in our daily lives
We are each one of us responsible for every war because of the aggressiveness of our own lives, because of our nationalism, our selfishness, our gods, our prejudices, our ideals, all of which divide us. And only when we realize, not intellectually but actually, as actually as we would recognise that we are hungry or in pain, that you and I are responsible for all this existing chaos, for all the misery throughout the entire world because we have contributed to it in our daily lives and are part of this monstrous society with its wars, divisions, its ugliness, brutality and greed - only then we will act.
Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known, 14
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Totally responsible
All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society. As human beings living in this monstrously ugly world, let us ask ourselves, can this society, based on competition, brutality and fear, come to an end? Not as an intellectual conception, not as a hope, but as an actual fact, so that the mind is made fresh, new and innocent and can bring about a different world altogether? It can only happen, I think, if each one of us recognises the central fact that we, as individuals, as human beings, in whatever part of the world we happen to live or whatever culture we happen to belong to, are totally responsible for the whole state of the world.
Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known, 14 |
The book to read, the ONE book one needs as a guide to a better world and a better self, is K's Freedom From The Known. It is a compilation of his various teachings; click the link for chapter one.
Incidentally, Mahatma Gandhi had a similar idea: "Be the change you want to see in the world." Besides the one on KRISHNAMURTI, I have an essay GANDHI in my book with no title, instead three definitions for the term en.light.en.ment
Coming to think of it, even Michael Jackson had clued-in on the concept:
"I'm gonna make a change, for once in my life
I'm starting with the man in the mirror
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, then make a change ..."
Best song ever?
Man in the Mirror was composed by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett.
I’m gonna make a change, for once in my life
It’s gonna feel real good, gonna make a difference
Gonna make it right...
As I turn up the collar on my favorite winter coat
This wind is blowin’ my mind
I see the kids in the street, with not enough to eat
Who am I, to be blind? Pretending not to see their needs
A summer’s disregard, a broken bottle top
And a one man’s soul
They follow each other on the wind ya’ know
’Cause they got nowhere to go
That’s why I want you to know
I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
(Na na na, na na na, na na, na nah)
I’ve been a victim of a selfish kind of love
It’s time that I realize
That there are some with no home, not a nickel to loan
Could it be really me, pretending that they’re not alone?
A willow deeply scarred, somebody’s broken heart
And a washed-out dream
They follow the pattern on the wind, ya’ see
’Cause they got no place to be
That’s why I’m starting with me
I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change
I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make that...
Change!
I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
No message could have been any clearer
(If you wanna make the world a better place)
(Take a look at yourself and then make the change)
(You gotta get it right, while you got the time)
(’Cause when you close your heart)
You can’t close your...your mind!
(Then you close your...mind!)
That man, that man, that man, that man
With that man in the mirror
(Man in the mirror, oh yeah!)
That man, that man, that man
I’m asking him to change his ways
(Better change!)
You know...that man
No message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
(If you wanna make the world a better place)
Take a look at yourself and then make a change
(Take a look at yourself and then make a change)
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
Na na na, na na na, na na, na nah
(Oh yeah!)
Gonna feel real good now!
Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah!
Na na na, na na na, na na, na nah
(Ooooh...)
Oh no, no no...
I’m gonna make a change
It’s gonna feel real good! Come on!
(Change...)
Just lift yourself
You know
You’ve gotta stop it. Yourself!
(Yeah! - Make that change!)
I’ve got to make that change, today!
Hoo!
(Man in the mirror)
You got to
You got to not let yourself... brother...
Hoo!
(Yeah! - Make that change)
You know - I’ve got to get that man, that man...
(Man in the mirror)
You’ve got to
You’ve got to move! Come on! Come on!
You got to...
Stand up! Stand up! Stand up!
(Yeah! - Make that change)
Stand up and lift yourself, now!
(Man in the mirror)
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
Aaow!
(Yeah! - Make that change)
Gonna make that change...come on!
You know it!
You know it!
You know it!
You know...
(Change...)
Make that change.