Q: Why do we insist on separating the perceiver from the perception, the ‘rememberer’ from the memory? Is this not at the root of our trouble?
J.D.Krishnamurti: We separate it because the rememberer, the experiencer, the thinker, becomes permanent by separation. *Memories are obviously fleeting; so the rememberer, the experiencer, the mind, separates itself because it wants permanency.* *The mind that is making an effort, that is striving, that is choosing, that is disciplined, obviously cannot find the real; because, as we said, through that very effort it projects itself and sustains the thinker.*
Now, how to free the thinker from his thoughts? This is what we are discussing. Because, whatever he thinks must be the result of the past, and therefore he creates god, truth, out of memory, which is obviously not real. In other words, the mind is constantly moving from the known to the known. *When memory functions, the mind can move only in the field of the known; and when it moves within the field of the known, it can never know the unknown.* So, our problem is, how to free the mind from the known. To free ourselves from the known, any effort is detrimental, because *effort is still of the known.* *So, all effort must cease.* Have you ever tried to be without effort? If I understand that all effort is futile, that all effort is a further projection of the mind, of the "I", of the thinker, if I realize the truth of that, what happens? If I see very clearly the label "poison" on a bottle, I leave it alone. There is no effort not to be attracted to it. Similarly - and in this lies the greatest difficulty - , if I realize that any effort on my part is detrimental, if I see the truth of that, then I am free of effort. Any effort on our part is detrimental, but we are not sure, because we want a result, we want an achievement - and that is our difficulty. Therefore, we go on striving, striving, striving. But God, truth, is not a result, a reward, an end. Surely, it must come to us, we cannot go to it. If we make an effort to go to it, we are seeking a result, an achievement. *But for truth to come, a man must be passively aware. Passive awareness is a state in which there is no effort; it is to be aware without judgment, without choice, not in some ultimate sense, but in every way; it is to be aware of your actions, of your thoughts, of your relative responses, without choice, without condemnation, without identifying or denying, so that the mind begins to understand every thought and every action without judgment.*
This evokes the question of whether there can be understanding without thought.”
