What is death? | J. Krishnamurti

[@KFoundation]

TRANSCRIPT: What is death? I wonder why we human beings are so interested in death. You understand? Or are you not interested in death? Only old people are interested in death. And one must go into this very carefully, not only to find out whether human beings can be free from the fear of death, but what is implied deeply in ending, which is death - ending. Right? Have you ever ended anything, without motive, without coercion, without pressure, without giving up something in order to have something else? You understand? Ending. Have you ever ended a particular form of pleasure without any motive, without any suggestive demands? Just take for instance, attachment - attachment to a friend, to a family, to an idea, to a belief, to something or other. Can you end attachment completely? That is what death is, part of it. Right? You understand all this? Are you following all this? Can you end it without arguing? You can’t argue with death. Doctors may prolong your life, I don’t know why, but they want to prolong it, they want to help you to live longer. You have never asked what for. So we must first find out, not what is death, but what is before death. Right? You understand? What is before, not after or during, because what is before is more important than what is after. Right? I wonder if you… Can we go on with this together? So what is your life? Actually. If you look into it very carefully, if you have ever done, what is your life? Not the American way of life, (laughs) but your daily life of a human being living in this part of the world, what is that life? Is it not one of travail, labour, struggle, conflict, anxiety, fear, guilt, holding on to your own little experience, to your own little knowledge, and exploiting that knowledge for your own selfishness? The sense of frustration, unhappiness, great sense of guilt, anxiety and so on, isn’t that your daily life? To escape from that you go to analysts, psychologists, theraputists, or gurus, or take drugs and whisky, you know, escape, escape from this. Or you have a little experience and go round preaching. You become a little guru. (Laughter) You might well say, ‘That’s what you are doing’. One must have a sense of humour, that is, one must have the capacity to laugh at oneself occasionally, or very often! (Laughter) So when one observes what actually is going on with one’s life, look at it, how full of shadows, light and misery, confusion, uncertainty, tears, you know this, and what is it that we are ending? You understand? And there are those who say, ‘This is merely a peripheral existence, deep down in oneself there is divinity, there is the essence of all mankind which is far beyond this petty consciousness.’ I do not know if you know all these various explanations, which I am not going to go into. So we are asking, is this what we are afraid of ending? You understand my question, sirs? And if one doesn’t end this - please follow the consequences, slowly, carefully, I am going into the whole thing very carefully - if one doesn’t end all this pettiness, shallowness, meaningless life, both outwardly and inwardly, if one doesn’t understand it, resolve all the things that one is caught up in psychologically, then what is death? You follow? Sir, this is a complex problem, let me go into it a little bit, carefully. As we pointed out earlier in these talks, you as a human being, psychologically, are similar to other human beings. Right? Psychologically. Because every human being goes through this sorrow, pain, anxiety, loneliness, despair, depression, guilt, violence, whether they live in the most extreme Orient and as you come extreme West every human being has this burning inside him, so we are similar. There is this vast movement of energy. Right? Which is like a vast stream, river. And either you contribute to that energy, to that stream, which is, you contribute if you don’t end your attachments, your fears, your anxieties, guilt, violence, end it, if you don’t end it you are contributing to this vast stream of energy. Right? That’s clear. Obviously. But if you are not ending you are contributing to it, so this vast energy of the stream goes on, the river. See the logic of it. Please apply your mind to it. We are not talking of beliefs, comforts, we are not doing anything of that kind, we are observing very closely, we are not offering comforts because that leads to illusion, that’s meaningless. Every religion has given comfort to human minds and therefore they have not penetrated deeply into this problem. So there is this collective human river of confusion and sorrow. And when you have not ended it, your own sorrow and all the rest of it, you are part of that stream. When there is an ending of all that, the consciousness that we know of, as it is - you are following this? - the consciousness is its content. Right? Are you following this? One’s consciousness is your anxiety, your grumbling, your guilt, your - all this is you, your consciousness. The content of that consciousness makes it; without this content the consciousness as we know it, is totally different. You understand? Not being able to empty our consciousness of its content we then begin to invent a super consciousness, higher consciousness, subliminal consciousness and so on, so on, so on. It is still the movement of thought. So we are saying that as long as human beings don’t end their confusion, and go into it and resolve it and end it - right? - that is, if you are attached, your pain, your anxiety - you follow? - the fear of losing and so on, so on, psychologically, if you don’t end it you contribute to that stream. And when you do die - not you, please - when one dies that’s the ending of not only your organism and the brain with all its content, the stream goes on because you are part of that stream. You are following all this? You are part of that stream, therefore that stream manifests itself in the baby, in the man, in the adolescent with varieties of names and characteristics - you are following all this? I wonder if you are. Careful, please. You must apply your mind to this. So that stream is enduring, and from that stream there is manifestation. When you have a baby that’s a manifestation. And in that baby as it grows over all the human collected misery, confusion, begins. Obviously, you can see it in each one, through education, conformity, society, all that. So we are asking, can you, as a human being, be aware of the stream, of which you are, and not contribute one iota to that stream? You understand the question? If you contribute you are part of it, if you don’t contribute, not one single movement of - you follow? - of problems, sorrows, anxieties, loneliness, none of that, that means you are out of that stream. Then death is merely the ending of the varieties and the peripheral activities. You understand all this? So can a mind, realizing all this, seeing the depth of this, seeing the implications of death, the ending, and while living, which is the period of time from adolescent, from baby to dying, during that given life, end every day as the problem arises. You follow? Psychologically end everything every day.

[@lakshmanjayalath5089]

Thank you!

[@uptegraff795]

Thank you.

[@selfchanell1404]

Thanks for transcript

[@songexpert2654]

💖🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@namratagandhi3381]

Thank you🙏

[@brianhogan433]

I often worry that I’m not smart enough to understand most of these teachings but I am not going to quit

[@sreekumarnair4127]

If you are interested try to do inner engineering program from isha yoga center india or usa if so by around six months of shambhavi practice you slowly get to grasp what JK is talking about

[@ricardosantos6721]

I'd be happy if it understood his english lol

[@user-zc1pi3ch8x]

you cannot understand it with your mind but with experience or accepting it

[@DihelsonMendonca]

@@user-zc1pi3ch8x Don't accept any teaching, any authority in spiritual subjects.

[@planetmedicine6671]

I'm Also Like You But I'm Trying With My Heart And I Have Notice Most Good in Me And Continue My Learning further

[@roz352n]

Have you ended anything without motive? What an awakening great question related to death!!

[@Dee-gi4ge]

Decades later and this is my favourite and go to talk.

[@renukatandon7463]

BEAUTIFULLY explained....To die to disorder is to Live.

[@kolarz2128]

Wow this was one of his clearer talks for me

[@morisd5066]

You can not afraid from unknown and death is unknown so there is nothing to worry about.

[@laxmandhakal2062]

Incredible teaching

[@JazevoAudiosurf]

this is my experience too, the state of consciousness goes on exactly like it was before death. you lose the thought layer and brain activity and return to what truly is, basically the same as in meditation. and that thing goes on. which then implies that that is no solution either. it seems to me the only solution is in transcending that which truly is. so you first get rid of your thoughts through death or meditation and then you are there where you can actually work on your problems. from there you start transcending, suffering and the opposite of suffering are one and it and its opposite exist at the same time, in your consciousness. it's like you highlight/draw the line that separates the yin from the yang symbol and you realize that line perfectly defines yin and perfectly defines yang at the same time. you should really ask yourself if you are actually suffering, and while you will say yes for many times eventually (with the transcending thought in mind) there will be a moment where you will transcend it. once transcending really begins, it propels itself and it is merely a 'decision' to go on transcending. everything ends then

[@mementomori8685]

@@usr909 I agree with you. From the first sentence, it is false. Nobody ever in the world can never have the experience such as death. Once you experience death, you're gone. no more. period. End.

[@user-cp7zs7py8o]

@@mementomori8685 nobody knows 🤷‍♂️. We haven’t got there yet.

[@ArtBertrand1970]

Very good translation!!!

[@mayaciza8337]

❤❤❤

[@mohuckmedshishkeblob1712]

For most people this life is all they know, most have not had a spiritual experience like a separation between the body and soul or out of body experience, with that all they can do is go with what they know, having a fear of death only exists where there is no knowledge of death or fear of the unknown, will I end up in the fire of hell or other unfounded fears of the unknown. We only fear what we don't understand. Emotions are the key to life as J.K is saying not having fear or sorrow or anger or disappointment, letting it all go or ENDING IT and except all that is, hold no opinion, such as life and roll on.

[@user-cp7zs7py8o]

OBE one doesn’t actually leave their body. NDE well they seem to be very consistent in one’s beliefs.

[@AkshajRawat]

May we all be able to save ourselves

[@dharaniarasu314]

JK❤

[@DihelsonMendonca]

*I can´t understand when he states that we are not individuals. Each one of us have a different history, memories, ways to react, we are all different, there are not two persons made equal. So, what happens to this individual, his memories, his earnings, his feelings after death ? They all die with the body ? If that so, nothing survives after death. What is the utility of a collective consciousness if we lose our own self ?*

[@BeeBeeBeeLol]

I think you answered this for yourself.

[@tushars2001]

There is no utility. It's like flame burning.. to keep it burning it needs constant addition of fuel, cease the fuel, flame goes away..

[@bebobalula]

@Mendonca. What we are as individuals, is all stored in our brain (memory), which is destroyed, when we die. As individuals we tend to believe, that we are separated from each other, but on a deeper level, we are all connected with life in a way, that death can't destroy. We can get a sense of this reality for example in meditation. JK have spoke about this in other videos, which I recommend strongly.

[@apaths]

@@bebobalula can you tell me about those videos ?

[@jatindwivedi2621]

Something being necessary for peripheral purposes doesn't necessarily mean that it's the same at the root as well. If I prod a pin into the body of five different persons, the quality of pain they all would feel won't be different for each of them. It would be the same for all. That's the wholeness he is trying to strike at.

[@AlOfNorway]

Death is not the ending of the known and the beginning of the unknown. The reverse is actually the truth. Death is the coming back to the only known thing you ever knew. Being born however, is literally being separated from the only thing you knew. It is a dreadful thing, to be born and to live in a body that will decay, get ill, and ultimately die. I only shed the body. In death I know no separation, it is only here, in the body, that I must learn everything from the moment I am born. But in death, I truly am. Here, I am for a time. There, I am for all time. Rarely do I realise who I am while being in the body, but it doesn't matter anyway because I am all there is. It will go, where life, I, will take it.

[@somduttshukla6262]

He is a an exception

[@DihelsonMendonca]

K. Often said that thought is a material process, because thought comes from the brain, which is made from materials. He insists on a separation between the mind/brain and sensation. As if a sensation don't come from the same brain. Well, that I can't accept. Sensation comes from the senses, which are neural pathways to the brain also, and everything, which are all thoughts, are the result of the brain working. If all thought is a material process and so consciousness is material, we go to materialism, and nothing survives after death, right ?

[@ViceZone]

consciousness is the way the universe experience those brain process.

[@geetikasharma968]

Wow! 🙏🌹

[@Sana_Brodie]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@ramongomez8849]

🙏🏻

[@sajadsoul3584]

i found my deepest answers here , how can i convince my mind?

[@VeniVizzleVici]

If you try to convince your mind of something, wouldn't that be the same as the mind trying to convince mind? If you break your hammer, you can't fix it with the same hammer. How can a broken tool fix itself?

[@deancomrade7961]

@@VeniVizzleVici it can if it is aware about being broken. Order is not some fix but it is awareness of disorder.

[@pinkifloyd7867]

You are not your mind. So who wants to convince the mind?

[@Moomukshu]

I don't know, he always makes things seem so complex. I mean first he talks about what's before death, which is life, the compositions of life, this is where he only focusses on anxieties, fears, attachments so basically a melancholic approach. Then he goes on the ask" is this what we are afraid of losing ? " when reality to me is the joys, the happy moments that count, also the fear of the unknown is one factor , I don't know what is going to happen to "me" when I die. Furthermore, he talks of a stream, a kind of a collective human state which is personified as river, and you either are contributing to it, or I would say floating on to it, or else you have led yourself to the nearest shore and are a mere onlooker, in which case this river of anxieties, sorrows, attachments is nothing and death is only like climbing on the shore of the river, with some efforts no doubt but climbing out is all it is.

[@mrfabioghirelli]

❤️

[@nikhillekhra]

🙏🙏🙏

[@Armira12]

🙏🏽

[@alainmaitre2069]

Wise sage person Jiddu K.

[@zharis1884]

Wrong. He was a wise sage bird.

[@psychologicalsuccess3476]

I just never understood how he could describe life so miserably? Yes addiction is miserable fleeting happiness, but once you're aware of what is limitless then there is joyful peace and life

[@unh0lys0da16]

Have you taken a look at the place? My god...

[@Dee-gi4ge]

Because life is inherently miserable, pleasures are distractions from the miserable.

[@sreekumarnair4127]

If one is able to end the attachments fears instantly without any motives then one is free from the continous loop of rebirth/death, one is set free attains moksha - permanent freedom.....this is what i understand from JKs talk🙏

[@DihelsonMendonca]

K. Never talked and indeed disregard anything about rebirth or reincarnation.

[@Zin-uru6551]

Wow

[@DavidTinxLall1978]

🙏🙋‍♂️

[@mohancgr]

I don't understand the stream JK is talking about. How am i part of the stream, how does my emotions and guilt is part of this big stream.

[@vyshus7629]

Human being is an experience which ceases to exist after death.

[@user-cp7zs7py8o]

Nobody knows. The biggest mysteries of life.

[@DihelsonMendonca]

Don't accept any teaching, any authority in spiritual subjects.

[@CPKYT]

well.....i have a few additional points

[@dragonboy4001]

When u daiii not u please some one 🙏🏼🧠

[@FootyFrenzyHD]

Pure speculation. Death cant be known because no one can live and tell the tale. Any/all claims about death are philosophy/ beliefs

[@blissfull8274]

You understand that he is talking about the psychological death not the death of organism, right?

[@brinderpalkang7827]

If one have profound question to ask then come to see sir jiddu.otherwise u get bored because of your shallowness.