A Confident Man is a Dead Human Being

I’m reading this book, which I’ve read before.  Somehow this time the ideas seem less abstract.   I enjoyed this passage, and carefully underlined it:

"In order to understand ourselves we need a great deal of humility.  If you start by saying, ‘I know myself’, you have already stopped learning about yourself…A confident man is a dead human being."

I especially love that Krishnamurti doesn’t profess to be able to impart any great truth, which this passage shows quite nicely:

"I have nothing to teach you — no new philosophy, no new system, no new path to reality; there is no path to reality any more than to truth.  All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing.  Leaders destroy the followers and followers destroy the leaders.  You have to be your own teacher and your own disciple.  You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary.  If you do not follow somebody you feel very lonely.  Be lonely then."

And, lastly, the imagery in this statement amused me greatly: "The saint who seeks a position in regard to his saintliness is as aggressive as the chicken pecking in the farmyard."  I laughed so hard at that one that my beak got sore from over-pecking.