Jkrishnamurti Study Centre

26/04/2026

Tolerance / Inner Endurance

Tolerance is often understood negatively—as suppression, forced endurance, or merely putting up with something. But true tolerance has a very different quality. It arises when the mind understands the contradictions, tensions, and conflicts of life. From this understanding, tolerance is born. It is not weakness, but a deep inner strength.

A tolerant mind accepts life in its wholeness—both joy and sorrow, success and failure, praise and criticism. It does not escape or resist, but tries to understand every situation and learn from it. In this very process of understanding lies true tolerance.

A mind that is tolerant remains patient and steady, because it knows that life is a continuous flow in which ups and downs are inevitable. This patience gives rise to self-confidence and inner stability.

A mind without tolerance becomes irritated, restless, and fearful. True tolerance emerges from self-knowledge and helps one live a balanced and mature life.

24/04/2026

human being creates a psychological image about oneself, called self-image.
Who I am, what others think of me, how important I am — all this is a creation of the mind.
From this image arise ego, fear, jealousy, and sorrow.
When someone criticizes us, it is not us that is hurt, but the image.
Then a person lives not in truth, but in imagination.
Is it possible to live without self-image?
Where there is no image within, the mind becomes free.
That is the beginning of understanding

22/04/2026

worship of beauty is an escape from what is, from yourself, is it not? How can you be sensitive if you are unaware of what you are, of what is? The ambitious, the crafty, the pursuers of beauty, are only worshipping their own self-projections

20/04/2026

What is beauty?"

Are you waiting for a definition, for a formula, or do you desire to inquire?

"I lay emphasis on both; without the perfect form, how can there be perfect life? Beauty is the combination of the outer and the inner."

So you have a formula for becoming beautiful. The formula is not beauty, but only a series of words. Being beautiful is not the process of becoming beautiful. What is it that you are seeking?

"The beauty of both form and spirit. There must be a lovely vase for the perfect flower."

Can there be inner harmony, and so perhaps outer harmony, without sensitivity? Is not sensitivity essential for perception either of the ugly or the beautiful? Is beauty the avoidance of the ugly?

"Of course it is."

Is virtue avoidance, resistance? If there is resistance, can there be sensitivity? Must there not be freedom for sensitivity? Can the self-enclosed be sensitive? Can the ambitious be sensitive, aware of beauty? Sensitivity, vulnerability to what is, is essential, is it not? We want to identify ourselves with what we call the beautiful and avoid what we call the ugly. We want to be identified with the lovely garden and shut our eyes to the smelly village. We want to resist and yet receive. Is not all identification resistance? To be aware of the village and the garden without resistance, without comparison, is to be sensitive. You want to be sensitive only to beauty, to virtue, and resist evil, the ugly. Sensitivity, vulnerability is a total process, it cannot be cut off at a particular gratifying level.

"But I am seeking beauty, sensitivity."

Is that really so? If it is, then all concern about beauty must cease. This consideration, this worship of beauty is an escape from what is, from yourself, is it not? How can you be sensitive if you are unaware of what you are, of what is? The ambitious, the crafty, the pursuers of beauty, are only worshipping their own self-projections. They are wholly self-enclosed, they have built a wall around themselves; and as nothing can live in isolation, there is misery. This search for beauty and the incessant talk of art are respectable and highly regarded escapes from life, which is oneself.

"But music is not an escape."

It is when it replaces the understanding of oneself. Without the understanding of oneself, all activity leads to confusion and pain. There is sensitivity only when there is the freedom which understanding brings - the understanding of the ways of the self, of thought.
Commentary of living

19/04/2026

Thought is always connected with the past or the future, never with the present. There can be no thought about the present, because the present itself is action — the only true action.
All other action is delay, postponement — therefore not action at all. It is an escape from action.

19/04/2026

The ideologist never lives in the present
There is not much difference between you and them. The ideologies may differ, but the process is almost the same. Both of you are willing to sacrifice the present human being in order to save the future human being — as though you had complete knowledge of the future.

But you are as uncertain about tomorrow as anyone else. There are countless unknown factors in the present that shape the future.

Both of you promise reward in the future — a utopia, a heaven. But the future is not an ideological conclusion.

Thought is always connected with the past or the future, never with the present. There can be no thought about the present, because the present itself is action — the only true action.

All other action is delay, postponement — therefore not action at all. It is an escape from action.

Action based on thought — whether from the past or the future — is inaction. Action is possible only now, in this moment.

The ideologist never lives in the present. For him, life is always in the past or in the future, never in the now.

Thought is always of the past, moving through the present toward the future.

For the ideologist, the present is merely a passage to the future, and therefore has no value. Means do not matter at all; only the final end matters.

Use any means to achieve the end. Since the end is fixed and the future is known, anyone who stands in the way must be removed

Commentary of living

17/04/2026

17/04/2026

What is Truth?
Truth is “what is” — reality without thought, belief, memory, or interpretation.
It means seeing something exactly as it is, without adding the color of the mind to it.
When false beliefs, fear, and illusions come to an end,
then what is becomes clear and visible.
Jkrishnamurti Study Centre

16/04/2026

Explanation is not understanding. To avoid suffering is to strengthen it.

15/04/2026

Cause and effect are not fixed;
You are not seeking understanding; you are seeking comfort. The search for cause is often an escape from disturbance. Knowing the cause does not free the mind from suffering. Explanation is not understanding. To avoid suffering is to strengthen it. Suppression and resistance do not bring understanding. Understanding comes only when there is observation without explanation, without conclusion, without words. Truth is not found through explanations; explanations merely cover the fact and do not end it. When the observer is, there is no true understanding; there is communion with the observed only when the observer is not. Thought is the result of experience, and experience is always conditioning; thought can never be free, nor can it make itself free. The search for explanations is the desire to be put to sleep; beliefs, rituals, and conclusions are ways of escaping disturbance. Cause and effect are not fixed; they are a continuous movement in which what was cause becomes effect and what was effect becomes cause. Life is not static; it is a constant flow, and when you make it static through explanation, you bring death to the living. Awareness of the false as the false is the beginning of freedom.

12/04/2026

Words cannot express the mystery
Thought fails to grasp it
Truth blossoms only in silence
When the mind becomes empty
Then existence speaks
And life becomes beautiful
What we are searching for
Was never lost
The movement of the mind creates distance
In silence there is no distance
There remains only existence
And that is the ultimate bliss

12/04/2026

The Mystery of Existence

Existence is an infinite and unfathomable mystery. Science, religion, and philosophy attempt to understand this mystery, yet they cannot fully comprehend it. The human mind divides this mystery into names, categories, and theories, but such divisions do not bring an end to it.
The mystery of existence cannot be understood intellectually; it can only be experienced. When the mind becomes completely still, pure, and free from noise, only then can this mystery be touched. This experience is indescribable; it cannot be confined within words.
The mystery of existence is present in every moment of life, in everything. There is no need to search for it somewhere far away. When the mind becomes simple and humble, this mystery reveals itself naturally.
In the realization of this mystery lies the true meaning and beauty of life.
Jkrishnamurti Study Centre
Dr Piyush Agravat