Why should we get hurt?

Now how shall I approach this problem - you understand? What is my approach to it? Is my approach wanting to be free from this?
Why should we get hurt?

BENGALURU : I have been hurt, I have been shocked, I have had a great deal of pain, both physical and psychological, I have had a great many insults and so on and so on and so on. I am enclosed. and I feel I am a prisoner. Now how shall I approach this problem - you understand? What is my approach to it? Is my approach wanting to be free from this?

You understand my question? Is my motive, which says, be free from this, therefore I have already started with a direction, therefore I am not investigating. the direction is going to guide me - you understand? I wonder if you grasp this. I am a prisoner, psychologically, specially psychologically, and I have a motive which is to break through this. the motive gives a direction, doesn’t it? Be quite sure.

Wherever there is a motive it obviously gives a particular line, particular direction, therefore I have already started in a direction, therefore I have stopped investigating. Is this clear? So am I free of motive in my investigation? If I am not free, then why, if I understand that any motive gives a direction and therefore it is impossible to investigate.

That is, if I have a certain belief and I am rooted in that belief and I want to investigate, I can’t. I have already started with a tremendous prejudice. So if I have a motive for my investigation then that motive makes the investigation in a particular direction, therefore it is not investigation at all. So am I free from motive in my examination why human beings are prisoners, psychological prisoners. You understand my question? First, are you free from it?

You will be free from it when you see the truth - the truth that a motive gives a direction, and therefore you stop investigating. and hence you say, ‘That’s absurd, I’ll drop it’ - you follow? - it is a natural thing to drop a motive. I wonder if you understand this. You have understood this, sir? That is - please be clear - if I want to be free from psychological prison which I have created, or others have created, or society has created, or my parents and so on, if my motive is to be free from the prison, then my eyes are focussed in a direction therefore I am not looking. Right? So I see I want to understand why I am enclosed, and I see also that if I have a motive it is not possible to investigate. That’s simple.

Therefore I have not motive. Right? Are you in that position? That any psychological investigation demands, it is necessary, that there should be no direction. That means you start with no belief, no - you are free of all that and therefore investigate. You understand? If I am a Buddhist and I have a certain direction, certain prejudices, I have read a great deal, and I am convinced of that, it is finished. Or a Catholic, it doesn’t matter who it is.

So it is very important in order to investigate that there should be freedom to observe. and you can only observe when there is no direction, when there is no motive. Right? So have you dropped the motive? If you have dropped the motive then what is the prison? You understand? I have no motive, I am looking at ‘what is’, which is my prison - my various hurts, wounds, all the things we go through life which make us shrink, become like a snail that draws in. Now that is the fact, we are looking at that. What has happened? Is it that I have been hurt from childhood? - at home, school, college, university, all through life, being somewhat sensitive, a human being is hurt. 

-– Jiddu Krishnamurti

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