Why are you hurt? | J. Krishnamurti

0:06 Human beings are hurt from childhood, school, college, you know, the whole business of existence. You’re hurt, which is, you have an image about yourself which is hurt. Do you see that as an actuality? If you see that as an actuality, that the very essence of you is hurt, then what will you do about it? There are the past hurts, and you want to prevent future hurts.

0:51 Can the past hurts be wiped away so that you can never be hurt, which doesn’t mean that you become like a stone. Never to be hurt. You see, you never ask these questions. Ask them! Q: If you lose security, then you are hurt. K: Sir, why are you hurt?

1:36 You, who are hurt, what is the ‘you’? The image you have about yourself, no? I’m a Christian, I’m a Buddhist, I’m a Hindu, I am proud, I am vain – you follow? – all that is ‘you.’ Or, you think you are God, or a superior spiritual something inside you, which is above all this, which is, again, a process of thought. Right? So, the process of thought is hurt. And how do you prevent future hurts? Not by resistance, not by withdrawal,

2:22 not by becoming more and more hard. Do you want to wipe out your hurts, or do you love your hurts? No, do please. Do you want to keep your hurts? There is great pleasure in keeping them because that gives you vitality, energy to hurt somebody else.

3:08 If you want to be free of all hurts, what will you do? So that you are never, under any circumstances, in your relationship with the world, or with your friends, never to be hurt. Do you know what it means? To have a mind that is incapable of being hurt. Hurt – also, the other side is flattery. Both are the same. So, is it possible to end this being hurt?

3:59 Do you want to find out? I’d better stop. Q: Please, go on. K: All right, all right. Do you really want to go into this? Q: Yes. K: All right, sir, I’II do it for you. But, do it. You understand? Not just live with words and ideas, but do it, because then you are free. Then you blossom in goodness, you flower in goodness, then. What is hurt? I’m going to go into it. Don’t go verbally but, actually, look at yourself and go into yourself.

4:49 You are hurt. Your parents hurt you when you’re a child, your friends, when you’re a child or a boy, hurt you, psychologically, then in the school, they hurt you, by saying you must be as clever as your brother, or your uncle, or your headmaster, or whatever it is, and then college, you pass exams and if you fail, you’re hurt. And if you don’t get a job, you’re hurt. Everything in the world is put together so that it hurts you. Our education which is so rotten, hurts you. So, you are hurt.

5:37 Do you actually realise that you’re hurt? And see the results of being hurt – you want to hurt others. From that, arises anger, resistance, you withdraw, become more and more inwardly separate. And the more you are inwardly separate, withdrawing, the more you’re hurt. So, you build a wall around yourself and pretend that you’re very... you know, but always within the wall. These are all the symptoms.

6:23 So, you’re hurt. And if you really, deeply realise that you’re hurt, not only at the conscious level but deep down, then, what will you do? Now, how does this hurt take place? Because you have an image about yourself. Suppose if I have an image about myself that I’m always sitting on a platform talking to an audience – thank God, I don’t – and if the audience disapproves or doesn’t come, I’m hurt

7:09 because I have an image about myself. So, the fact is, as long as I have an image about myself that image is going to be hurt. Right? That’s clear, isn’t it? Now, is it possible to live without a single image? Which means no conclusions, which is a form of image, no prejudice. You follow? All these are images. And at the moment when you insult me,

7:56 which is, at the moment you say something contrary to the image which I have about myself, then you hurt me. Now, at that moment, when you are saying something that is harmful, hurtful, if I am aware of what you’re saying, give my total attention to what you’re saying. You understand? At the second when you want to hurt me by saying something I give my attention to it, then there is no registration taking place. You understand this? It is only when there is inattention the registration of hurt takes place, or flattery.

8:43 Now, can you give, when somebody says you’re a fool, can you, at that moment, give your total attention? If you do, then there is no hurt. The past hurts have gone in that attention. Attention is like a flame that burns out the past and the present hurt.