To learn is to be sensitive to yourself and to the world outside you, for the world outside is you, says Jiddu Krishnamurti
Discipline means to learn, not to conform, not to suppress, not to imitate the pattern of what accepted authority considers noble. This is a very complex question for in it are involved several things: To learn, to be austere, to be free, to be sensitive, and to see the beauty of love. In learning there is no accumulation. Knowledge is different from learning. Knowledge is accumulation, conclusions, formulas, but learning is a constant movement, a movement without a centre, without a beginning or an end.
To learn about oneself there must be no accumulation in one’s learning: If there is, it is not learning but merely adding to one’s accumulated knowledge of oneself. learning is the freedom of perception, of seeing. And you cannot learn if you are not free. So this very learning is its own discipline — you don’t have to discipline yourself and then learn. Therefore discipline is freedom. This denies all conformity and control, for control is the imitation of a pattern. A pattern is suppression, suppression of “what is”, and the learning about “what is” is denied when there is a formula of what is good and what is bad. The learning about “what is” is the freedom from “what is”. So learning is the highest form of discipline. learning demands intelligence and sensitivity.
The austerity of the priest and the monk is harsh. They deny certain of their appetites but not others which custom has condoned. The saint is the triumph of harsh violence. Austerity is generally identified with self-denial through the brutality of discipline, drill and conformity. The saint is trying to break a record like the athlete. To see the falseness of this brings about its own austerity. Such intelligence will not go off the deep end to the opposite extreme. Intelligence is the sensitivity which understands, and therefore avoids, the extremes. But it is not the prudent mediocrity of remaining half-way between the two. To perceive all this clearly is to learn about it. To learn about it there must be freedom from all conclusions and bias. Such conclusions and bias are observation from a centre, the self, which wills and directs.
But the word objective is not enough. What we are talking about is not the harsh objectiveness of the microscope, but a state in which there is compassion, sensitivity and depth. Discipline, as we said, is learning, and learning about austerity does not bring about violence to oneself or to another.
People throughout the world seem to think that freedom is the fruit of prolonged discipline. To see clearly is its own discipline. To see clearly there must be freedom, not a controlled vision. So freedom is not at the end of discipline, but the understanding of freedom is its own discipline. The two are inseparable: When you separate them there is conflict. To overcome that conflict, the action of will comes into being and breeds more conflict. This is an endless chain. So freedom is at the beginning and not at the end: The beginning is the end. To learn about all this is its own discipline.
learning itself demands sensitivity. If you are not sensitive to yourself — to your environment, to your relationships — and if you are not sensitive to what is happening round you, then however much you discipline yourself you only become more and more insensitive, more and more self-centred. And this breeds innumerable problems. To learn is to be sensitive to yourself and to the world outside you, for the world outside is you. If you are sensitive to yourself you are bound to be sensitive to the world. This sensitivity is the highest form of intelligence.
Excerpts from The Urgency of Change