Chapter 7, part 5

Student: Sir, you said you must change the world. How can you change it, sir?

Krishnamurti: What is the world? The world is where you live - your family, your friends, your neighbours. And your family, your friends, your neighbours can be extended and that is the world. Now, you are the centre of that world. That is the world you live in. Now how will you change the world? By changing yourself.

Student: Sir, how can you change yourself.

Krishnamurti: How can you do it? First see it. First see that you are the centre of this world. You with your family, are the centre. That is the world and you have to change and you ask, "How am I to change?" How do you change? That is one of the most difficult things - to change - because most of us do not want to change. When you are young, you want to change. You are full of vitality, full of energy, you want to climb trees, you want to look, you are full of curiosity and as you get a little older, go to college, you already begin to settle down. You do not want to change. You say, "For god's sake, leave me alone."

Very few people want to change the world and still fewer want to change themselves, because they are the centre of the world in which they live. And to bring about a change requires tremendous understanding. One can change from this to that. But that is not change at all. When people say, "I am changing from this to that", they think they are moving They think they are changing. But in actual fact they have not moved at all. What they have done is projected an idea of what they should be. The idea of what they "should be" is different from "what is". And the change towards "what should be" is they think, a movement. But it is not a movement. They think it is change, but what is change is first to be aware of what actually "is" and to live with it, and then one observes that the "seeing" itself brings about change.