In art the quote below does not say much about art history does it? Books and books and more books as to what art is, and all those descriptions about paintings, trying to recreate the space that the artist stepped into when he made the painting. ‘The observer is the observed’, is where it is at. We tend to stand back and ‘look out’ into what we want to understand, we conceptualise, we twist and turn the Truth with time, and our minds takes that roller coaster ride of diluting the Truth, the fact through observation. And then we read more art history books attend art history courses and condition ourselves farther away from emptiness, and when we are furthest away from the Truth we, come to certain conclusions, addind to this vast knowledge of uncertainty. ‘To discover whether there is a reality or not, we must be capable of seeing the true as the true, the false as the false,…’ We must come to it as pure in mind as possible. We must come to it with no knowledge of it at all. We must come to it only by observation. We must come to it only by stepping into that space and then knowing it because it is there now with you. And not through a description, not through art history. The ‘new’ in art will only show itself when it comes this way. The new will not show itself, when the mind is still soaked in the past. And when you see that thing show itself, you recognised it, you take, and you run along with it in a series of paintings. When you are happy that it has fully manifested itself, you start looking again. Can you see if you are soaked in what is known, then all comes to a standstill and there will be no movement. And you will always be yesterday. Where is the fun in that?
Daily Quote October 6th 2007, J.Krishnamurti Foundations
Do you understand the problem, sirs? Only the mind that is free can discover what is true—discover, not be told what is true. The description is not the fact. You may describe something in the most lovely language, put it in the most spiritual or lyrical words, but the word is not the fact. When you are hungry, the description of food does not feed you. But most of us are satisfied with the description of truth, and the description, the symbol, has taken the place of the factual. To discover whether there is a reality or not, we must be capable of seeing the true as the true, the false as the false, and not wait to be told like a lot of immature children.
The description of food does not feed you—Collected Works, Vol. X (165)
Daily Quote October 7th 2007, J.Krishnamurti Foundations
So, to find out what is true, the mind must first be free, and to be free is extraordinarily hard work, harder than all the practices of yoga. Such practices merely condition your mind, and it is only the free mind that can be creative. A conditioned mind may be inventive; it may think up new ideas, new phrases, new gadgets; it may build a dam, plan a new society, and all the rest of it; but that is not creativity. Creativity is something much more than the mere capacity to acquire a technique. It is because this extraordinary thing called creativity is not in most of us that we are so shallow, empty, insufficient. And only the mind that is free can be creative.
Harder than all the practices of yoga—Collected Works, Vol. X (165)