Absolute brilliance…

The moment I know I am virtuous, I cease to be virtuous. The moment I know I am humble, courageous, generous, the moment I am aware of it, then I am not that.

Happiness, like virtue, is not a thing to be sought after, not a thing to be invited.

Virtue, when cultivated, becomes immoral; because it strengthens the “me”, the “I”, leading to respectability, which is the self.

So I must understand what is suffering. Can I understand what is suffering when a part of my mind is running away seeking happiness, seeking a way out of this misery? Must I not (if I am to understand suffering) be completely one with it, not reject it, not justify it, not condemn it , not compare it, but completely be with it and understand it. Can I listen to the voice of suffering without projections. I cannot listen when I am seeking happiness, so my probing, my inquiry is no longer, “What is happiness?”

-Jiddu Krishnamurti, Reflections on the Self