5. Desire and Ambition

In Krishnamurti’s view, it is desire and ambition that explains why one did most of the things one wishes to. Most of the individual’s incentives spring from ambition, pride and the desire to be secure or to be well thought of. In fact, in explaining one’s action, one does not generally say that one act because of ambition. Often one address the motives by saying that one is trying to achieve some good things or find the right values or do something that is essentially worthwhile.

He clearly said,

‘But behind all these words, all these pleasant-sounding phrases, is not the motive–the urge in some form or another–ambition? I want to achieve; I want to arrive; I want to have comfort, to know a certainty of mind in which there is no conflict.’^[1]

So, one of the cause of conflict is desire and ambition. One is taught to be ambitious to make success in life, and where there is ambition there is conflict.

In defining conflict he again said,

‘You want to get something, you cannot and so there is conflict. If you can get what you want, then the difficulty is to keep it; so you struggle again or want more of it. So, there is always a conflict going on because you always want something. If you are a clerk, you want to become a manager; if you have a cycle, you want a motor car, and so on; if you are miserable you want to be happy.’^[2]

Krishnamurti holds that, desire is not an abstraction, but it exists only in relationship. Without contact there is no desire. One is aware of desire, only when there is the disturbance of pleasure or pain. It is when there is an awareness of conflict or disturbance there is the cognizance of desire. Desire is the inadequate response to challenge. The disturbance is the consciousness of desire. For instance, the perception of a beautiful car gives rise to the disturbance of pleasure. This disturbance is the consciousness of desire cause by pain or pleasure. One is conscious when there is the disturbance of inadequate responses to challenge. Self-consciousness is therefore desire.

Krishnamurti further stated that, choice is ambition and it implies conflict. Choice is possible only when there is the background of the past. It is through thought that the mind chooses a certain direction to act. Choice implies motive and ends in view. Choice therefore involves conflict. He therefore said that, it is the mind which is conditioned by the past that chooses. The choice is the projection of thought which is the result of the past. The conditioned mind is full of desires. Desire is the response of the past to the stimuli. It is the interference of thought with what is. Desire is the want of something, lack of something or missing something. Desire begins with sensory responses. Biologically, desire is the sensory response to stimuli. Psychological desire arises when thought creates an image of the sensory experience.

In explaining, Krishnamurti asserts,

‘When you see something, the seeing brings about a response. You see a green shirt, or a green dress; the seeing awakens the response. Then contact takes place. Then from contact, thought creates the image of you in that shirt or dress, and then the desire arises.’^[3]

To him, thought dominates the sensation and creates the urge, desire and the will to possess. Desire is the movement of thought as time and measure. Desire leads to comparison and imitation. It is therefore the expression of identification of mind with something other than itself, and does not exist in isolation. It is always related to something and therefore tries to become or attain something. In the process of attaining something the mind projects an ideal. Having identified itself with ideal the mind creates psychological time to attain it. It limits the mind to the attainment of the object and is responsible for insufficient response and incomplete action. Desire shows itself in various ways such as disagreement and fighting and therefore leads to ambition, jealousy, envy, hope etc.

The point is that, one wants to achieve a state in which one would have no strife and conflict. But the moment one strives to be free of strife and conflict, one naturally loses the joy of living. One is therefore, caught up in an efforts and struggle. So what is important is not the object of struggle but to understand struggle itself. As the mind feels inferior it struggles to be or become something, or to bridge over its various contradictory desires.

He clearly said,

‘Every thinking man knows why there is struggle both within and without. Our envy, greed, ambition, our competitiveness leading to ruthless efficiency–these are obviously the factors which cause us to struggle, whether in this world or in the world to come.’^[4]

He further elaborates that when one struggles, the conflict is between what ‘one is’ and ‘what one should be’ or ‘want to be.’ If one merely explains why one struggle, he/she got lost in explanation and the struggle continues. However, if one observe one’s mind very quietly without giving explanations and just let the mind be aware of its own struggles, one would soon find that there come a state in which there is no struggle at all, but an astonishing watchfulness. In that state there is no sense of the superior and inferior and no big man or little man for there is no guru.

He therefore says,

‘If you observe from moment to moment how the mind gets caught in everlasting struggle–if you just observe the fact without trying to alter it, without trying to force upon the mind a certain state which you call peace–then you will find that the mind spontaneously ceases to struggle, and in that state it can learn enormously. Learning is then not merely the process of gathering information, but a discovery of the extraordinary riches that lie beyond the scope of the mind, and for the mind that makes this discovery there is joy.’^[5]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Martin, R. (1997). ‘Krishnamurti: Reflections on the Self.’ Chicago: Open Court Publisher, p. 79

[2]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2011). ‘On Conflict.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 29

[3]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2009). ‘The Network of Thought.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 47

[4]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2014). ‘Think on These Things.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 239

[5]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2014). ‘Think on These Things.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, pp. 239-240