Allow me to share this long extract from one of my favourite talks of the late Krishnamurti. This one was given in Paris in 1950. You can find a curated version here.
"As long as we base revolution on an idea, it is not a revolution. A revolution based on belief, dogma or knowledge is no revolution at all but merely a modified continuation of the old. A reaction of the background against the conditioning influence of society is an escape, not a revolution. There is a real revolution only when one understands the whole total process of oneself. As long as we accept the pattern of society, as long as we produce the influences which create a society based on violence, intolerance and static progress – as long as that process exists, society will try to control the individual. As long as you are attempting to be creative within the field of your conditioning, you cannot be creative. There is creativeness only when the mind is completely understood, and then the mind does not depend on mere expression. The expression is of secondary importance."
That sentence in bold is almost a mantra for me, and it has played an essential part in writing the book Subtraction.
In his book, "See the world as a five layered cake, "Ph. D Amit Goswami writes, "Creativity is the discovery of new meaning."
However, if we are creative in the field of our conditioning, what Goswami calls "situational creativity", the meaning we can find is only an echo of the past—a modified continuation of old meanings.
I look at the conflicts going on in the world, and I can't help but think that we desperately need new meanings. We are trying to solve conflicts within the field of conditioning that has created them. And that can only lead to more conflict or superficial and empty peace.
What must happen before we let go of the conditioning of the past and open up to a new future?
When looking for a title for this post, I found this quote by the late artist Jonathan Larson, and I felt it was perfect.
“The opposite of war isn't peace, it's creation.”