Q&A

Questioner: How can we live happily?

Krishnamurti: Do you know when you are living happily ? You know when you are suffering, when you have physical pain. When somebody hits you or is angry with you, you know suffering. But do you know when you are happy? Are you conscious of your body when you are healthy? Surely, happiness is a state of which you are unconscious, of which you are not aware. The moment you are aware that you are happy, you cease to be happy, don't you? But most of you suffer; and being conscious of that, you want to escape from suffering into what you call happiness. You want to be consciously happy; and the moment you are consciously happy, happiness is gone. Can you ever say that you are joyous? It is only afterwards, a moment or a week later that you say, "How happy I was, how joyous I have been". In the actual moment you are unconscious of happiness, and that is the beauty of it.

From Life Ahead...

J. Krishnamurti