Jiddu Krishnamurti - Most people are occupied with jobs

1st QUESTION: The speaker has said that going to an office everyday from nine to five is an intolerable imprisonment. But in any society all kinds of jobs have to be done. Is K's teaching therefore only for the few?

You have understood? Shall I read it again? The speaker has said that human society is so constructed throughout the world that most people are occupied with jobs, pleasant or unpleasant, from nine to five everyday of their life. And he said also that it is an intolerable imprisonment. I don't know how you feel about it. Probably you like being in prison, probably you like your jobs from nine o'clock to five o'clock, rushing, rushing back and all the rest of it. What shall we do? To the speaker he wouldn't tolerate it for a single minute - for the speaker. I would rather do something which would be pleasant, helpful and necessary to earn enough money and so on. But most of us accept this prison, this routine - right? We accept it. So what shall we do? Nobody, as far as one is capable of sufficient observation, nobody has questioned this. We say it is normal, it is the way of society, it is the way of our life, it is the way we must live. But if we all see together that such an imprisonment, which it is actually, that we all feel it is intolerable, not just verbally but actually do something about it we will create a new society - right? We will if all of us say we will not tolerate for a single day this routine, this monstrous activity of nine to five, however necessary, however good and pleasant, then we will bring about not only psychological revolution but also outwardly. Right? We may agree about this but will we do it? You might say, "No, I can't do it because I have responsibility, I have children, I have a house and mortgage, insurance" - thank god I haven't got any of those! And so you might say, "It is easy for you to talk about all this." But it is easy for the speaker to talk about it because he refuses to go in that pattern. From boyhood he refused it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Brockwood Park 2nd Public Question & Answer Meeting 30th August 1979