Meditation, in Jiddu Krishnamurti’s vision, is not a technique to be practiced nor a method to be mastered, but a quality of mind that permeates one’s whole way of living. It is described as a state of awareness that is present from moment to moment, rather than an activity confined to particular times, postures, or rituals. Any system promising results through repetition, discipline, or control is seen as mechanical and divisive, because it separates a supposed meditator from the act of meditation itself. For this reason, dependence on authority, tradition, or a guru is rejected; meditation cannot be handed down as a pattern to follow. It must arise from direct inquiry and understanding, not from imitation or obedience.

At the heart of this meditative state lies what Krishnamurti calls choiceless awareness: the direct, non-judgmental observation of thoughts, emotions, and reactions as they unfold. This observation is not driven by a goal, such as becoming peaceful or enlightened, nor by the desire to change what is seen. Instead, it is a passive yet intense receptivity, free from the interference of accumulated knowledge, memory, and psychological conditioning. In such observation, the structure of the “self” is revealed; the division between observer and observed, meditator and meditation, begins to dissolve. Transformation, in this view, does not come through will or effort, but through the clarity of seeing.

As this awareness deepens, the mind naturally becomes quiet, not through suppression or concentration, but through the ending of unnecessary, repetitive thought. This silence is not an achievement but a byproduct of understanding the movement of the mind. In that stillness, the mind is sane, clear, and no longer confined to the boundaries of the known or to psychological time. Krishnamurti suggests that in such a state there can be an immediate, non-accumulative insight and a perception of what he calls the immeasurable or the sacred, not as belief but as a fact in consciousness. Meditation, then, is both the flowering of self-knowledge and the expression of a mind that is wholly free.