J Krishnamurti on Escapism: View Point, Quotes an Inspired Poem

VIEW POINT ON ESCAPISM J. Krishnamurti, a noted thinker and author, sees escapism as a result of human conditioning through external factors. People engage in escapism—like entertainment, relationships, beliefs, conflicts, power, fame, following others, and accumulating material goods and knowledge—to avoid facing their fears of inner emptiness, loneliness, and suffering. He argues that all forms of escapism only deepen our psychological isolation and hinder genuine self-understanding. He emphasizes that without recognizing our self-imposed barriers, distractions such as movies, religion, or war simply serve as diversions, and as our fear of reality grows, so does our reliance on these escapes.

J Krishnamurti Quotes on 'Escapae'

You choose one kind of escape, I another, and my particular brand is assumed to be more worthwhile than yours. But all escape, whether in the form of an ideal, the cinema or the church, is harmful, leading to illusion and mischief.

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The world is so disruptive, there is so much sorrow and pain, so much war and destruction, that we want to escape and live within the walls of security of our own psychological being.

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When life is difficult, when problems are increasing, we escape either through the intellect or through mysticism.

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The desire to find God is an escape from life.

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Can the mind stop running away, escaping, and not ask how to stop running away? The very inquiry into how the mind is to stop escaping becomes another escape.

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Political or religious activity offers a respectable escape from the pettiness and drudgery of everyday life. With a small heart, you can talk of big things..

INSPIRED POEM

The outward clamour masks a silent void,

A phantom shape we desperately chase;

By transient illusions we are buoyed,

To flee the quiet of our inner space.

We build a stage of frantic, fleeting sound,

'N crowd the mind with trophies made of dust,

Lest in the stillness truths might be unbound,

And force a reckoning we do not trust.

Yet every fortress raised to hide the spark

Of hollow longings only grows the shade;

We cannot outrun what is in the dark

By worshiping the idols we have made.

The world outside is but a fleeting screen;

The only truth is what remains unseen.