Explanations don’t help in the real sense- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Explanations blind you,

they prevent you from actually seeing ‘what is’.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Question: J. Krishnamurti says, “Explanations blind you, they prevent you from actually seeing what is.” But I require explanations all the time from the Guru.

Please throw some light on this.

Acharya Prashant Ji: The problem is linguistic. It relates to the use of words.

When Krishnamurti says, “Explanations blind you, they prevent you from actually seeing what is,” what he means is that you want to describe something at its own level, at its own plane. And the dissolution of anything never lies in its own plane.

And therefore all your explanations are merely elaborations or translations. You are just restating the situation. Your explanations are just the problem stated in other words. And that obviously won’t help.

Somebody asks you, “What is X+Y”, and you saying “Y+X” won’t help. Or would it?

I ask you, “Kehav, where do you live?,” you tell me, “In front of Raghav’s house.” I ask you, “Where does Raghav live?,” you say, “In front of my house.” That won’t help. You are just describing an unknown in terms of another unknown. Therefore the plane has to be different.

Unknown cannot be understood in the plane of the unknown itself. To understand the unknown, you have to take it to the plane of the known at least. The Real Teacher does not offer you explanations in the same plane.

In the same plane your own explanations are sufficient because you anyway have too many of them. There is no man who is ever clueless about his situation. Ever come across any such man? In fact we know just too much about our situation and that prevents us from really knowing what stares us in the face.

Ask someone, “Why can’t you quit drinking?,” he will say, “Because, because, because.” He already knows so much. “If you already know so much, why are you unable to quit? Ever come across a man who says, “I have no idea”? It would be rare to find such a response. Right?

So in the known plane…