A second-hand people.................

     Man has always asked the question:  what is it all about?  Has life any meaning, at all?  He sees the enormous confusion of life, the brutalities, the revolts, the wars, the endless division of religion, ideology and nationality, and with a sense of deep abiding frustration he asks, what is one to do, what is this thing we call living, is there anything beyond it?
     And not finding this nameless thing of a thousand names which he has always sought, he has cultivated faith - faith in a saviour or an ideal - and faith invariably breeds violence. ...

    For centuries we have been spoon-fed by our teachers, by our authorities, by our books, by our saints.  We say, "Tell me all about it - what lies beyond the hills and the mountains and the earth?" and we are satisfied with their descriptions, which means we live on words and our life is shallow and empty.  We are a second-hand people.   We have lived on what we have been told,  either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment.  We are the result of all kinds of influence and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves;  nothing original, pristine, clear.

-J. Krishnamurti,   Freedom from the Known