“19. Comfort: Human beings are driven by the desire for comfort. Always remember when you’re dealing with anyone, if you say or do anything that threatens their sense of comfort you’ll have a fight on your hands. Don’t push people psychologically. They’ll resist and push back. Use tact, slow down, take your time and introduce new ideas to them gradually, so they’ll feel at ease with you.”
“24. Environment: Correctly so, people are concerned with the health of our natural environment. However, what could be more important than our psychological/spiritual environment? Yet, few are concerned. There is never a right, healthy time to feel bad. Cheerfulness is a nice, healthy environment. People who spread pollution with their gloomy spirit should be avoided. They will pollute your spirit.”
“33. Questions: Maybe you have already noticed that people will ask questions, but almost never listen to the answers. Why? They are only interested in answers that confirm them and their way of looking at things. If the answer challenges anything about them, the wall goes up instantly. Of course, they will swear they really want to learn and are all ears. They most likely will be able to quote word for word what was said to them, but they never really heard a thing.”
Slowing down is a great tool to see unconscious thoughts that are passing through your mind.
Here is a really nice passage from K I just received in my email box: Is it possible not to record that hurt at the moment when I am called an idiot? Is it possible not to record at all, not only the hurt but flattery? Is it possible not to record either? The brain has been trained to record, for in that record there is safety, security, a sense of vitality; in that recording the mind creates the image about oneself. And that image will constantly get hurt. Is it possible to live without a single image about yourself, or about your husband, wife, children, firm, or about the politicians, the priests, or about the ideal—not a single shadow of an image? It is possible, and if it is not found you will always be getting hurt, always living in a pattern in which there is no freedom. When you give complete attention there is no recording. It is only when there is inattention that you record. That is: you flatter me; I like it; the liking at that moment is inattention, therefore recording takes place. But if when you flatter me I listen to it completely without any reaction, then there is no centre which records. – Krishnamurti, Questions and Answers, pp 54-55