"If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem"
About this Quote
The intent is anti-technique. Krishnamurti spent decades arguing that systems of self-improvement, spiritual ladders, and borrowed authority (gurus, ideologies, even comforting routines of thought) anesthetize perception. “Really understand” in his vocabulary isn’t intellectual mastery; it’s direct seeing without the mind immediately translating experience into story, blame, or strategy. When that seeing is complete, the “answer” isn’t a bolt-on solution. It’s the problem dissolving because its fuel - misperception, resistance, identification - is removed.
Subtext: you can’t escape yourself by reorganizing your thoughts about yourself. The craving for an answer is often a craving to stop feeling. Krishnamurti implies that the demand for quick resolution is part of the same machinery that produced the conflict.
Context matters. Writing and speaking in the 20th century, in a world obsessed with ideology, expert authority, and psychological “methods,” he positioned freedom as immediate, not incremental. It’s a radical claim with a sharp edge: if the answer is “not separate,” then neither is responsibility. The work isn’t to accumulate better tools; it’s to look so clearly that the need for tools collapses.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Krishnamurti, Jiddu. (2026, January 17). If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-can-really-understand-the-problem-the-31925/
Chicago Style
Krishnamurti, Jiddu. "If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-can-really-understand-the-problem-the-31925/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-can-really-understand-the-problem-the-31925/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.












