If there is becoming, there is pain. It’s a law. But I pretend it isn’t. The subtle levels of changing, of striving, of becoming. I pretend I don’t know what I am becoming, so pretend that I am not doing that. And yet this law seems in the face of the world, society, which is based on becoming something you are not now, or ridding yourself of the things you don’t want in your life. Get richer, get fitter, get more popular, be a better person – it’s normal, right? It seems natural. Society is based on progress, achievement, changing. And yet it is clear that if there is this desire, urge, striving, goal there is inherent pain. No wonder no one seems very happy. And those involved in teaching ‘change’ seem very stern. It’s not that we shouldn’t look after ourselves. It’s that the pushing causes pain (which causes more pushing). Strive and strife are one.

Krishnamurti:

Life as we know it, our daily life, is a process of becoming. I am poor and I act with an end in view, which is to become rich. I am ugly and I want to become beautiful. Therefore my life is a process of becoming something. The will to be is the will to become, at different levels of consciousness, in different states, in which there is challenge, response, naming and recording. Now, this becoming is strife, this becoming is pain, it is not? It is a constant struggle: I am this, and I want to become that.