This book contains eight speeches selected from those made by Krishnamurti in the period 1981-1982 in India, America, Switzerland, and Brockwood Park in England.

With these speeches, Krishnamurti confronts us with the crisis of humanity. "Being aware of the tragedy of the world," he says, "the terrifying events that can happen, that someone crazy can come and press a button, the computer will replace humans in many of their activities as it thinks much faster and more accurately, what will happen to human beings?...

The crisis has nothing to do with the economy, war, the bomb, politicians, scientists, the crisis is within our consciousness.

It is not out there somewhere, the crisis is within us.

The title of this book is taken from a speech in Brockwood, which is not included in this book, where at some point Krishnamurti said:

"Observation is like a flame, which is attention, and with this ability of observation the feeling that we have been hurt, hatred, and all that burns, disappears... Where there is pure observation of something, there is a change, a transformation in the very structure of brain cells."