This page is in no way a primer on the teachings of J. Krishnamurti. For more info CLICK HERE.. This page will be updated soon...
"Truth is a pathless land and you cannot approach it by any path
whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any
organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. My only concern is to set humanity absolutely, unconditionally free."
Click here to read entire speech available at the Krishnamurti Foundation of America.
-J. Krishnamurti (May 12th 1895 - February 17th 1986)
Most likely you have no idea who this man is/was. Jiddu Krishnamurti (referred hereafter as K) was raised to be the next World Teacher (like Christ, and Buddha) by a group of religious fanatics known as Theosophists. The Theosophical Society took him from India at an early age to England, declaring that he had the most powerful aura of anyone they had seen, they educated him to be a modern day Messiah. An organization known as the Order of the Star was dedicated to this purpose, and to spreading the word of his arrival all over the world. But in 1929, when presented to the public as the new World Teacher and given control of the Order, he dissolved it in front of thousands. Thousands of people looking for him to show them the way to Truth, were told that they must not look to anyone else, not even him. The quote above is taken from that speech. Since then, he traveled the world almost ceaselessly sharing his insights with all who would listen.
"I desire those who seek to understand me, to be free, not to follow me, not to make of me a cage which will become a religion, a sect." -J. Krishnamurti
My discovery of K has been one of (if not the) most powerful experience of my life. For the last couple of years, everything I have read has been of him. I came across him in passing, at a turning point in my life. I was beginning to put all of life into perspective when I became fascinated with an alternative band called Live. Their first album, "Mental Jewelry", is basically a paraphrasing of one of K's books, "You are the world". All of which I did not know.. I was trampling through their website, and read a couple of interviews with their lead singer. There was the first time I had seen Krishnamurti's name, as far as I can remember.. But my interest was still in Live, not Krishnamurti. It was not until months later, when I met a very dear person to me named Ranger, that I read one of his books.. Well, you see, the day I met Ranger, we strode back to his apartment to talk and get aquainted. Ranger is a musician, and so music came up. Our tastes differed, his lying in deeper, less mainstream music, and mine in the only thing I was familiar with at the time, Alternative mainstream. I played for him a Live CD I had with me (Mental Jewelry) and he recognized one of the song titles, "You are the world" as a book by K. And at that moment, pulled out his copy from his bookcase. As into Live as I was at the time, this was kind of like a deja-vu/life-revelation. Since that moment, Ranger and Krishnamurti have become very dear to me (both for very different reasons). Here is part of one song from "Mental Jewelry".
Mirror Song
i know that i should think about giving
and think about
helping out
and think about
think about living
but i can't seem to rescue myself
what about my bank account
and my holy desert shield
that keep me dry under that arms?
flags and mental jewelry's all i know
and they keep me happy and warm inside
so i said unto this man
"who are you and where do you come from?"
and he proceeded to tell me many things
but i said nothing at all
for the flower in the corner, by the room,
in the window, and the sun
said it all
-Live
Yeah, it sounds pretty. But the sentiment under the lyrics of that album set in motion a string of events that have brought me to where I am today (wherever that may be). So Ranger and I became great friends. Creating a deep bond. And I started to read my first book by Krishnamurti, "You are the World". It was amazing. It was almost like he was already in my mind, like I was reading an orderly version of my own thoughts, yet from some strange Indian man that I had basically never heard of until fairly recently. Although I had never taken that train of thought as far aas he did, I found myself enthralled from my very center of existance..
"There are many people who will give you the purpose of life; they will tell you what the sacred books say. Clever people will go on
inventing what the purpose of life is. The political group will have one purpose, the religious group will have another purpose, and so on
and on. So, what is the purpose of life when you yourself are confused? When I am confused, I ask you this question, "What is the
purpose of life?" because I hope that through this confusion, I shall find an answer. How can I find a true answer when I am confused?
Do you understand? If I am confused, I can only receive an answer which is also confused. If my mind is confused, if my mind is
disturbed, if my mind is not beautiful, quiet, whatever answer I receive will be through this screen of confusion, anxiety, and fear;
therefore, the answer will be perverted. So, what is important is not to ask, "What is the purpose of life, of existence?" but to clear the
confusion that is within you. It is like a blind man who asks, "What is light?" If I tell him what light is, he will listen according to his
blindness, according to his darkness; but suppose he is able to see, then, he will never ask the question "what is light?" It is there.
Similarly, if you can clarify the confusion within yourself, then you will find what the purpose of life is; you will not have to ask, you will
not have to look for it; all that you have to do is to be free from those causes which bring about confusion." -J.Krishnamurti
If you consider yourself a thoughtful individual, you must see what I mean. Maybe you don't hear it as strongly as I do. But I've never read anything by someone where I was constantly asking where his ideas ended and mine began. And thus began to realize that when your are free, there is no yours and mine. The ego that is the self is released. Yes, we may still have to use "I" and "you" in language, but inside, the self must cease. Otherwise peace, love and an end to conflict can never exist.
This is probably something that most people have never taken the time to explore. Almost everyone I know would rather chit chat all day about superficial nonsense, but ever since I was young, I could percieve through time as we know it. At very young ages, I could see my own future, not on a grand scale, but little bits of real moments that occured years later. My "ESP" was always something that I never quite understood when I was younger. Reading K was like taking a room filled with thousands of peices of scratch paper, on which was written all my life revelations, and putting them into a book, and then burning that book, and then realizing I never had a book in the first place, but I still had it.. Kinda confusing?? Well my words tend to get a bit hokey at times, but a Jim Morrison quote comes to mind.
"We're reaching for death on the end of a candle.
We're trying for something that's already found us.
Last words.
Out.
C'mon, let's get some tacos." -Jim Morrison
See what I mean. Scattered bits of scratchpaper.
Since my discovery of K, I have read (and reccomend) the following:
"You are the world"
"The awakening of intellegence"
"Think on these things"
"Beginnings of learning"
and two books in the "Commentaries on living" series
Audio from Krishnamurti site in Berlin
Listen to the following tapes using the RealAudio Player (download here):