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This bright thinker was frankly burdened by the role of a classical guru. It is easier not to understand his teaching, but to feel it. To see life through the eyes of a person who felt the world as a beautiful whole.
“Krishnamurti does not exist, just as there is neither God the comforter nor the meaning of life,” says this ironic, unlike any other Indian philosopher. Truth for him is a “country without roads”, a personal image that each of us constantly creates. And he himself does not pretend to know the truth or bring it to people: “When you start following someone, you stop following the truth.” Each person can come into contact with his own wisdom – without intermediaries, discarding gullibility and common truths, and then he will become “his own teacher and his own light.” In a vein that would have found understanding in another philosopher, Socrates, he leads us to “how to think” and calls for a “quiet revolution” – for self-knowledge and overcoming fear in order to open towards the reality of “what is” and to follow the only path that leads to the spiritual dimension of our lives.
Having escaped from India, where he was too eager to be seen as a guru, he settled in California. For the next 50+ years, he traveled all over the world giving lectures that were attended by thousands of people. The texts of his conversations, breathing with the utmost honesty and always with a share of humor, still attract a huge audience. “This bright Western-Eastern thinker showed that it is possible to go deeper from the superficial level of life without any dogmas,” says philosopher Grigory Pomerants. – Krishnamurti convinces with paradoxes and prose poems – beyond logic, beyond reasoning. He convinces with everything.”
His dates
- 1895: Born into an orthodox Brahmin family in southern India.
- 1908: Taken into the care of Annie Besant, head of the Theosophical Society, who wants to train him as a world Teacher and messiah.
- 1911: Becomes unofficial head of the “Order of the Star of the East”.
- 1911-1921: studies in England.
- 1922: receives a new spiritual experience associated with the transformation of consciousness.
- 1929: renounces the role of world teacher, declares his unwillingness to participate in religious organizations.
- 1930: moves to California (USA). He performs in front of thousands of audiences in different countries.
- 1969–1974: Publishes his famous talks “The Only Revolution” and “Freedom from the Known”.
- 1986: Dies in California.
Keys to Understanding
Pay close attention to the present
Dogmas, models, unshakable faith in authorities Krishnamurti opposes vigilance, risk, constant doubt. “There are no roads to the truth, and this is its charm – it is alive …” To get to it, it is enough to pay close attention to the present, ordinary everyday life. “You cannot know yourself unless you see yourself as you are, in this moment, without distorting yourself and without wanting to change yourself. At that moment, what you see will change forever, because the distance between the observer and the observed will disappear, and without it there is no conflict.
Live like a new being
“To know” in the understanding of Krishnamurti means “to completely expose yourself, throw off the burden of the past and respond to the surprises and challenges of life as a new being.” It means letting go of thought, which is a habitual reaction of our memory, a reaction that aims to continually replay a familiar and thus reassuring pattern.
Fear stops the mind from opening up
Any school is a “deadly potter’s wheel” that revolves around the past, specialization, competition and authority. We need schools where self-knowledge is taught on a par with mathematics. The task of these schools is to give knowledge and develop students without intimidation and without pressure of authority: “As soon as fear appears, you stop really comprehending new things … The accumulation of knowledge turns us into robots, and knowledge allows the mind to be spontaneous, young and sensitive.”
Gain stillness of mind
Although Krishnamurti never talked about his own method of meditation, he does explain how one can see the truth. “Do you know what it means to look at a tree without a single thought, without memories that would mix with your contemplation, with your sensations, with your feelings in this moment of concentration – as if there is only a tree, and you, looking at it tree, no? In the moment of this stillness of the mind, “truth can come into existence.” For Krishnamurti, this state is creation, boundless space, saturated with “the incredible energy of the Universe.”
Beauty is where there is no ego
“Love is not a feeling. Not pleasure, not desire and not its satisfaction. Not jealousy or hatred. To experience it, one must be very receptive to beauty. It’s not about feminine or masculine beauty… The beauty I’m talking about exists where there is no ego. This beauty, this love, this truth is the highest form of intelligence…”
About it
Texts of talks by Jiddu Krishnamurti
- “Beyond Violence”. Sofia, 2004.
- “Education and the Meaning of Life”. Sofia, 2003.
- “The Only Revolution” Mind, 1997.