While Nisargadatta reminds us that depth cannot be found by digging shallow holes everywhere and encourages us to pick a spot, any spot, and dig deeply; Krishnamurti asks us to dig deep holes and even when we find oil, water, paydirt or whatever it was we were looking for to keep digging for he warns us (or admonishes us depending on how you want to see it) that "what you seek you will find, and it will not be truth."
This last phrase must be some form of Hindi philosophy (or just plain spiritual wisdom) as it appears often and I remember that Nisargadatta also mentions something similar when talking about death, telling us that to each will be given an afterlife as we expect to find, i.e. as we imagine it, and not as it really is...
Getting back to Krishnamurti, what a life story! A brief outline (you can get more here) goes something like this: Jiddu and his brother were identified in what was then Madras, India, in 1909 or thereabouts by members of the Theosophical Society who were looking (like in The Matrix) for a Chosen One, which they called the "World Teacher". They found two. They were tutored and given a very spiritual education first in India and later in the UK and Europe. His brother later died of tuberculosis. Jiddu was groomed to fill the role of World Teacher and during a famous meeting in 1929, when he was around 35, he disbanded the order set up to follow him. The speech he gave at the time, to disband his followers, as quoted from Wikipedia, is a pretty good glimpse at his philosophy:
"You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, 'What did that man pick up?' 'He picked up a piece of the truth,' said the devil. 'That is a very bad business for you, then,' said his friend. 'Oh, not at all,' the devil replied, 'I am going to help him organize it.'
I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path."
"This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies."
To me, this philosophy reminds me of the scene between the messiah-like figure from Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov and the Grand Inquisitor (I mentioned in a previous blog post). In it, the Grand Inquisitor rails against the Messiah who is preaching freedom and tells him how much the Church, i.e. organized religion, has been working to undo the damage the Messiah did putting those ideas in the minds of men, ideas they are not equipped to handle and, thus, do not want.
Krishnamurti seems to be saying something similar to Dostoyevsky's messiah-figure. I understand it as organized religion, any organized religion, is about someone else's truth, so it cannot be anyone's, any one's, truth. We each need to find our own truth, and that is a "pathless land" in the sense that it has to be our own path, we cannot take any shortcuts by walking a path already taken by another.
A propos paths, an interesting and somewhat frightening side note on the original Theosophical Society (Wikipedia link here) which I only learned by reading a bit of background information to write this post. The first of their three official objectives was "to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour." Their rather positive philosophical intentions, together with their worldviews, were later used and abused to justify racism of the worst kind. Another example of the path to hell being paved with good intentions?
Back to Krishnamurti (again, there I go getting sidetracked...). He has written many books and in addition there are many books about him. There are also many DVD's of him speaking that are available, for those who are interested. His speaking style is very stern, very serious, he says often that he is not here to entertain us. Or rather, something that is very original for a public speaker, he does not address his public in the plural, he says you, never all of you, he says we are here 'both of us' the speaker and you, as if it is an intimate two-person conversation even when speaking to a large audience, and he deems it a conversation - it is neither lecture nor entertainment nor an attempto to teach or affect ideation or beliefs. The severity of his attitude, no smiles, doesn't make you uncomfortable but calls for perfect seriousness of intent and of listening. It impresses and it is impressive.
I find this same tone in his writings.It is not that he is unforgiving (see a previous post on this subject :)) but rather uncompromising in what he suggests we demand of ourselves - to look at everything simply but deeply with our brains, our hearts and our entire being...
Of his different books, I could suggest This Light in Oneself or his Commentaries on Living Series, of which I believe there are three books (subtitled First, Second and Third Series), but there are many others. Many of them have very different names, maybe you can choose one that speaks to you.
As a teacher, I also feel 'called to task' quite often by Krishnamurti's writings as he often is most demanding of educators and parents, the teachers of children. Speaking of the importance of educators to be properly educated (a term he would never use by the way), that if the educator does not have 'self-knowledge', which is 'the beginning of wisdom' he himself will be both the victim and the source of much ignorance, strife and sorrow. He speaks of teaching quite beautifully.
One of the worst things about reading Krishnamurti is that he really does tell you everything that you need to know to figure things out. And then he tells you that, and that you can stop reading now; but I keep reading, keep looking for more insights elsewhere...
"See the false as the false, then the truth is. You don't have to look for it.
What you seek you will find, and it will not be truth."
Another note to myself.
Hello! :)
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