[Krishnamurti] What you seek...

Of all the spiritual writers out there, and there are many, the most demanding is probably Jiddu Krishnamurti. Why demanding? Well, even though he is a spiritual guide in most senses, he is unrelenting in what he demands from each of us, and what he demands from us feels nearly inhuman in the breadth, depth and sincerity of the personal work needed.

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.

[A short one] Nisargadatta on love

Just a bit busy so I will make a short post today, but short does not mean lack of intensity. This could be a prelude to a theme I would like to develop at another time on one version of the golden rule - Love others as you would yourself - that to me has many layers in it I would like to try and share one day. Another day. Today I will present a couple of short quotes from Nisargadatta which I believe are contemplation-worthy. Before I do, I just have to explain for those who are not familiar with his philosophy, that when he speaks of dreaming he refers to what we call living and when he talks of awaking he refers to seeing life and living as it really is...

In dream you love some and not others. On waking up you find you are love itself, embracing all. Personal love, however intense and genuine, invariably binds; love in freedom is love of all.


When you are love itself, you are beyond time and numbers. In loving one you love all, in loving all, you love each.

Have a wonderful weekend.

[From I Am That] Nisargadatta on pleasure pain and growth

After opening the book to a random page and reading some passage that I underlined in the past, here are a few thoughts from I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj on pleasure, pain and understanding that I think are worth sharing. Excerpts from pages 305-306

Maharaj: It is the I-am-the-body idea that is so calamitous. It blinds you completely to your real nature. Even for a moment do not think that you are body. Give yourself no name, no shape. In the darkness and the silence reality is found.

[...]

Questioner: Must we not suffer to grow?

Maharaj: It is enough to know that there is suffering. That the world suffers. By themselves neither pleasure nor pain enlighten. Only understanding does. Once you have grasped the truth that the world is full of suffering, that to be born is a calamity, you will find the urge and the energy to go beyond it. Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you do not want to suffer don't go to sleep. You cannot know yourself through bliss alone, for bliss is your very nature. You must face the opposite, what you are not, to find enlightenment.

Before I share some of my thoughts on the above, for those who are not familiar with Nisargadatta (an Indian petty merchant turned spiritual teacher after he was enlightened), when he says 'to be born is a calamity', he (probably) means that to think that you are a body that is born and dies (i.e. identifying with the body) is the calamity.

As regards the above text it makes me think that we totally underestimate the importance of depression, loneliness, mid-life crises, downs, the blues, growing pains, losing a loved one, unemployment, heart breaks, loss of health and generally all of life's down periods. 'Pain wakes you up'...It is only during these periods that we find ourselves asking ourselves deep questions, the deepest questions and struggle with the answers. It is also the only times we really consider significant change and/or act on it. The good times are great, but we just surf on the good times, which is probably important to do too, as that is akin to being in the moment. But we probably need to balance that with introspection, soul-searching, tough questions and the like; and human nature is such that we usually only do that (at least for more than a few minutes) when we are forced to. The periods in which we have the blues are a true occasion for change, progress, understanding... My own experience seems to corraborate that. While I like to think that I am smarter than that and can learn to shave on others' beards, it turns out that I amn't. Nope I needed to pay the dues to figure out even the basics, which I am still working on (they always need work...).

It is ironic that Maharaj tells us that if we don't want to suffer, don't go to sleep. Since sleep is what we usually want to do most when we are suffering from the blues. Obviously he means going to sleep in a metaphysical sense, which is what he claims most of humanity has chosen - sleep over awakening. Metaphysical awakening, to our true natures - which to him is bliss, understanding we are one with the Universe - will help us to understand that there is no suffering.

The final idea though is what strikes me the most: 'You must face the opposite, what you are not, to find enlightenment.' As if we have all chosen sleep and suffering in order to find our way back to our true natures. Some kind of metaphysical game of hide and go seek?

Now reading Deepak Chopra The Path to Love

This book was given to me as a present. The best part was that it was a book that was already read by the person who gave it to me and included the notes. Always fun to share someone else's insights and thoughts and a generous present - sharing the book and the insights!

As for the book, I must admit that I always liked Deepak Chopra (he is a likeable guy) but was never too impressed. I always thought of him as a purveyor of spirituality for the masses and held my prejudice of shallowness against him. Then I read an interview of him in What is Enlightenment magazine (now called Enlighten Next). I realized that this was his chosen mission and I realized that he was pretty darn good at it. That allowed me to approach this book with more of an open mind.
The book starts well, especially since any author who quotes Nisargadatta Maharaj is an author worth reading, and Deepak quotes him early on:

"Life is love and love is life. What keeps the body together but love? What is desire but love of the self?... And what is knowledge but love of truth?
The means and form may be wrong, but the motive behind is always love--love of the me and mine. The me and the mine may be small, or may explode and embrace the Universe, but love remains."

This is a pretty incredible insight! We are all egotistical, i.e. protective of the "me and mine". HOWEVER, for the more spiritually evolved this "me and mine" encompasses more than the narrowest sense (e.g. materialistic collectibles) and can evolve to include family, friends, colleagues, the other and, ultimately, even the entire Universe.

Not easy to do, but a nifty trick if you can pull it off...

If you haven't read Nisargadatta's I Am That, it is highly recommended and I will undoubtedly comment on different passages of that book which is a treasure trove of spiritual nuggets and insights. Put it on your reading list and then on your bedside table. And then read it (osmosis can only take you so far : ))