'The first step is the last step. The first step is to perceive-perceive what you are thinking, perceive your ambition, perceive your anxiety, your loneliness, your despair, this extraordinary sense of sorrow. Perceive it without any condemnation, justification, without wishing it to be different, just perceive it as it is. When you perceive it as it is, then there is a totally different kind of action taking place, and that action is the final action. That is, when you perceive something as being false or as being true, that perception is the final action, which is the final step.' THIS BOOK consists of the talks Krishnamurti gave in New Delhi, Madras, Bangalore, and Bombay between December 1970 and February 1971. The title is a summing up of many of his statements that form the common theme of these series of talks. For those who have gone seriously into Krishnamurti's teachings, this book offers strikingly new perspectives on man's ancient quest for self-knowledge. |
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When Krishnamurti came to India in November 1985, he was in his ninety-first year. He had returned, in the words of a friend, to 'say goodbye'. Despite his terminal illness, he visited the Rajghat School in Varanasi, the Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh, and Vasanta Vihar in Madras to give public talks and participate in the discussions with all the vigour and passionate concern of the previous sixty years of his working life. In his last talk, at Vasanta Vihar, he inquired into the origin of life and said: 'Creation is something that is most holy, that's the most sacred thing in life, and if you have made a mess of your life, change it. Change it today, not tomorrow.'
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The whole story of mankind is in you- the vast experiences, the deep-rooted fears, anxieties, sorrow, pleasure, and all the beliefs that man has accumulated throughout millennia. You are that book, and it is an art to read that book. So says Krishnamurti in this series of talks, reiterating his basic insight that what is important for a human being is to read the book of his own life, its various chapters and pages, rather than studying any ancient scriptures or modern philosophies.
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The Nature of the New Mind is the third volume in the series titled 'Selections from the Decades', and consists of twenty-three public talks that Krishnamurti gave between 1961 and 1968. Whereas in the 1950s, Krishnamurti dwelt largely on individual change, his focus here is on a radical mutation in human consciousness as a whole. Addressing large international audiences in different parts of the world, Krishnamurti points out that the present crisis is not just what we perceive outwardly in society; it really lies in the unconscious, deep within oneself. So what is required is not more knowledge or more collective action, but a totally new mind. And that is needed, says Krishnamurti, 'to deal not only with the everlasting but also with the immediate problems of existence'. It is important to see the urgency of having such a mind now and not wait for time to bring it about. The new mind is not merely logical or intellectual; rather, it is a mind that is completely free of all its old patterns and has, therefore, the quality of stillness, love, and compassion. 'What the world needs is compassion, not schemes. And compassion is the very nature of the new mind. Because the new mind is the unknown mind, it is not to be measured by the known,' says Krishnamurti. |
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In 1977, Krishnamurti met in Ojai, California with trustees of the Krishnamurti Foundations from Europe, India, and North America. Over a one month period he talked extensively with them about the work they were doing, about the schools they looked after, and about the need to have centres where adults could visit to withdraw for a time from their usual activities and concerns and study the significance of their lives. But the background of this enquiry was his intense interest in the "flowering", as he called it, of the trustees themselves. As Mary Cadogan, one of those present, says in her Introduction, "Krishnamurti seemed to be fired with even greater and more dynamic energy than usual and, although these discussions were primarily concerned with the future of the Foundations, their scope and detail must surely have relevance to the way in which any enquiring group of people working together might relate to each other intelligently". She adds: "Several of us who had been listening to, and working with, Krishnamurti for many years felt that these dialogues were truly revelatory and life- changing". Fortunately, these discussions were taped, so we are able to present in this book a unique record of Krishnamurti working with the trustees. |
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Social reforms may be brought about through legislation or through tyranny, but unless the individual radically changes, he will always overcome the new pattern to suit his psychological demands-which is what is happening in the world. It seems to me very important, then, to understand the total process of individuality, because it is only when the individual changes radically that there can be a fundamental revolution in society. It is always the individual, never the group or the collective, that brings about a radical change in the world, and this again is historically so. Now, can the individual, that is, you and I, change radically? This transformation of the individual-but not according to a pattern-is what we are concerned with, and to me it is the highest form of education. It is this transformation of the individual that constitutes religion. - J Krishnamurti |
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