Krishnamurti

1895-1986. Hailed to be the World Teacher by the Theosophical Society, he broke with that organization and went his own way. He spent his life lecturing in different countries and speaking to people from all walks of life, owning no possessions but his clothes, watch, and similar personal effects. There are a number of schools and foundations established to promote his teachings of freeing the mind. His lectures and talks have been published into many boooks and there are a few biographies written of him. He refused to accept the idea of having followers, although he inevitably seemed to be a spiritual teacher in fact. He was critical of general phenomena (organized religion, human habit, society, etc.), but he maintained an impersonal level of reference, neither praising nor attacking organizations or people specifically. In keeping with his insistence on the need to be free of all conditioning, his approach appears free of external influence. He rarely quoted particular people or made reference to particular systems, books or other material. He claimed to have been purposely not well read, saying that one must rely only on oneself for the answers to life's larger questions. His talks generally did not touch on the supernatural, keeping away from discussion of topics such as God, the spirit, etc. The main flow of his concern was the human mind and the limitations of thought.

"What the speaker has to say is of very little importance and the speaker himself is of no importance whatsoever, but what you gather by observing yourself is important." - The Awakening of Intelligence

• Reject all authority over the mind, including his (Krishnamurti's) authority.
• The described is not the actual. The description of a mountain is not the mountain. The description of truth is not truth. Any image of the divine is a projection of thought, imagination and not the divine itself.
• "Truth is a pathless land." There is no method to attain truth or enlightenment. Methods are mechanical, of the past. One must come to know the mechanisms of thought by closely observing one's own behaviour and thinking as it occurs.
• Thought (ie. the response of past memory) is necessary for functional/technical knowledge, such as operating a computer or speaking a language, but a hindrance psychologically.
• The vast majority of people do not look at "what is". We observe everything externally (the river, my wife, my neighbor, etc.) and internally (my fears, my beliefs, my ambition, etc.) through images we have build up from the past. These images fragment a person internally and divide humanity into warring nationalities, religions and ideologies. Only when the mind is quiet, not chattering, not clouded with images can it truly see (or listen).
• Internal conflict occurs when there is division between the real and the unreal, the "what is" and the "what should be." For example, I envious, but I should not be. Ideals are unreal, escapes from facing the real in the here and now. The past and the future are unreal. Only the present is real. The past is projected into the future.
• The past is the content of consciousness, the ego, the "me". Thought is of the past and by nature limited in scope. The limited can never know the unlimited. It is the root of inner (and outer) conflict. I've been hurt in the past and therefore project fear into the future. Sorrow is the inevitable consequence of pleasure. I experienced pleasure yesterday and desire the same today.
• Controlling negative reactions or emotions pushes it into the unconscious. One must be aware of one's thoughts, actions without judging, evaluating or comparing.

Links

Krishnamurti Foundation of America
A summary of his teachings and a couple of his talks are available. Unfortunately, very little of his publications are available for free online (as far as I know). Thus I turn to my beloved used book stores!