Understanding J Krishnamurti's Teaching - Part: 1

Understanding

SUNDAY DIALOGUE26th April 2015

K’s TEACHINGPart 1

KFI Cuttack Centre

While understanding K’s teaching or trying to live them our mind has encountered number

of questions. We have found answers to some of those questions and some are

still unresolved and lingering with us.

So lets explore those solved or lingering questions which at some point even

K has addressed it in his own language.

KFI Cuttack Centre / Sunday Dialogue

Is regular group discussion better to think over K’s teachings or thinking over alone is good?

Q1:


Let’s discuss . . .

Krishnamurti has addressed this question in a very interesting manner.

Let’s explore what he said . . . . .



Question: I find a regular group that meets to discuss your teachings tends to become confusing and boring. Is it better to think over these things alone, or with others? Krishnamurti: What is important? To find out, is it not?, to discover for yourself the things about yourself. If that is your urgent, immediate instinctive necessity, then you can do it with one or with many, by yourself or with two or three.

But when that is lacking, then groups become boring things. Then people who come to the groups are dominated by one or two in the group, who know everything, who are in immediate contact with the person who has already said these things.

So, the one becomes the authority, and gradually exploits the many. We know this too familiar game. But people submit to it, because they like being together. They like to talk, to have the latest gossip or the latest news. And so, the thing soon deteriorates. You start with a serious intention, and it becomes something ugly.


But if we are really, insistently needing to discover for ourselves what is true, then all relationship becomes important; but such people are rare. Because, we are not really serious; and so we eventually make of groups and organizations something to be avoided.

So it surely depends, does it not?, on whether you are really earnest to discover these things for yourself. And this discovery can come at any moment, - not only in a group, or only when you are by yourself, but at any moment when you are aware, sensitive to the intimations of your own being. To watch yourself, - the way you talk at table, the way you talk to your neighbour, your servant, your boss, - surely all these, if one is aware, indicate the state of your own being. And it is that discovery which is important. Because it is that discovery which liberates.

Col.works, Vol-6, LONDON, 5TH PUBLIC TALK, 23RD APRIL 1952

…….Contd……


“Will you answer a question from me? Sir, I have read your works and now want to ask you this: what has been your experience with people coming together to exchange their understanding and to read your works. Do you approve of this? What has been your experience of this?”

When K was asked this question by a questioner at a New Delhi gathering he said ……


Krishnamurti: Do you approve of group formation, round what we have talked about, and do you think it is worthwhile? Is that the question Sir?

Do whatever you want to do! If you want to form a group, form it. If you don't, don't form it. If you want to understand yourself through a group, form a group. And if you say, "Well that will not help me to understand myself, to live a different kind of life", then don't join a group. You are responsible for yourself and for nobody else. It is your life. You stand completely alone, never asking, never begging, never seeking truth, because truth does not come to the seeker. You cannot invite it. It is like the wind, or the breezes that come if you leave the windows open - you cannot invite the breeze - and if you are lucky it might come and I hope you are lucky.

The Col- Works, Vol-17, NEW DELHI, 2ND PUBLIC TALK, 23RD NOVEMBER 1967


Friends,will it not be easier for us to

understand what K is saying by telling it to others.

Q2:Let’s discuss . . .

K being K has being very direct in answering this question of our telling others about his teachings

so that it can be easier for us to comprehend what he is saying.




Question: Can I understand easier what you are saying by telling it to others?

Krishnamurti: You may learn, by telling it to others, a new way of putting things, a clever way of transmitting what you want to say; but, surely, that is not understanding. If you don't understand yourself, how in the name of names can you tell it to somebody else? Surely, that is merely propaganda, isn't it?

You don't understand something, but you tell others about it; and you think a truth can be repeated. Do you think, if you have an experience, you can tell it to others? You may be able to communicate verbally; but can you tell others of your experience - that is, can you convey the experiencing of a thing? You may describe the experience, but you cannot convey the state of experiencing.

So, a truth that is repeated, ceases to be a truth. It is only the lie that can be repeated; but the moment you `repeat' a truth, it loses its meaning. And most of us are concerned with repeating, but are not experiencing.

A man who is experiencing something is not concerned with mere repetition, with trying to convert others, with propaganda. But unfortunately, most of us are concerned with propaganda; because, through propaganda, we try not only to convince others, but also gain a living by exploiting others; it gradually becomes a racket.

So, if you are not caught up in mere verbalization, but are really occupied with experiencing, then you and I are in communion. But, if you want to do propaganda - and I say truth cannot be propagandized - then there is no relationship between us.

And I am afraid that is our difficulty at the present time. You want to tell others, without experiencing; and in telling, you hope to experience. That is mere sensation, mere gratification; it has no significance. It has no validity, no reality behind it. But, a reality experienced, if communicated, creates no bondage. So, experiencing is much more important, has greater significance, than communication on the verbal level.

Col.works, Vol-5, 1st Public Talk, Ojai, California 16th July 1949

…Contd…



After reading Krishnamurti teachings for long time now how can I best help

humanity to further understand and live his teachings.

Q3:Let’s discuss . . .

Krishnamurti has solved this desire of helping the humanity in a very simple way which some may

find difficult. So,Let’s explore what he said . . . . .


Question: How can we best help humanity to understand and live your teachings?

Krishnamurti: It is very simple: by living them yourself. What is it that I am teaching? I am not giving you a new

system, or a new set of beliefs; but I say, look to the cause that has created this exploitation, lack of love, fear, continual wars, hatred, class distinctions, division of man against man.

The cause is, fundamentally the desire on the part of each one to protect himself through acquisitiveness, through power. We all desire to help the world, but we never begin with ourselves. We want to reform the world, but the fundamental change must first take place within ourselves.

So, begin to free the mind and heart from this sense of possessiveness. This demands, not mere renunciation, but discernment, intelligence.

Col.works, Vol-2,Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, 2nd Public Talk, 17th April, 1935


In an interview Krishnamurti has said something very interesting related to this

previous topic of helping another.Let’s explore what he has said . . . . .



Prasad: One can help another person to be aware only if that person is a little aware already. Otherwise, one can only hope that in due course the other will come to it of his own accord. Please comment.

JK: Why do you think you are starting out to help me? And at what level do you want to help me? First of all, are you aware? If you are not aware, do not talk about awareness. If there is no awareness in you and you start talking about awareness to me, that is plane hypocrisy. If you are aware, will I not be able to see it in you? Will I not see how you behave towards your wife, children, servants, friends, and all the others? If you live with awareness, will I not be able to notice it? Any change that has to take place will then take place in me. You need not do anything. Your manner, your attitude, your conduct, your talk will all reveal to me everything that I have to know. It will of course, depend upon how will I grasp it.

Conversations with J. Krishnamurti : the man and the message(This book contains six interviews conducted in English

from January 1981 to December 1985by N. Lakshmi Prasad

When I am listening and watching Krishnamurti audio/videos or reading his teachings, I feel very alive, energetic and

sensitive; but when I go away by myself, or am in my house or at work place, this

sensitivity ceases.What to do?

Q4:


Let’s discuss . . .

When asked by a questioner Krishnamurti has addressed this previous dilemma and has cited as

to where the problem is lying and what can be done to overcome it.




Questioner: When I am listening to what is being said here, I feel very alive and sensitive; but when I go away by myself, or am in my house, this sensitivity ceases. Krishnamurti: If you are sensitive only while you are here, you are being influenced, and that has no value whatsoever. It is merely propaganda, and therefore should be shunned, put away, destroyed, for in that way you create masters, teachers, authorities.

But if you have observed yourself as you listened when I have talked; if you have been aware of your own reactions at every minute as we have gone along for over an hour; if you have been awake, not only to what was being said by the speaker but also to the movements of your own thought and feeling, then when you leave this tent and go away by yourself you will know your own state of mind and will never be blindly caught in it again.

The Col- Works, Vol-13,SAANEN, 8TH PUBLIC TALK, 23RD JULY 1963


end

of Part 1

Understanding J Krishnamurti's Teaching - Part: 1

Spiritual

Transcript of Understanding J Krishnamurti's Teaching - Part: 1