Instruction Manual for the Human Universe -- Brilliant, Original -- A Must-Read for the Curious
Written: Aug 11 '01
Product Rating:
Pros: Speaks in a modern voice that embraces the deepest concerns ofa person of any religion/culture.
Cons: Repetitive, though his messages cannot be stressed enough.
The Bottom Line: Universally valuable. Krishnamurti brilliantly cuts to the core of the problems of human living-- from where they spring, to how they might be resolved. Filled with infinite spiritual rewards.
Adamjazz's Full Review: J. Krishnamurti - Total Freedom: The Essential Kri...
This will be a difficult review to write satisfactorily, since I am deeply in love with this book...
As a teenager in the 1920s, J. Krishnamurti was dubbed to be the new leader of a group of "neo-Buddhists" called the Order of the Star. So, at 21, he was of age to take the helm and show his followers the path to Enlightenment. On August 2, 1929, he got up in front of 3,000 Star members and announced his first order of business: to disband the order. He knew that a man who is dependent on another for his spiritual fulfillment, whether it be Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, or Krishnamurti, is actually distracted from that fulfillment because he has formed a concept, a mental scheme, to reach it, and according to Krishnamurti, total freedom is beyond thought, which is a phenomenon that stems from memory, or conditioning, the past, and therefore is of time.
I am trying to sum up Krishnamurti's teachings in one sentence and I already feel at a loss to bite into what he is saying. So I'll just say that the transcript of this groundbreaking speech opens the 369-page collection of essays, aptly titled "The Essential Krishnamurti." It is a much-needed "best of" collection, because he has independently travelled and written and lectured from the Order's dissolution until his death in 1986, and a bibliography fills up the entire first page of the book.
My friend introduced this to me two years ago. He likes to take his copy and find an essay that pertains to his mood at the time. I like to read straight through and feel his words pulse through me at the book's leisure. I have about 50 pages to go, and personally I can't wait until I finish the book so I can begin again, and again, and again. Since my friend turned me on to this I have been dabbling in Buddhism among other things, reading "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman, Hesse's "Siddhartha," the "Tao Te Ching," Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil," and
Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth" on the way. But know this: While all of these other's blew my mind in some way, "Total Freedom" is so dense with wisdom that it is the only one I can imagine reading again and again for years to come. No other book has made me want to run out and buy a cartload to hand out to my close friends and family just about every single session I have with it. It is consistently enlightening. A dull day is turned bright and vibrant after being viewed through Krishnamurti's perspective for awhile. And part of this immediacy in returns is that he tries to address modern problems in his essays too, and to heal the world, we must heal the self first. To remove violence in society, we must remove our own mental struggles; our suffering, attachments, and fears. And the flower that blooms from this churned-up soil? Love.
Be warned that it is no "Siddhartha" in readability. These are philosophical essays that require a somewhat slower, super-attentive pace. But it is philosophy for living, for what, who you are here, now, whether you are a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, whatever--he addresses them all. His language is modern, as is his fundamental belief that "Truth is a Pathless Land," the title of the opening lecture. Here is a tidbit...
"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 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 let him organize it.'"
Here's another, I cannot resist:
"Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others...You cannot bring the mountaintop to the valley."
These quotes capture so little, I must warn you. This is just his warm-up. Anyway, "Total Freedom" consists of titles such as "Living in Ecstasy," "Time and Transformation," "Education and the Significance of Life," "What is the Relationship between Krishnamurti's Teachings and Truth?" (an attack on himself, in a way), and many more.
Any modern thinker, soul-searcher, listener is urged to pick this up. It is essential.
Counted among his admirers are Jonas Salk, Aldous Huxley, David Hockney, and Van Morrison, along with countless other philosophers, artist, writers an...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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