1895
J.Krishnamurti born May 12, 1895 Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, India

1909
Move to Chennai, India

1911
London, England

1912
London, England

1920
Paris, France

1921
Varanasi, India

1922
California, USA

1923
Travel and speaking in USA

1924
Travel and speaking in Holland and India

1925
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Chennai, India

1926
Chennai, India
Mumbai, India
Varanasi, India
Eerde, Holland
San Francisco, CA, USA
Los Angeles, CA, USA

1927
Hollywood, CA, USA
London, England
Paris, France
Eerde, Holland
Paris, France
Chennai, India
Madurai, India
Vijayawada, India
Bangalore, India
Mumbai, India

1928
Calicut, India
Varanasi, India
Allahabad, India
Calcutta, India
Chennai, India
Paris, France
Eerde, Holland
New York, NY, USA
Ojai, CA, USA
London, England
Paris, France
Eerde, Holland
Paris, France
Chennai, India
Mumbai, India
Varanasi, India

1929
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India
Eerde, Holland
London, England
New York, NY, USA
Ojai, CA, USA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Ojai, CA, USA
Eerde, Holland
Mumbai, India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India

1930
Chennai, India
Tiruchi, India
Rajahmundry, India
Chennai, India
Trieste, Italy
Eerde, Holland
New York, NY, USA
Boston, MA, USA
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Ojai, CA, USA
Laguna Beach, CA, USA
Oakland, CA, USA
San Francisco, CA, USA
Seattle, WA, USA
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Eddington, PA, USA
Ommen, Holland
Eerde, Holland
Strasbourg, Austria
Geneva, Switzerland
Montreux, Switzerland

1931
Eerde, Holland
Hague, Holland
London, England
Edinburgh, Scotland
Berlin, Germany
Hamburg, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany
Vienna, Austria
Eerde, Holland
Ommen, Holland

1932
Ojai, CA, USA
Hollywood, CA, USA
Portland, OR, USA
Seattle, WA, USA
Victoria, B.C., Canada
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Auburndale, MA, USA
Eddington, PA, USA
Rochester, NY, USA
Cleveland, OH, USA
Chicago, IL, USA
Minneapolis, MN, USA
St. Paul, MN, USA
Kansas City, MS, USA
San Antonio, TX, USA
Birmingham, AL, USA
Atlanta, GA, USA
Montreal, Canada
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Toronto, Canada
New York, NY, USA
Paris, France
Chennai, India

1933
Chennai, India
Ahmedabad, India
Karachi, Pakistan
Lahore, Pakistan
Allahabad, India
Varanasi, India
Kastri, Greece
Athens, Greece
Stresa, Italy
Alpino, Italy
Ommen, Holland
Oslo, Norway
Frognerseteren, Norway
Varanasi, India
Indore, India
Sangli, India
Bangalore, India
Chennai, India

1934
Chennai, India
Ernakulam, India
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Perth, Australia
Adelaide, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
Ojai, CA, USA

1935
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Chicago, IL, USA
New York, NY, USA
Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Nichteroy, Brazil
Montevideo, Uruguay
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rosario, Argentina
La Plata, Argentina
Mendoza, Argentina
Santiago, Chile
Valparaiso, Chile
Mexico City, Mexico

1936
Ojai, CA, USA
New York, NY, USA
Eddington, PA, USA
Ommen, Holland
Chennai, India

1937
Mumbai, India
Florence, Italy
Ommen, Holland

1938
Ommen, Holland
Mumbai, India
Karachi, Pakistan
Lahore, Pakistan
New Delhi, India
Varanasi, India

1939
Varanasi, India
Nagpur, India
Calcutta, India
Vizag, India
Chennai, India
Rishi Valley, India
Madanapalle, India
Varanasi, India
Calicut, India
Tiruchi, India
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Adelaide, Australia
Newport, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand

1940
Ojai, CA, USA
Eddington, PA, USA

1941-1946
Lived in Ojai, CA, USA

1947
Ojai, CA, USA
Chennai, India

1948
Mumbai, India
Chennai, India
Bangalore, India
Pune, India
New Delhi, India

1949
Varanasi, India
Ojai, CA, USA
London, England
Rajahmundry, India
Chennai, India
Colombo, Sri Lanka

1950
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Chennai, India
Mumbai, India
Paris, France
New York, NY, USA
Seattle, WA, USA

1952
Chennai, India
Mumbai, India
London, England
Ojai, CA, USA
Rishi Valley, India
Varanasi, India

1953
Pune, India
Mumbai, India
London, England
Ojai, CA, USA
Florence, Italy
Chennai, India

1954
Varanasi, India
Mumbai, India
Ekali, Greece
New York, NY, USA
Ojai, CA, USA
Rishi Valley, India
Chennai, India
Varanasi, India

1955
Varanasi, India
Mumbai, India
Amsterdam, Holland
London, England
Ojai, CA, USA
Sydney, Australia
Varanasi, India

1956
Chennai, India
Rishi Valley, India
Madanapalle, India
Mumbai, India
Stockholm, Sweden
Brussels, Belgium
Hamburg, Germany
Athens, Greece
New Delhi, India
Varanasi, India
Rishi Valley, India
Chennai, India

1957
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Mumbai, India

1958
Pune, India
Chennai, India
Mumbai, India

1959
Varanasi, India
New Delhi, India
Chennai, India
Mumbai, India

1960
Mumbai, India
Varanasi, India
New Delhi, India
Ojai, CA, USA
Chennai, India
Varanasi, India

1961
New Delhi, India
Rishi Valley, India
Mumbai, India
London, England
Saanen, Switzerland
Paris, France
Rishi Valley, India
Chennai, India
Varanasi, India

1962
Varanasi, India
New Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
London, England
Saanen, Switzerland

1963
London, England
Saanen, Switzerland
New Delhi, India
Varanasi, India
Rishi Valley, India

1964
Rishi Valley, India
Chennai, India
Mumbai, India
Rome, Italy
London, England
Paris, France
Saanen, Switzerland
New Delhi, India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India

1965
Chennai, India
Rishi Valley, India
Mumbai, India
Rome, Italy
London, England
Paris, France
Saanen, Switzerland
Rome, Italy
New Delhi, India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India

1966
Chennai, India
Rishi Valley, India
Mumbai, India
Rome, Italy
London, England
Paris, France
Saanen, Switzerland
New York, NY, USA
Ojai, CA, USA
New Delhi, India

1967
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India
Rishi Valley, India
Mumbai, India
Rome, Italy
Paris, France
Amsterdam, Holland
Saanen, Switzerland
London, England
Rome, Italy
Rishi Valley, India
New Delhi, India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India

1968
Chennai, India
Mumbai, India
Rome, Italy
Paris, France
Amsterdam, Holland
Saanen, Switzerland
Marcelo Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
New York, NY, USA
Waltham, MA, USA
Claremont, CA, USA
Malibu, CA, USA

1969
Malibu, CA, USA
Berkeley, CA, USA
Sausalito, CA, US
Stanford, CA, USA
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
London, England
Paris, France
Amsterdam, Holland
Brockwood Park, England
Schoenried, Switzerland
Saanen, Switzerland
Rome, Italy
New Delhi, India
Varanasi, India
Mumbai, India
Chennai, India

1970
Chennai, India
Rishi Valley, India
Brockwood Park, England
Malibu, CA, USA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Santa Monica, CA, USA
Ojai, CA, USA
San Diego, CA, USA
Brockwood Park, England
London, England
Saanen, Switzerland
Brockwood Park, England
Perugia, Italy
Rome, Italy
Florence, Italy
Sydney, Australia
New Delhi, India

1971
Chennai, India
Rishi Valley, India
Bangalore, India
Mumbai, India
Santa Monica, CA, USA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Malibu, CA, USA
New York, NY, USA
Brockwood Park, England
Amsterdam, Holland
Saanen, Switzerland
Brockwood Park, England
Rome, Italy
 

The problems of the world are so colossal, so very complex, that to understand and so to resolve them, one must approach them in a very simple, direct manner. And simplicity, directness, do not depend on outward circumstances nor on our particular prejudices or moods. The solution is not to be found through conferences, blueprints, or the substitution of new leaders for old, and so on. The solution obviously lies in the creator of the problem, in the creator of the mischief, of the hate and the enormous misunderstanding that exists between human beings. The creator of this mischief, the creator of these problems, is the individual, you and I .... We are the world, and our problems are the world’s problems. This cannot be repeated too often, because we are so sluggish in our mentality that we think the world’s problems are not our business, that they have to be resolved by the United Nations or by substituting new leaders for the old. It is a very dull mentality that thinks like that, because we are responsible for the frightful misery and confusion in the world, this ever-impending war.

To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves; and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not to leave it to others to transform themselves or to bring about a modified change through revolution, either of the left or of the right. It is important to understand that this is our responsibility — yours and mine — because, however small may be the world we live in, if we can transform ourselves, bring about a radically different point of view in our daily existence, then perhaps we shall affect the world at large, the extended relationship with others.

Penguin Krishnamurti Reader

Although he spoke and wrote exclusively in English, Krishnamurti’s writings have been translated into 47 languages. Fifty books of Krishnamurti were published during his lifetime and 20 books have been published since his death. For many decades, his texts were circulated surreptitiously in totalitarian countries, but since 1990, when the Berlin Wall was torn down, arrangements for the publication of Krishnamurti’s works have been made in Russia, Poland and Romania. More than 3,000,000 copies of his books have been sold worldwide in the past 60 years. Some 10,000 pages of Krishnamurti’s words have yet to be published.

It has been estimated that Krishnamurti talked to more people than any other person in recorded history; he gave his last public talk January 3, 1986. For six decades, the audiences for his talks very often numbered in the thousands, especially in large cities in India, and in Ojai, California, where warm weather permitted everyone to gather outdoors with virtually no limit on the availability of seating. The concert halls and auditoriums where he spoke in metropolitan areas in the West were often filled to capacity, as were the large tents that sheltered approximately 2,000 people during his annual summer meetings in Switzerland and England. Smaller groups that Krishnamurti met with usually consisted of twenty to forty people, but Krishnamurti once said, "Even if only two people talk together seriously, they can move mountains."

Despite his very active public life, Krishnamurti was a shy, deferential man. From his earliest years , he dismissed all efforts to portray him as an exceptional human being. In 1929, he withdrew from those attempting to create a mystique around him and his work, saying, "I desire those who seek to understand me to be free, not to make out of me a cage which will become a religion, a sect." Two years before his death, when asked to reflect upon the importance of his own life, he replied: "Does it matter if the world says of K, ‘What a wonderful person he is’ — ? Who cares? ... The vase contains water; you have to drink the water, not worship the vase. Humanity worships the vase, forgets the water."

We, as human beings separated, isolated, have not been able to solve our problems; although highly educated, cunning, self-centered, capable of extraordinary things outwardly, yet inwardly, we are more or less what we have been for thousands of years. We hate, we compete, we destroy each other; which is what is actually going on at the present time. You have heard the experts talking about some recent war; they are not talking about human beings being killed, but about destroying airfields, blowing up this or that. There is this total confusion in the world, of which one is quite sure we are all aware; so what shall we do? As a friend some time ago told the speaker: "You cannot do anything; you are beating your head against a wall. Things will go on like this indefinitely; fighting, destroying each other, competing and being caught in various forms of illusion. This will go on. Do not waste your life and time." Aware of the tragedy of the world, the terrifying events that may happen should some crazy person press a button; the computer taking over man’s capacities, thinking much quicker and more accurately — what is going to happen to the human being? This is the vast problem we are facing.

The Flame of Attention

Because of the very serious nature of the issues that Krishnamurti raised, he felt it was of primary importance that those interested in inquiring with him begin their investigation in the right spirit. He reminded his audiences that he was not trying to convince them of anything, nor was he an instructor. In a public talk in Varanasi, India, in 1981, he described his approach this way: "This is a conversation between two friends, two friends who have a certain affection for each other, a certain care for each other, who will not betray each other and have certain deep common interests. So they are conversing amicably, with a sense of deep communication with each other, sitting under a tree on a lovely cool morning with dew on the grass, talking over together the complexities of life."

Krishnamurti frequently met with smaller groups of people to discuss the problems of everyday living and to go deeply into the nature of existence. These groups were most often comprised of teachers, students and parents associated with the schools which Krishnamurti helped bring into being, and they often included scientists, psychologists and scholars. Krishnamurti set no criteria for those who could attend these small dialogues. The active participants at a single session sometimes ranged from internationally renowned figures to the housecleaners at the homes Krishnamurti visited.

To an extraordinary degree, Krishnamurti did not use the first person pronoun "I" in public conversations or in private life. In his talks, he generally introduced himself to the audience as "the speaker," and in dialogue with others, he often substituted "K" or simply "X" when referring to himself. This was not a pose but an invitation to those listening to engage in a wholly impersonal investigation of human life and not regard his words as authoritative opinions or subjective conclusions. For the same reasons, Krishnamurti almost invariably addressed those engaged in dialogue with him as "Sir," or "Madam," even though sometimes the participants were longtime friends.

Questioner: Why is there so much cruelty in nature?

Krishnamurti: That is natural, perhaps. Don’t say there is cruelty in nature. Why are you so cruel? Why are human beings so cruel?

Questioner: I want to get rid of my pain and sorrow; therefore, if anybody hurts me, I also react or respond in a similar manner.

Krishnamurti: Sir, have you ever considered that all human beings suffer — all human beings in the world, whether they live in Russia, America, China, India, Pakistan, wherever it is? All human beings suffer.

Questioner: Yes, sir.

Krishnamurti: Now, how do you solve that suffering?

Questioner: I am interested in my own suffering.

Krishnamurti: What are you doing about it?

Questioner: I have come here to be enlightened by you.

Krishnamurti: What shall we do together, sir? Together. Not I help you or you help me; what shall we do together to get rid of sorrow?

Questioner: I don’t know, sir.

Krishnamurti: Are you sure?

Questioner: Yes, sir.

Krishnamurti: No, no, answer carefully; this is a very serious question. Are you sure you don’t know how to be free of sorrow?

Questioner: Yes, I do not know how to get rid of my sorrow.

Krishnamurti: Just a minute, just a minute — remain in that state.

The Future is Now

In the 1920s and 1930s, professional stenographers made verbatim transcriptions of the public talks of Krishnamurti, and Krishnamurti himself often kept detailed journal entries not only of his talks but his interviews with individuals. Beginning in 1949, the talks were tape recorded as a matter of course and, toward the end of his life, it was sometimes the case that Krishnamurti was recorded two or three times a day, as he met with friends or students and teachers following a public address. The first videotape of Krishnamurti speaking was made in 1968, and from then on, all of his public talks were recorded in this format, as were many of his dialogues with smaller groups. The Krishnamurti Foundations distribute these video tapes throughout the world, and they are frequently seen on television in the United States, Latin America, India and Great Britain.

The Krishnamurti Foundations in Great Britain, India, Latin America and the United States initially came into being to arrange Krishnamurti’s travels and public talks, and he gave them sole authority in handling copyright and other business matters regarding the dissemination of his work. Today, the Foundations also maintain the schools for children that Krishnamurti helped found, and the study centers and archives that he requested be established. In addition, the Foundations facilitate dialogues and gatherings on all five continents for those interested in discussing and resolving the deep problems of human existence.

Krishnamurti was often asked about people who claimed to be interpreters or teachers of his work. Three months before he died he reiterated that such an individual "has no power to say that he represents Krishnamurti, or that he is a follower." Yet Krishnamurti suggested that those who appreciated deeply not his words, but the life to which they pointed, would naturally share their discovery with others, as they would anything that had profoundly affected them: "Seeing the beauty of those hills, the extraordinary tranquillity of a fresh morning, the shape of the mountains, the valleys, the shadows, how everything is in proportion — seeing all that, will you not write to your friend, saying, ‘Come over here, look at this’? You are not concerned about yourself, but only about the beauty of the mountain."

There is an element of violence in most of us that has never been resolved, never been wiped away, so that we can live totally without violence. Not being able to be free of violence we have created the idea of its opposite, non-violence. Non-violence is non-fact. Violence is a fact. Non-violence does not exist, except as an idea. What exists, "what is," is violence. It is like those people in India who say they worship the idea of non-violence, they preach about it, talk about it, copy it — they are dealing with a non-fact, non-reality, with an illusion. What is a fact is violence, major or minor, but violence. When you pursue non-violence, which is an illusion, which is not an actuality, you are cultivating time. That is, "I am violent, but I will be non-violent." The "I will be" is time, which is the future, a future that has no reality; it is invented by thought as an opposite of violence. It is the postponement of violence that creates time. If there is an understanding and so the ending of violence, there is no psychological time.

The Flame of Attention

As to the authority of the Foundations themselves, Krishnamurti said: "The Foundation has no authority over your life, to tell you what to do or what not to do, or to say: ‘This is the center from which all radiation goes on,’ like a radio station or a television station; we are not saying that. All we are saying is: Here is something which may be original; here is something for you to look at. Take time to read it; take time to understand it. If you are not interested, throw it away; it does not matter. "

Krishnamurti spoke privately and publicly with a number of noted world figures, and many of these interviews are available to the public in books, or on video and audio tape. Among those who sought out interviews with Krishnamurti were three Prime Ministers of India, Jawaharal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi; the eminent physicist, Dr. David Bohm; novelists Aldous Huxley, Iris Murdoch and Christopher Isherwood; the psychologist Ira Progoff, the educator Ivan Illich and the biologist Rupert Sheldrake; Dr. Jonas Salk, the famed inventor of the polio vaccine, and Chugyam Trungpa Rimpoche, the Tibetan monk and lecturer. The single largest exposure of Krishnamurti to the public most likely has been through the American television program, "The Young Indiana Jones."

Krishnamurti was adamant that, in psychological learning, there actually can be no teacher. Each human being must inquire alone into the beauty and complexity of life, and be free to discover love. Yet his vast body of writings, talks and tapes have come to be called "the teachings," a term to which Krishnamurti himself did not object — although he once remarked that perhaps it was a "rather grandiose" term. When asked about this, Krishnamurti described how it came about in a discussion among friends: "We thought of using the word ‘work’ — ironworks, big building works, hydroelectric works, you understand? So I thought ‘work’ is very, very common. So we thought we might use the word teaching. But it is not important — the word — right? ... It depends upon you, whether you live the teachings, or not."

Do not ask me what psychological time is. Ask that question of yourself. Perhaps the speaker may prompt you, put it into words, but it is your own question. One has had a son, a brother, a wife, father. They are gone. They can never return. They are wiped away from the face of the earth. Of course, one can invent a belief that they are living on other planes. But one has lost them; there is a photograph on the piano or the mantelpiece. One’s remembrance of them is in psychological time. How one had lived, how they loved me; what help they were; they helped to cover up one’s loneliness. The remembrance of them is a movement in time. They were there yesterday and gone today. That is, a record has been formed in the brain. That remembrance is a recording on the tape of the brain; and that tape is playing all the time. How one walked with them in the woods, one’s sexual remembrances, their companionship, the comfort one derived from them. All that is gone, and the tape is playing on. This tape is memory and memory is time. If you are interested, go into it very deeply.

The Flame of Attention

Whenever and wherever possible, Krishnamurti spoke outdoors. Every spring he gave a series of public talks in an oak grove in the rural town of Ojai, California, and tape recordings of those meetings are filled not only with the sound of Krishnamurti’s voice and the questions of his audience, but with the singing of birds. In the winter months in India, he often pointed out the majesty of the rising moon to the thousands of people, young and old, who gathered in the evenings to hear him speak in public gardens in Chennai and Mumbai. Krishnamurti even wrote outdoors, most notably Education and the Significance of Life in 1953, which he penciled into a notebook over a span of three days while sitting under the shade of a tree.

As Krishnamurti traveled from country to country, he dressed according to the local custom, both as a matter of courtesy and of not wishing to draw attention to himself. Thus in India, he wore kurta and pyjama or churidar and often carried a large umbrella to shield himself from the sun on afternoon walks. Krishnamurti wore suits made in London while traveling in the West. In California, Krishnamurti dressed neatly but casually, favoring jeans, open-collared shirts and running shoes.

Krishnamurti sometimes illustrated a point he was making by sharing with his audience a joke he had heard. One of his enduring favorites was the story of a man walking along the street and instead of looking at the beautiful sky he was watching the pavement. Then he saw in the distance something very brilliant. He went rapidly towards it, picked it up and looked at it. He was in a state of beatitude, because it was extraordinarily beautiful. He put it in his pocket. Behind were two people walking. One of them says to the other, "What was it that he picked up? Did you see his expression of ecstasy in the very act of looking at it?" And the other, who happened to be the devil, said, "What he picked up was truth." And the friend said, "That is very bad business for you that he has found it." He said, "Not at all. I am going to help him organize it."

Most of us are afraid of something or of many things; you may be afraid of your wife, of your husband, afraid of losing a job; afraid of not having security in old age, afraid of public opinion — which is the most silly form of fear — afraid of so many things — darkness, death and so on. Now we are going to examine together, not what we are afraid of, but what fear is in itself. We are not talking about the object of fear, but about the nature of fear, how fear arises, how you approach it. Is there a motive behind one’s approach to the problem of fear? Obviously one usually has a motive; the motive to go beyond it, to suppress it, to avoid it, to neglect it; and one has been used to fear for the greater part of one’s life, so one puts up with it. If there is any kind of motive, one cannot see it clearly, cannot come near it. And when one looks at fear, does one consider that fear is separate from oneself, as if one was an outsider, looking inside, or an insider looking out? But is fear different from oneself? Obviously not, nor is anger. But through education, through religion, one is made to feel separate from it, so that one must fight it, must get over it. One never asks if that thing called fear is actually separate from oneself. It is not, and in understanding that, one understands that the observer is the observed.

The Flame of Attention

Among the most popular of Krishnamurti’s writings are those contained in a three-volume series of transcripts of interviews entitled Commentaries on Living. In them, Krishnamurti explores the complexity of life with the individuals who visited him in California, Europe and India, or who approached him in airports and train stations. His anonymous interlocutors were politicians, students, widows, businessmen, married couples, professors, monks and artists — people from every walk of life, every age, every religious creed and nationality.

Krishnamurti kept a heavy schedule of private interviews — giving sometimes as many as thirty a day. Whether in India, California, Switzerland or England, he and his visitors would most often meet on a verandah or walk outdoors to discuss the intricacies of life, where they could watch a sunset, observe the landscape or listen to the sound of a river flowing by. Krishnamurti often asked those with him to pause for a moment to look at a flower in bloom or, depending on the locale, he would point to the play of squirrels or monkeys, the flight of parrots or eagles. On some occasions, those who visited Krishnamurti chose not to speak at all. Instead, they sat with him in silence, Krishnamurti having given them his hand.

In the late 1930s, Krishnamurti became friends with Aldous Huxley, the noted English essayist and novelist who had moved to Southern California. They enjoyed many long lunches and conversations about religion and the future of humanity, and it was Huxley who encouraged Krishnamurti to publish Commentaries on Living, finding his blend of descriptive passages of nature with philosophical inquiry unique. Huxley wrote the forward to Krishnamurti’s The First and Last Freedom, published in 1954, in which he said that readers would find in the writings and talks of Krishnamurti "a clear contemporary statement of the fundamental human problem."

Who cares to listen to the troubles of another? We have so many problems of our own that we have no time for those of others. To make another listen you have to pay either in coin, in prayer, or in belief. The professional will listen, it is his job, but in that there is no lasting release. We want to unburden ourselves freely, spontaneously with no regrets afterwards. The purification of confession does not depend on the one who listens, but on him who desires to open his heart. To open one’s heart is important, and it will find someone, a beggar perhaps, to whom it can pour itself out. Introspective talk can never open the heart; it is enclosing, depressing and utterly useless. To be open is to listen, not only to yourself, but to every influence, to every movement about you. It may or may not be possible to do something tangibly about what you hear, but the very fact of being open brings about its own action. Such hearing purifies your own heart, cleansing it of the things of the mind. Hearing with the mind is gossip, and in it there is no release either for you or the other; it is merely a continuation of pain, which is stupidity.

Commentaries on Living, Vol I

To preserve an authentic record of Krishnamurti’s work, the Krishnamurti Foundations have established three separate archives in Ojai, California, Brockwood Park, England, and Chennai, India. The corpus consists of approximately 500 video tapes, 1,200 audio tapes, 100,000 pages of written material and thousands of photographs. In addition, a CD-ROM containing 15,000,000 words has been completed and is available through the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd. in England. Through an ongoing exchange program among the Foundations, it is hoped that by the end of the century each of the archives will contain all of Krishnamurti’s work and memorabilia, so that scholars all over the world need not travel far to gain access to the complete holdings.

This is part of a much longer article (copyright KFA)

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