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J Krishnamurti
I've read a few things, and he seems to be buddhist although he avoids meaningless jargon, rituals and stuff. He didn't call himself buddhist but his ideas included no self, skepticism, morality etc. Also he seemed to be a good person who spoke against authority and war.
Has anyone been inspired or guided by his teaching?
Has anyone been inspired or guided by his teaching?
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A member of my family wanted to go to Krishnamurti's annual summer camp that he held every year in the UK.
He persuaded me to go too.
I soon realised that there at least two Krishnamurtis.
There was the nobly handsome, wise and calm person when giving talks. Although I noticed that what sounded good at the time rarely stuck in the mind.
Then there was the arrogant, whining, petulant, verbally abusive attention seeker the rest of the time.
Ladies and gentlemen...I withdrew.
Give it a chance, it looks one sided, but I think they're on the same page.
Indeed. A guru who says do not follow gurus. I think not.
1. As long as you are a seeker, you will never find
2. Always tell the truth, but never an unkind truth.
My mother met J. Krishnamurti (mum was born in 1911). She asked him why she was so unhappy. He told her "Because you are rocking the boat".
She didn't understand what he meant.
If I had met him in my professional capacity I would have assumed that he was clinically depressed.
I found him interesting but his ideas seemed too vague to be of any practical use.
Absolutely not the person you would imagine from his books and transcribed talks.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was at that time my teacher btw.
Some time after that filmed " conversation " which is actually a diatribe, Krishnamurti's people contacted CTR's people and wanted to arrange another such dialogue.
" Not on your life ! " said Trungpa Rinpoche..." an awful man..awful ".
CTR was not known for holding back on his opinions.
Over excited, opinionated, hyper, deaf to others, rambling, querulous.
You may have gathered that I did not form a positive view of the man.
In particular his asking how I knew that K. was whining. I heard him..
Just to add, I have met over the years a number of Buddhist teachers...Krishnamurti was a totally different kind of person. If I was pressed to use just one adjective to describe him it would be " agitated ".
I am reminded of being on a day retreat when an attendee remarked to one of the monks that he always felt peaceful as soon as he walked through the monastery door..." really "? the monk replied.. " you must have brought that with you then, I assure you we don't feel peaceful a lot of the time ! ".
That's not "worldly" in my mind. That's looking past our expectations to see the real human being beneath the mask. Whatever he had, he couldn't teach it to others. He couldn't even tell people how to get it for themselves. None of the great Enlightened gurus from India can cross that Dharma test. That is the big difference between the traditional transformed guru tradition of India and Buddhism.
This is almost Zen, but missing one critical element. In Zen we say things like "I have nothing to teach you," but that's our way of saying you already have it. I can still point toward where you need to look. I mean by this that I am nothing special. I was not born with a special aura and I have no special knowledge or experience that is not available to everyone.
If I say, "The Buddha in the temple and the dung in the fields are equal," I mean they're equally prescious, not that they're equally worthless.
What did he say ?...cant remember but it was vapid.
One point about the paraphrase of Trungpa and relevant to Krishnamurti is that you can't just munch soundbites. You need a whole path. For example my teacher talks about 'The Indestructible Heart Essence'. But if someone outside the sangha asks me if IHE exists I should say 'no' because that teaching is not a soundbite rather it is enmeshed in our entire sangha. Krishnamurti by rejecting teaching could be giving a dangerous snippet without giving the full support of the Buddhist teachings.
A lot of people come to the conclusion of 'nothing to figure out.' Meg Ryan even talked about her experience in People magazine. Meg Ryan is the actor in 'When Harry Met Sally'.
I do see a problem in his teaching which is that he seems to ask of people that they just shake off their conditioning instantly, without using any method whatsoever. This is like saying to a sick person: just get better, and then you will be no longer sick. I think methods are useful, because as long as we are conditioned, we are going to follow patterns anyway. We might as well follow a pattern that has the effect of letting go of some of the clinging and craving.