ON THE TEACHINGS

Krishnamurti travelled round the world for nearly six decades giving talks, holding discussions, and writing books. When in 1971 he was asked whether his teachings had undergone any change over the years, he replied in unmistakable terms: 'No. There have been changes in expression, changes in vocabulary, changes in language and gesture-you know all that-but there has been no fundamental change from the beginning till now.' When asked in 1980 what the core of his teaching was, he said it was in essence what he had stated in 1929: 'Truth is a pathless land.' He also summed up his teachings in the profound statement: 'Where you are, the other is not.' This book brings together the several statements that Krishnamurti made about his own teachings for sixty years, from 1926 to 1986. ln responding to the questions put to him about his teachings, he repeatedly reminds his audience: 'The teachings are only a means of pointing, of explaining, not the teachings but the understanding of yourselves.' Asked how one can help humanity live the teachings, he says pithily: 'lt is very simple: by living them yourself.'He counters another question by asking: Are you experimenting with my teachings, or are you experimenting with yourself?' Thus, even while commenting on his teachings, he never allows his listeners to deviate from his central concern that they must begin with themselves-by understanding not his words but their own lives. The message is unequivocal: the teachings cannot be used to produce a theology or a hierarchy, a sect or a cult. The compilation draws on the vast corpus of Krishnamurti's talks, answers to questions, discussions, and writings. Of special interest to those already familiar with the teachings will be the selections from Krishnamurti's works of the late 1920s and from the hitherto-unpublished archival transcripts. Excerpts from Krishnamurti's reflections on life, death