Customer Reviews

On God

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In "On God" Kirshnamurti has one primary goal in mind--to tell people to stop seeking knowledge of the unknowable. Is is his contention that only by doing so can we free our minds from the entrapment of faith. I found the book to open both my heart and my mind by showing how futile certain secular religious beliefs are and how we should focus more on accepting that there are certain realities we do not have answers for. A book everyone should read for it's simple yet totally unique perspectuve.

This book (one in a series where Krishnamurti goes deeply into several topics critical to mankind) will mainly be of intrest to people who are already familiar with Krishnamurti's basic philosophy/teachings. Krishnamurti uses many words with specific definitions (specific to himself & used throughout his works) that people might not understand if they don't go deeply into particular subjects. This book helps clarify & define several of them. In a nut-shell, Krishnamurti states "How can anyone find God (the unknown) through the known? All one will find is their own thought's known projections. So to know God (if that's possible), one cannot approach God through the known; through knowledge." This is part of a larger thought of his, which is: don't believe in anything. Don't believe at all. If something comes to you as-is, on its own, fine. But any seeking...through prayer, thought, traditional types of yoga/meditation, or whatnot, is futile, as you will only find the known. Only when one stops seeking, is it possible for God, Truth, Reality, Enlightenment...call it what you will...to come to one. This, like all of Krishnamurti's works, will be of intrest to existentialists, as he states somewhere/everywhere (I've read so many of his works I've forgotten where!): "Truth is a pathless land. You can't follow another to get there, and none can follow you once you've reached it yourself." If you dig Krishnamurti, get it.

Krishnamurti's works offer a rare glimpse of the sacred without dogma or path. I was surprised to see many of the people reviewing this text seem to have little understanding of what K is suggesting. K is not engaging in "egomania", instead he is constantly inviting the audience (and readers) to find out for themselves rather than accept an answer. The idea that reality is beyond our thinking is by no means a new one, but K helps us to see all the hundreds of thousands of ways that thought has looked for security -- which includes religion.

Someone (I'm assuming a Christian) challenged that if we go beyond our intellect we will simply believe in Santa Claus or Satan - which is obviously not true. The point is to believe in nothing and therefore find out reality for oneself.

Back to the subject matter, K's simple but profound teachings help serious individuals to bring about a change that is necessary for mankind to face the new challenges of the present day. I whole-heartedly recommend each and every book of K.

I've read over 25 Krishamurti books, including all the "big ones" like Freedom from the Known, The First and Last Freedom, Total Freedom, Awakening of Intelligence, Flight of the Eagle, Krishmaurti's Notebook, etc., many of which I've read more than once. I've given all of them away to share K's message but kept four of them which I keep as references for focused daily reflection/meditation (as opposed to the meditation of all waking life). The four I've kept are Freedom from the Known, On God, On Right Livelihood, and Education and the Significance of Life (the last one of great relevance to me since I'm an educator). And so now I always recommend (and often give) the first three books on that list I just mentioned to anyone who wants to learn more about K's "teachings." "Freedom from the Known" is the single best, most concise and thorough summary of all K's teachings. "On God" should greatly help anyone who is searching for ultimate reality, Truth, God, Enlightenment, Nirvana, The Meaning of Life, or whatever one wants to call it. No summary will do it justice; you must read it for yourself. "On Right Livelihood" addresses the issue of our daily living, in work, leisure, and even to some degree home life and family relationship, becuase, as K emphasizes, they all should be an integrated whole, not fragmented parts of our lives. "Education and the Significance of Life" is also or relevance to anyone who has children or who teaches; it will transform the way you view childrearing and education. I would say that those four books would be all a person would need to transform one's life; to have a radical revolution in living.

When reading Krishnamurti it's Important not to Jump to Conclusions, Spiritual Philosophy is Suptle, we're not dealing with Gross matter here, Sometimes Krishnamurti uses words in their traditional meaning, But sometimes he uses words in a Special way which he defines, Krishnamurti was for example often very critical of knowledge and the Intellect, But he did not Mean that we should throw our brains away and act stupid, The Intellect and the Knowledge it aquires are usefull tools, But limited tools, we must see the Limit of Knowledge and the Intellect and use them when Apropriate.

For the sake of argument let's supose that we have an Imortal Spirit that is indipendent of the body, then that spirit does not need the Brain, So in order for the Brain to get insight from our Spirit it needs to Know it's limits and learn how to be silent, Krishnamurti's Teaching emphasized Self Knowledge as the first step in a spiritual search, Know the Searcher first, Then if you want to seek beyond the limits of the body, to seek the Spirit or God you need to quiet the Mind. This is of course also central in the Spiritual Traditions of Taoism , Zen and Yoga.

Krishnamurti rarely says anything definite about God, but instead tries to help the seeker to prepare himself to get some insight into the Sacred.

This book is exellent like all his books are, but if you have not read any of his books I would Recommend to start with Freedom From the Known.

I love this book for all of the wonderful insights he offers about practicing awareness and understanding our thoughts. I found it to be a hopeful book and a perfect guide for how to create true transformation in our troubling times.

Though I like Krishnamurti's work in general, this is a [weak] one. Since he is anti-organization, anti-teacher he dimisses all the mystics and spiritual teachers who ever lived. They don't know but since I'm free of all that dogma and rigid teachings I know best sums up Krisnamurti's thought on god. This borders on egomania. Sadly by lowering the topic to such a low level of discourse he makes himself no better than any new age kook. Since he had no method per se and dismisses any sort development of higher level perceptions he puts himself in a box all alone. It's too bad his experience with Theosophy ruined his opinion of teachers and organizations.

This book could perhaps stand as signpost as too how far rational thinking can take a person. Get the book if you're interested and then get Underhill's "Mysticism" and Helminski's "Living Presence". Compare them and see who has a better understanding of spirituality and God.

Yes, it is a good book. The only problem I have with it is that Krishnamurti is not willing to investigate world religions. He just ASSUMES that they are all wrong. I'm not saying that they are right, but a true scientist must be open to all possibilities. K is obviously not. He brings all his ideas to a level that is so low, that no one can possibly argue with him. He never read anything and so it is easy for him to criticize all the great thinkers. He never read St. Thomas Aquinas so I wonder how he would be arguying about Thomas' five proofs of God's existence. But he doesn't want to deal with all of that, so he just brings everything to an incredibly low level where only he is right. He also rejects all mystics, knowing that there have been mystics in all religions since the beginning of man.

I like Krishnamurti. There is a lot of good stuff in what he teaches. But his method of finding the truth is not always very scientific.

Jeeper,s what a great idea! Once you stop using your intellect - which is, after all, a gift from your Creator - then you can believe anything you want. You can believe in Santa Claus or Satan, and who's going to tell you you're wrong? You're beyond all that intellectual stuff, right?