18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best Krishnamurti I have read., March 5, 2002
This review is from: Meeting Life: Writings and Talks on Finding Your Path Without Retreating from Society (Paperback)
I have read quite a few of his books, and this book is more like a mirror into my soul than a book. Whether you have read him for many years or just starting, this is the book for you. Like other reviewers, i must warn you about the power of his books. Do not read them if you do not want to look within yourself VERY deeply. This is one of the few books i carry around with me at all times.
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Was blind, but now I see, December 16, 2001
This review is from: Meeting Life: Writings and Talks on Finding Your Path Without Retreating from Society (Paperback)
I have been re-reading this edition of 'Meeting Life' for the past week, and recommend it highly. In the past 10 years of reading K's books, I can with all humility say he has transformed my life. May he transform yours as well.
(see below for a short excerpt from the Chapter 'Is There a Meaning to Life?' page 192 of the current edition)
Note: If you seek truth, freedom, and an end to sorrow, buy it. If you desire solace, comfort, and other such 'feel goodies', I'm afraid this book is not for you. New Age this ain't. Alot of heavy lifting goes with the territory when encountering Krishnamurti.
Now for the excerpt:
'Religions have tried to offer [us] the meaning of life--that is, organized, propagandistic, ritualistic religions. But in spite of 2,000 or 10,000 years, man has merely asserted certain principles, certain ideals, certain conclusions, ALL verbal, superficial, non-realistic. So I think it becomes very important to discover a meaning for oneself, if one is at all serious--and one must be serious, otherwise one does not really live at all, which doesn't mean one never laughs or smiles--serious in the sense of a TOTAL COMMITMENT to the whole issue of life. So when we ask what is the meaning of life, we are faced with the fact that our brain is caught in a groove, caught in a habit, in tradition, in the conditioning of our education, cultivating only knowledge, information, and so making it more and more mechanical.
If we are to inquire into this very deeply, there must be great doubt. Doubt, scepticism are essential, because they bring a certain quality of freedom of mind through negation of everything than man has put together--his religions, rituals, dogmas, beliefs which are all the movements of thought.'
(and later on page 194, he says)
'We are asking what is the meaning and significance of life, and if there is any meaning at all. If you say there is, you have already committed yourself to something, therefore you cannot examine, you have already started with distortion. In the same way if you say there is no meaning to life, that is another form of distortion. So one must be completely free of both, the positive and the negative assertions. And this is the real beginning of meditation.'
Thank you to the Krishnamurti Foundation of America (kfa.org) for keeping his words in print. Cheers.
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