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An Overview of Krishnamurti’s Life and WorkJiddu Krishnamurti was born on 11 May 1895 in Madanapalle, a small town in south India. He and his brother were adopted in their youth by Dr Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society. Dr Besant and others proclaimed that Krishnamurti was to be a world teacher whose coming the Theosophists had predicted. To prepare the world for this coming, a world-wide organization called the Order of the Star in the East was formed and the young Krishnamurti was made its head.In 1929, however, Krishnamurti renounced the role that he was expected to play, dissolved the Order with its huge following, and returned all the money and property that had been donated for this work.From then, for nearly sixty years until his death on 17 February 1986, he travelled throughout the world talking to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in mankind.Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He did not expound any philosophy or religion, but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, of the individual’s search for security and happiness, and the need for mankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow. He explained with great precision the subtle workings of the human mind, and pointed to the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality.Krishnamurti belonged to no religious organization, sect or country, nor did he subscribe to any school of political or ideological thought. On the contrary, he maintained that these are the very factors that divide human beings and bring about conflict and war. He reminded his listeners again and again that we are all human beings first and not Hindus, Muslims or Christians, that we are like the rest of humanity and are not different from one another. He asked that we tread lightly on this earth without destroying ourselves or the environment. He communicated to his listeners a deep sense of respect for nature. His teachings transcend man-made belief systems, nationalistic sentiment and sectarianism. At the same time, they give new meaning and direction to mankind’s search for truth. His teaching, besides being relevant to the modern age, is timeless and universal.Krishnamurti spoke not as a guru but as a friend, and his talks and discussions are based not on tradition-based knowledge but on his own insights into the human mind and his vision of the sacred, so he always communicates a sense of freshness and directness although the essence of his message remained unchanged over the years. When he addressed large audiences, people felt that Krishnamurti was talking to each of them personally, addressing his or her particular problem. In his private interviews, he was a compassionate teacher, listening attentively to the man or woman who came to him in sorrow, and encouraging them to heal themselves through their own understanding. Religious scholars found that his words threw new light on traditional concepts. Krishnamurti took on the challenge of modern scientists and psychologists and went with them step by step, discussed their theories and sometimes enabled them to discern the limitations of those theories. Krishnamurti left a large body of literature in the form of public talks, writings, discussions with teachers and students, with scientists and religious figures, conversations with individuals, television and radio interviews, and letters. Many of these have been published as books, and audio and video recordings. Beyond Myth and Tradition SeriesBeyond Myth and Tradition is a twelve-part series made by the Krishnamurti Foundation of America in 1997. This product consists of all the programs, each programme focusing on a particular aspect of life and presenting relevant excerpts from Krishnamurti’s Talks and Discussions filmed at different times around the world. Produced and Directed by Evelyn Blau and Michael Mendizza (The Challenge of Change), this series offers a very good introduction to Krishnamurti’s teachings, whilst also conveying their scope, depth and relevancy in today’s world.ConflictConflict is between the actual and the myth. To understand that which you are, the myth, the ideal, the self projected future state, must entirely cease.The action of conflict has its own energy, which is divisive… But the energy of perception and acting is entirely different. And that energy is the energy of creation.ChangeUnless there is a radical revolution in relationship between two human beings, talking about God or about the scriptures or going back to the Vedas, the Bible, and the rest of it, is sheer nonsense.We demand world transformation, the transformation of society about us, but we are blind, unwilling to transform ourselves.Freedom and AuthorityUnder no circumstances accept what the speaker says at any time. There is no authority; neither you nor the speaker have authority; both of us are investigating, observing, looking, learning.To be free of authority is to die to everything of yesterday so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigour and passion – it is only in that state that one observes and learns.The SacredThe many religions throughout the world have said that there is an enduring, everlasting truth, but the mere assertion of truth has very little significance. One has to discover it for oneself…Is there something that thought can never touch, and therefore is incorruptible, timeless, eternal and sacred?Choiceless AwarenessAwareness is the silent and choiceless observation of ‘what is’. In this awareness the problem unrolls itself and therefore is completely understood.When one is deeply conscious or aware, there is no remnant or hidden unconscious movement. There is no division between the inner and the outerMeditationA meditative mind is silent. Not the silence which thought can conceive. It is not the silence of a still evening. It is the silence when thought, with all its images, its words and perceptions, has entirely ceased.Mediation is wandering through the world of knowledge and being free of it to enter the unknown.Meditation is something that cannot be practised, as you practice a violin, a piano.Mirror of RelationshipRelationship is the mirror in which we see ourselves as we are. All life is a movement in relationship. Even the hermit is related to the past, to those around him. There is no escape from relationship.Relationship is always in the living present, not the dead past of memory, of remembrances, of pleasure and pain. Relationship is active now: to be related means just that.Conditioning: Prisoners of the PastOur human brain is a mechanical process. Thought is a materialistic process, and that thought has been conditioned to think as a Buddhist, as a Hindu, as a Christian. Is it possible to be free from that conditioning?The ‘me’, the ‘self’, is a movement in knowledge, a series of memories. Then the question arises: Is it possible to live psychologically without a single memory?The Violent SelfThe source of violence is the ‘me’, the ego, the self, which expresses itself in so many ways – division, in trying to be or become somebody – which divides itself as the ‘me’ and the ‘not me’, as the unconscious and the conscious, the ‘me’ that identifies with the family or not with the family, with the community or not with the community…Every form of escape, distraction, movement away, sustains violence. If one realizes this, then the mind is confronted with ‘what is’ and nothing else.Death: Leaving the StreamWe are like the rest of the world. It is a vast endless river. And when we die we’ll be like the rest, moving in the same stream as before, when we were living. But the man who understands himself radically, who has resolved all the problems in himself psychologically, he is not of that stream. He has stepped out of it.Death is now, when there is no time, when there is no ‘me’ becoming something, when there is no self-interest, egotistic activity – which is all the process of time. So living and dying are together always. And you don’t know the beauty of itLove: The Flame Without SmokeLove and truth are not to be found in any book, church, or temple. They come into being with self-knowledge. Self-knowing is an arduous but not difficult process; it becomes difficult only when we are trying to achieve a result. But to just be aware from moment to moment of the ways of one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions without condemnation or justification brings freedom, a liberation in which there can be this bliss of truth.What Is the Religious Mind?Extraordinary things have been done in the name of religion. There have been wars for which religions are responsible; people have been tortured, burned, destroyed; for belief was more important than truth, dogma more vital that direct perception.God isn’t something that man has invented, or created out of his image and longing and failure, but when the mind itself becomes sacred then it opens the door to something that is immeasurably sacred. That is religion. And that affects the daily living – the way I talk, the way I treat people, the conduct, behaviour, all that.