Freedom from the Known [Paperback]

It is very hard to get your head around the idea of a religious thinker who decries all beliefs and rituals. I have read many of Krishnamurti's books and this one is very definitely my favourite. Truth, Krishnamurti asserts is in the moment and it cannot be approached or understood by thinking or thought processes. Thought is always old and a projection of the past. Only when the mind is still can truth or sacredness come into being. But how to achieve it? -you can't achieve it as any attempt or effort of the will is within the realm of thought. Can the mind realise its own limitations and be silent? From this silence, comes truth or love or beauty or God.

Meditation is central to Krishnamurti's teaching but by meditation he does not mean sitting in a corner, visualising or chanting-Meditation for Krishnamurti is 'choiceless awareness'-the mind observing its own thinking without judging it. Only by understanding and accepting 'what is' from moment to moment can one comprehend reality.

I have been studying this short book for 15 years and it has helped me greatly. Impossible to classify or reduce down to an intellectual theory. Anyone interested in psychology or religion would benefit from reading this book. But beware! You may never look at the world in the same way again.

Krishnamurti sees very clearly that a human being is forever looking for a way out from his daily struggle of living and his fear of dying through various identifications.All identifications as per the book including identification with a religion, a political system, a scientific theory, even identification with a nation, flag only aggravates human misery.One new process replaces another, an old conditioning is replaced by a new one,for all of us there is a wonderful illusion that our salvation is just a question of time and more experience. Krishnamurti wants us not to accept what he is saying but to explore with him, whether all our experiences or other's experiences, regarding understanding of life is taking us anywhere at all?The relationship between the thinker and thought in a human being is central and most important thing to explore if life has to be explored as it is and is to be understood, this has been communicated with extraordinary clarity in these pages. Awareness, Observation and Silence as per Krishnamurti are the only instruments necessary for this exploration.There is a great depth and compassion in the way the language has been used.In recent times, Steven Harrison's Doing Nothing is one among the few original books that seem to take us in to this sort of exploration after Krishnamurti.

Who is this book for? For instance: It is good for deep thinkers; students of 'religion, psychology, philosophy, science (especially quantum physics); and for laymen who are open minded enough to explore into the human existence. This book has no techno speak or mumbo jumbo, but if your first language is not English, its better to buy a translated version. All these people must have patience and an exploring mind in common. I'll start by mentioning that Krishnamurti has no formal education in religion, psychology, or philosophy. His thinking is fresh, against the grain, and incisive. That is all good news, as all other publications that I've read have been written by educated philosophers, or writers of traditional scripture. None of those educated, traditionally approaches has ever helped me get to the bottom of this human existence we experience.

I found Krishnamurti's philosophy through a long trail of religious and philosophical studies. I was searching for something quintessential. I started with the New Testament, moved quickly to Gnostic scripture and discovered the Thomas Gospel. Parallel to that I was reading the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam from the Vaisnavite sect of Hinduism. I also studied the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead', and became interested in Jewish history. Always I got the sense that all these religions were rooted together despite their wild differences. The most mysterious of all books is the Thomas Gospel, which gives no narrative and lays out riddles allot of which I found only tenuous interpretations, despite reading the Nag Hammadi library and NT, and all the rest of it. The thing that links all religious books seems to be the idea that psychological death can be avoided by either reincarnation, or going to heaven etc. In that way the "soul" is preserved, and what is you can enjoy no fear of death. Essentially religions answer the main questions in an attempt to give man something to do to cope with his duality. Those notions always seemed at the back of my head to be flimsy.

Krishnamurti explores the nature of the thinking mind to pinpoint the mental processes which create ideas, form ideals and develop these whole imaginary religious concepts. What is explored is the root of the motive behind ideal formation, its cause in infancy, and how that cause lays the foundation for the whole development of the human psyche (ego or Soul). The author invites the reader to think everything through, starting from real observations about life. He proposes that one can only observe reality without bias, by moving aside all notions created by thought, and more importantly by the thinking process: e.g. to contrast, compare, justify, and criticize. One is taken through a rational look at how thinking distorts the observations made by the senses; starting with the example of how most of us criticize what we hear in conversation or read in a book as we are listening or reading.
I shall not spoil the content any further.

You may wish to know what this book can do for you, which is why most people consider reading books on psychology/philosophy in the first place. I must report that I spent about a month dissecting this short book page by page. I have combined the reading of this book with the vast number of video seminars Krishnamurti has given. What I have discovered took some work on my part, and this is not good for a surface read. As previously stated, this book is for serious people, who care enough to go into things deeply. I was searching for something quintessential. Now, I am no longer seeking. The Gospel of Thomas suddenly has become alive, and show's up Jesus' teachings in totally new light (light-years away from the NT). If all that all means nothing to you, and you're looking for a reason to read this book: I am not qualified to give you one. Read it or don't. If you are interested in this kind of book, I highly recommend: taking your time, employing an online etymological dictionary, and downloading his seminars (YouTube them).