at50Brockwood

© 2019 Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd

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IntroductionYou don’t reach 50 without taking a few knocks. You make some mistakes, have some falls, get up, dust yourself off and press on. Brockwood is the same, and after five decades it is remarkable that it’s still alive at all, given the immense pressures both external and internal, facing any small, alternative school or community. Arriving at 50 is therefore something of a miracle and we owe our thanks to a large number of people, both past and present, who gave in so many ways to ensure it would flourish.

Why did they give? Because they recognised something exceptional and important was happening at Brockwood and they wanted to be a part of it, support it and ensure its survival. What made and still makes it exceptional and important? At its core lie the teachings of Krishnamurti, which are extraordinary and unique—and in my view an expression of the infinite. They fuel the fire and, given the quality of the fuel, allow for and invite unlimited creativity, extraordinary energy and unfathomable change.

Brockwood is a remarkable place and this publication is meant as a simple reminder of that fact, of how it all began and what lies at its heart. Bill Taylor Development Director

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Extract from Shattering all ConditioningConversation: Mary Cadogan and Mary ZimbalistBrockwood 1997 Mary Cadogan: I first got to know Krishnamurti in the early 1950s, and at that time there was some pressure for a Krishnamurti school to begin in Europe. It was interesting to see how he responded to that. He listened very intently to the people who came forward with offers or wishes to start a school, parents of course, and teachers. He seemed to take it all quite serenely but was not disposed to move quickly on it. He certainly seemed to feel it was terribly important to get the right people, the right place. And I felt he was also saying the right time, in the sense of the atmosphere being right. I remember something he said to me about the dancer Isadora Duncan. He knew I had an interest in her because I had taught a system of movement and dance, which sprang partly from her work. Krishnaji said that she felt the greatest disaster in her life was starting a school! He actually quoted this to me and laughed.

Mary Zimbalist: It was in 1966 that he started talking about a European school, to my knowledge. In the subsequent year, when a group of people who were very eager about a Krishnamurti school wanted to discuss it, he held a meeting at Chalet Tannegg in Gstaad, and about 50 people came. He didn’t talk very much but listened to what they had in mind. A lot of them were quite effusive and rather sentimental – ‘We must have a Krishnamurti school’ – and he didn’t comment. But about a week later he called in around a dozen people, whom he seemed to think were really serious. I don’t know why I was included because I had had nothing to do with schools at all, but I fortunately went, and he said to us, ‘Are you serious? Do you know what it takes to do a school?’ Out of that, after considerable discussion, came the fact that he wanted it to be an international school, preferably bilingual in French and English. And where to have it? The candidate countries were Switzerland, England, Holland and France, so he appointed one person or a small group from each country to go and explore the local situation, to find out what the circumstances of a school would be, the legalities and so forth, and report the following year. The following year, the four reports came back.

At that point in France, de Gaulle was still in power, and one didn’t know what would happen if he died, when conditions might change and make it difficult for the kind of education Krishnaji had in mind. So France was out. In Holland, the laws then were, maybe still are, that a proportion of classes had to be taught in Dutch, and that made the language problem complicated. He already knew that he would like Dorothy and Montague Simmons to run the school. Switzerland had too many private schools, and it was too expensive and we had no money. So by elimination, it became England.

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Extract from The Years of Fulfilmentby Mary Lutyens While Krishnamurti was giving talks in New York at the New School for Social Research, a third property was found which seemed ideal – Brockwood Park, near Bramdean in Hampshire, midway between Petersfield and Winchester, about 64 miles from London, belonging to Lord Chesham. It was a large, low, white, late-Georgian house, set in 36 acres of park and garden, surrounded by farmland in some of the most beautiful country in England, with extensive views to the south of rolling hills and woodlands. It had a small swimming pool, a tennis court and a vast derelict walled kitchen garden (ideal for vegetarians when brought under cultivation). A little way from the house was an enclosed grove full of azaleas and rare trees, including a great handkerchief tree and some of K’s favourite, sequoias. A beautiful beech avenue led from the Winchester road to the park lodge, and a further avenue of copper beeches curled round to the back entrance.

On December 17, K received a telegram to say that Brockwood Park had been bought. The Simmons, Doris Pratt, a young architect and two male students moved into the house in the middle of January 1969. Their first task was to scrape the accumulated meat grease of years off the kitchen stove, a particularly unpleasant task for vegetarians.

On March 6, Krishnamurti, Mary Zimbalist and Alain Naudé flew to England and went to stay at Brockwood for the first time. There were then four pupils at the school, all boys. The west wing of the house, which was in future to be K’s home whenever he came to England, had been only minimally furnished. This wing consisted of a large hall, drawing room and sitting room on the ground floor, and three large bedrooms and bathrooms. There was a dining room, a kitchen, and on the first floor an office. During this first visit, Mary arranged to have the whole of the west wing redecorated and furnished with antiques at her own expense and to her own excellent taste. The Wingfield-Digbys gave some of their beautiful Chinese and Japanese porcelain to go in recessed shelves in the drawing room.

Krishnamurti was delighted with the place, especially with the grove in the park. On his walks, he always passes through the grove to get to the open fields.

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Extract from Krishnamurti’s JournalEntry for 14 September 1973 That evening, while walking through the wood, we passed through the grove near the big white house. Coming over the stile into the grove, one immediately felt a great sense of peace and stillness. Not a thing was moving. It seemed sacrilegious to walk through it, to tread the ground; it was profane to talk, even to breathe. The great redwood trees were absolutely still; the American Indians call them the silent ones, and now they were really silent. Even the dog didn’t chase the rabbits. You stood still, hardly daring to breathe; you felt you were an intruder, for you had been chatting and laughing, and to enter this grove not knowing what lay there was a surprise and a shock, the shock of an unexpected benediction. The heart was beating less fast, speechless with the wonder of it. It was the centre of this whole place. Every time you enter it now, there is that beauty, that stillness, that strange stillness. Come when you will and it will be there, full, rich and unnameable.

Any form of conscious meditation is not the real thing; it can never be. Deliberate attempt to meditate is not meditation. It must happen; it cannot be invited. Meditation is not the play of the mind, nor of desire and pleasure. All attempt to meditate is the very denial of it. Only be aware of what you are thinking and doing and of nothing else. The seeing, the hearing, is the doing, without reward and punishment. The skill in doing lies in the skill of seeing, hearing. Every form of meditation leads inevitably to deception and illusion, for desire blinds. It was a lovely evening, and the soft light of spring covered the earth.

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Extract from KFT Bulletin 2, Spring 1969The house, although it has been thoroughly modernised inside, has kept its character and dignity, and most of its rooms are beautifully proportioned. It is scheduled under the Town and Country Planning Act as being of architectural and historic interest. It contains 25 potential bedrooms and nine bathrooms. The former billiard room [the sitting room] will hold well over 200 people for indoor meetings. There is an attractive gothic tower and numerous outbuildings suitable for expansion. Altogether the whole property is admirably suited to the purposes of the Foundation, which are to make a home for Krishnamurti (where it is believed he will stay for longer and longer periods), an educational centre for boys and girls of school-leaving age and over, and a meeting place where responsible, free, dedicated and serious human beings can come to discover for themselves what it is to live intelligently, and then go out into the world and transform themselves and others. Although it is hoped that Brockwood will eventually become self-supporting, its survival must at first depend on the generosity of all those who are in sympathy with Krishnamurti’s work and his vision of what this school and centre may one day become. Brockwood belongs to the Foundation, and so, in a sense, this beautiful place belongs to all those who help the Foundation.

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Education At BrockwoodExtract from KFT Bulletin 3, Summer 1969 The Educational Centre at Brockwood Park, of which Krishnamurti has asked Dorothy Simmons to take charge, will open in September. It is for girls and boys of all nationalities over school-leaving age (15 in England), though for the first year it will not be possible to accept more than ten students. As well as living in a fine old house set in magnificent grounds in one of the most beautiful and unspoilt parts of England, and in a community held together by Krishnamurti’s teaching, the students will be able to study for various examinations leading up to university entrance, under a group of able tutors. The permanent faculty will include Montague Simmons, Mark Schmidt and Jon Dieges, who has trained under the famous yoga teacher, Desikachar. There will be no formal classes. Each student will receive individual tuition, though small groups will meet with the tutors for discussions. Nor will there be any organised games; the grounds themselves, with the swimming pool and tennis court, provide ample stimulus for individual or group activity. The diet will be wholly vegetarian with a plentiful supply of homegrown vegetables. The health of the students will be adequately cared for. Full use will be made of the rich historic, archaeological and artistic resources of Hampshire and the surrounding counties, with expeditions to London and further afield. Already a small library of reference and general books has been started at Brockwood, and there is a good collection of records of music. While numbers are still small, it has been found necessary to set the fees at £500 a year, with an extra charge for any student who stays at Brockwood for the holiday periods. At the same time, it is hoped that the financial resources of the Centre will eventually cover a number of free places.

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Krishnamurti at Brockwood ParkExtract from KFT Bulletin 4, Autumn 1969 Speaking about the school at the Brockwood Park Gathering on September 7, Krishnamurti said:

‘This is not a community in the sense of people living together for the sake of an idea or principle, or sharing their property; it is essentially an international school which will gradually be built up to about 40 girls and boys.

‘Every year there will be a meeting here like this in a tent, either in the spring or late summer, and there will also be smaller gatherings in the big room in the house – which holds about 300 – where we can discuss more directly, more intimately and informally.

‘The students will be from the age of 15 upwards and can stay until they go to university, although they may not, of course, go to university at all but choose to do something entirely different. There will be the usual curriculum of mathematics, history, geography, languages, science and physics – but there will also be something more. And it is this ‘more’ that is the problem. What is the point of education? Is it merely to cultivate the capacity of memory in order to pass examinations and find a job and get married and have a family and fit into society or not fit into society, and all the rest of that rather shallow, empty, mechanical business? Or is education something entirely different, plus the technical knowledge, not necessarily for passing exams but so as to be prepared to pass them if necessary?

‘Without understanding the whole significance of living – without understanding it fundamentally, deeply – education has very little meaning. What the present society offers as education is a form of violence, where the passing of exams, competition, ambitious drive and the comparing of one student with another is a ruthless, destructive way of living. What we want to do here is to find out how to live in the world, not apart from it, and yet be non-competitive – to have the drive, the energy and the intensity, without the ambition. And that demands a great deal of intelligence on our part, on the part of the teachers and staff. Whether we can manage it depends on us; the responsibility is ours.

‘So this is a school in which a non-dual existence can be cultivated. And that is what we intend, what we are going to do. It is not just an idea floating in the air which may or may not succeed. We want to do it, and we shall do it.’

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Extract from Shattering all ConditioningConversation: Mary Cadogan and Mary ZimbalistBrockwood 1997Mary Cadogan: Dorothy Simmons had a wonderful capacity for organising people into what she called work parties, and she used to have weekends when helpers would come. Compared with now, the place was, well I won’t say dilapidated, but it needed a great deal of attention, and she had them all beavering here, working and digging and painting and doing all sorts of jobs. It really was great, the effort and the cooperation that went into it. It was always a beautiful place, there was no question about that, but a lot had to be, and was, done.

Mary Zimbalist: Krishnaji, of course, was very involved from the very beginning. Obviously he couldn’t be there all the time because he spent much of every year in India and America, and at that time he was still giving talks in capital cities of Europe: Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, London. But he did spend several months of every year at Brockwood, and it was then his home. I think it’s true to say he was involved in relationship here with the staff and the students in a way which was perhaps different from any other school that he was associated with, partly because of the older age range of the students and partly because he was talking all the time to the students and the staff. I feel he was absolutely at the heart of it and the way it developed. Also, when he wasn’t here, he started to write the Letters to the Schools, which were marvellous. These were shared with all the schools, so it was a way of linking them, and it was also a way of keeping close contact with Krishnaji when he wasn’t here.

The thing that was always very strong about the place and the school was the atmosphere. Krishnaji felt that one of the essentials in a school was the atmosphere, which is brought about among all the people living there – the staff, teachers, the students. I remember him saying, and rather terrorising the staff by doing so, ‘Students who come here for the first time must feel the atmosphere, feel there is something different when they cross the cattle grid.’ The cattle grid is over by the north lawn. And they should be seized by this extraordinary atmosphere. And everybody thought, ‘God, how can we bring that about?’ But the answer is, in a way, in his teachings, which say, and I think this is borne out, that there is an atmosphere when people together are seriously concerned with right relationship with each other, regardless of whatever job they are doing. They do create something – can we call it atmosphere? – which is very powerful, very real and very important. I think this has been the basis for Brockwood and the other schools founded by Krishnaji. They have also tried to bring about a special relationship among all the people involved; in particular, the staff are responsible for bringing this about as much as possible with the students.

There are wonderful quotations. For instance, Krishnaji said, ‘It is very important that the child feels secure from the very first day. The first impression must give this. This allows the natural curiosity of the child to bring about a state of inquiring, and only then can there be learning.’ It was all from this almost subliminal sense that the child would have. And it was interesting to me this morning, when some of you talked to the students, that several of them when asked what they felt when they came here, said immediately, ‘I am at home.’ It was, to me, very moving to hear that from 19 year-olds.

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The First Term at the New SchoolExtract from KFT Bulletin 5, Winter 1969/70

In September when the first Brockwood Park Gathering was over, the marquee removed and the visitors gone, the house was suddenly quiet and its inhabitants turned to the essential business of beginning the school. The 14 students – girls and boys from seven countries – joined the staff in choosing courses, planning schedules and assigning duties. The needs and interests of each person, the basic educational requirements, getting to know each other, and the very use of the house itself, filled the first days; then studies began, and the school was launched.

Every morning before study, students and staff met to talk over whatever anyone felt was important. Out of these explorations, questions were brought to the main discussions which were held with Krishnamurti, who remained at Brockwood until his departure for India at the end of October. Two or three times a week, everyone at Brockwood joined him for intensive discussions, and in these, the essential meaning of the school began to emerge. It came indirectly through examining problems as they arose. Small things led to the larger issues behind them, surface levels deepened to essentials, relations to each other were seen as those of a family – which the school is felt to be. The role of visitors and would-be members of Brockwood was examined. When the pheasant shooting season began in October, the dismay felt for those graceful birds, so tame on the lawns of Brockwood in the early mornings, led to an exploration of our right relation to the community around us.

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The thorny matters of authority and responsibility were met. Who decides what and why? Need we have rules? Common agreement on all questions is sought but when found is not always followed. Why is this? And what then do you do? What is interest, what is boredom? Why do we act out of habit? What is responsibility? Through questioning, through the probing process of examination, we were drawn by Krishnamurti to see things in relation to a whole, to consider what freedom really is and to discover the essential quality of sensitivity and intelligence.

In these discussions, Krishnamurti was joined by Professor David Bohm, who has become a trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust and who will come to Brockwood for further discussions during Krishnamurti’s absence. In this way, and through the participating energy and enthusiasm of everyone, the school at Brockwood has begun to move towards a new quality in learning and living.

Students who wished to do so were asked to give their impressions of the first term at the school. The following extracts are taken from letters from a girl of 15 and a boy of 14 years old.

‘At Brockwood, we are all trying to live together as a family so that we can learn more about ourselves and live a full and happy life. It is not by any means an easy task, but we hope that in some way we will be able to achieve it. Of course, we all have our many problems, but we try to find a new, sensible approach to overcome them, instead of quarrelling and fighting each other as we have done in the past.

‘There are numerous jobs to be done, as we live in a wonderful old house which has to be kept in good condition. The garden also needs a lot of care. We all help by doing the necessary jobs at certain times during the week.

‘Of course, learning plays an important part in our life, so it is necessary for us to study certain subjects which we have chosen to do. Every day we learn something new; it may not be something we have found in our study, but something we have felt while out on a walk, for it can be a wonderful experience to stroll through the fields and woods watching the pheasants rise into the sky searching for some kind of safety.'

‘I find we are living together like a family, with no authority trying to help each other with whatever problems we have and being open-minded about it. As for the classes, there is no pupil and no teacher image, so that we all learn together. Also, I have found here that knowledge comes through learning, instead of learning coming through knowledge. Although I could write much more about Brockwood, I think I will stop now, except to say that Brockwood is like a home to me, a home I really enjoy living in.’

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Krishnamurti with Students and StaffBrockwood, 26 September 1972 I feel we want to create a totally different kind of human being at Brockwood, who is neither English, French, German, Russian, who does not get caught in any belief or dogma, who only moves with ‘what is’ and with facts – a totally harmonious human being – harmony between mind, heart and body. That is, to have a very good mind, capable of thinking very clearly, which means we think together very, very clearly with a sharp, clear brain; and also to have affection, love, kindliness, courtesy, considerateness, which is what is generally called the heart; and to have a good physical body. Otherwise, the mind, heart and body are not in harmony, because the more the organism functions well and subtly, it naturally affects the brain. The brain must be extraordinarily awake, observing, and have the capacity to act harmoniously with what you feel and what you love.

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Brockwood Park Report by Dorothy SimmonsExtract from KFT Bulletin 9, Winter 1970/71 It is now two years since the cold, rainy days when four of us and our first two students moved into the somewhat dilapidated, empty mansion called Brockwood Park.

With the help of our friends – who gave us their weekends, their energy and their contributions – we have completely remodelled and repainted this large house to fulfil the new extensive needs of the school. The old billiard room has become a new dining room; the cellar transformed into a physics laboratory; the water tower into a classroom, a chemistry laboratory and a yoga room; the garden sheds into a pottery and art studio. The walled garden has been redesigned and re-planned as an organic garden to provide us with almost all the vegetables we require to become self-supporting. We are in the process of planting a large new apple orchard.

From the original six, we now number 36, of which 18 are students representing seven countries. The GCE, London, ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examinations are held in our own library since we have been made a centre. We entered four candidates who gained eight passes, including three Grade A’s in the recent examinations. We are covering the whole range of normal subjects and have recently expanded our music teaching.

But what of our life together? We live as a family group. There is no hierarchy of status or work. We discuss and learn together at frequent meetings and in day-to-day living, eating and working. Our education means that everything we do is important; the academic is but a part of the whole. In the kitchen, the girls are making bread; in the new theatre the boys are installing insulation; in the garden, a group are collecting leaves for the compost heaps. When Krishnamurti is here, the discussions take on a more intensive form, with Krishnamurti prodding us to go into it deeper, further.

What are our plans for the future? We need to increase our intake of serious students, more accommodation, scholarships to help the poorer students, and financial help to continue the Brockwood experiment and make it strong and viable for the future. We have completed the first stage; the school is in its second year, and now we need to grow.

In an ugly and competitive world, we are beginning to show that there is another way to live.

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Extract from Krishnamurti Discussion Switzerland, 28 July 1974 We have got a place, a beautiful place at Brockwood – convenience, a school, students – and we have reached a certain point. From there we must move to wider fields and wider rivers. Given all this, the environment, the people who are really concerned, who understand the teachings somewhat, can we produce – please bear with me, I may misuse the words – can we produce human beings who have got the quality of genius? Can we bring about human beings who are extraordinary, everything that man should be? Can we bring this about? That is really the point.

You can have a first-class school on the traditional lines. I mean by traditional, top people who are absolutely, deeply good – in the large sense of that word, not just a bourgeois word – that they will never kill, and all that. That is still very small. It has not got the spark of the eternal, divine, or whatever you like to call it. Now, can the spark of that something burst in us?

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Extract from Krishnamurti DiscussionSwitzerland, 4 August 1974 Is it possible to create or bring about such intelligence that the mind is never conditioned? Brockwood is not a progressive school. Do you know what I mean by a progressive school? – better and all the rest of it. And since it is not, can we all who are involved in it and have the responsibility for the students, in the very process of unconditioning the student, uncondition ourselves? Not say, ‘I must be unconditioned first and later I will uncondition the student,’ but in the very discussion of it, in the very investigation of it, both the educator and the educated begin to see the importance and necessity of freedom from conditioning. Now, how is this to be done? Not as a system or a modus operandi. I am the student; you are the teachers. I come with my family tradition, the racial tradition, the cultural weight on me. In what way can you awaken this intelligence which naturally dissolves the conditioning; not replace it by another conditioning?

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Extract from Shattering all ConditioningConversation: Mary Cadogan and Mary Zimbalist Brockwood 1997 Mary Cadogan: I wonder whether I could mention another aspect of Krishnamurti’s deep and consistent involvement with the work of the schools. He also talked a great deal with the trustees of the school here and some of the staff. I remember one memorable occasion when we were going to write something about Brockwood for the KFT Bulletin. This was probably when it had been in existence for ten years or so and we wanted to give a picture through the Bulletin of what was going on. It is very difficult to write about what is really happening in a place like Brockwood, especially when one wants to do it with absolute honesty. The discussion didn’t take off very creatively, and then Krishnamurti said to every person in the room, ‘What are we doing at Brockwood?’ He made everyone individually answer this question, which was very difficult because first of all people would say, ‘We are trying to...’ and of course he wouldn’t allow the word ‘trying’, or ‘we think’. ‘What are we actually doing at Brockwood?’ was his question. And whatever anyone said, he didn’t seem to feel that the answers were adequate. Indeed, sometimes he would sort of wince and turn away as if some terrible thing had been said. And one hoped by the time he came to oneself that the floor would open up before one had to answer the question, but it wasn’t so! At the end, when we had all had our say, Krishnamurti just sat there very, very quietly, apparently not offering any help at all, but with that tremendous inward look that he had when his eyelids would come down, and you felt you were in the presence of something remarkable, some sort of powerhouse of inner energy, and you hardly dared to speak. However, I did take courage to say, ‘Krishnaji, can we ask you this question? What are we doing at Brockwood?’ This seemed the obvious thing to do, to ask him. And he said, ‘Oh, it is quite simple. We are making new human beings.’ Well, it may be simple, but so much was involved in this. Then after some pause for reflection I said to him, ‘Can we put this in the Bulletin?’ Because, you know, we were writing this article for the Bulletin. And he said, ‘Yes, of course’. Anyway, two days later I had a telephone call from him and he said, ‘I think perhaps we should not put that in’.

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Extract from Experiment in Learning by David Bohm Reprint from the Times Educational Supplement 12 September 1975 Brockwood Park is a place where Krishnamurti’s teachings are being put to the test. If man and society can change fundamentally in this microcosm, into which students and staff come with all the problems of the world as a whole, it may be possible for such a transformation to take place more broadly, perhaps first in other educational centres and then later in society at large. It is not expected that students and staff will be able immediately to understand these teachings and live what is meant by them. Inevitably, there are many difficulties at the start. Nevertheless, in learning about just these, an important first step is made, since the art of learning is the same, regardless of the content that is being learned about. One of the typical difficulties with students is that, in questioning all authority, they often conclude that they cannot accept those rules and regulations needed for the orderly

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functioning of the school. The authority required by staff for properly doing their work tends to be resisted. What has to be made clear is that the kind of authority that is destructive is the one that arbitrarily imposes a certain set of beliefs or certain ways of thinking and feeling. Such authority interferes with the art of learning, whether it comes from outside or from one’s own likes and dislikes, prejudices, or desires for status and security. On the other hand, the authority needed for the orderly functioning of a community, far from being harmful, is actually necessary for true freedom. Such questions are taken up seriously by each member of the staff, and especially by Krishnamurti, who makes Brockwood Park his home while he is in England several months in each year. There are frequent discussions, both in groups and between individuals, and Krishnamurti talks with the whole school several times a week. In these discussions and talks, which are, as far as possible, in the form of a dialogue, the issues are explored in great depth, and in general, through such exploration, clarity of thought and perception eventually comes about. Although staff originally come to Brockwood Park because of Krishnamurti’s teachings, they often encounter difficulties similar to those felt by the students, and these difficulties have to be met in a similar way. For example, in a recent discussion, Krishnamurti indicated that many of the difficulties at Brockwood arise because people there often do not have proper respect for each other. By respect, he does not mean fear or regard for status, but the care and attention needed to listen to anyone and to learn from them whatever they may have to impart. Without such respect, learning becomes impossible, and the fundamental purpose of the centre tends to be thwarted. By and large, our society conditions people to lack respect, and students who come to Brockwood tend to be affected by this conditioning. They are encouraged to examine carefully their attitude towards other people, animals and plants, and even objects. These group discussions are generally connected intimately with all that takes place in the school. The school functions as a closely associated group of staff and students, endeavouring to act rightly in daily contacts with one another and to be aware of psychological barriers to such cooperative action. How well does the school fulfil its original purpose? It is difficult to evaluate this precisely, but there are many indications that something significant is being accomplished. Most visitors receive an impression of overall harmony and order, which is natural and spontaneous, rather than imposed. Moreover, there is a degree of general respect among the students that is not common elsewhere. For example, there are no instances of violence or physical destruction. Students who have left Brockwood Park are followed up by correspondence and through visits to the place, which they feel to be ‘like a return to one’s own home’. Generally, they look back on their stay at Brockwood as a fruitful one, which made a major change in their lives.

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Extract from Krishnamurti with StaffBrockwood, 23 June 1983 I would like to make quite clear what the purpose of Brockwood is, the intention, the direction. As far as we are concerned, Brockwood was brought together, bought and put together for only one single purpose, with which you may disagree – and if you disagree let’s talk about it openly, quite clearly – for one purpose only: to bring about a group of students who will be not only good citizens in the bigger sense of that word, but also have excellent brains in the technological world and also in the world of psychology. The central issue in this is K’s teachings. K’s teachings were the central issue, the ground on which Brockwood was founded, with a school to help students understand not only the teachings but to bring about a good human being. And also for the educator and the educated to flower together. That was the intention and purpose, and it is still that. The student and educator should grow, flower, evolve; not bring in other teachings, gurus, and so on. Do we all see that this is the ground on which we all stand? All of us together build a school in the sense educate the students to be very good human beings, psychologically and technologically, academically excellent, and in doing that help each other, the students and the educators, to grow in the teachings. I don’t like the word ‘teachings’, but you understand what I mean. That is the intention, that is the purpose for which the whole of Brockwood exists.

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On not being, and not becoming, an institutionBy former Brockwood Staff, Stephen Smith, June 2019 We are all familiar with the word ‘institution’. It is based on the Latin verb stare, meaning to stand. But it has acquired a secondary, more pejorative, meaning as a place that has acquired a certain reputation and whose ways and norms are established beyond question. Indeed, if one is institutionalised, that is, put away in an institution, one loses the freedoms we all enjoy. We may well then ask how Brockwood Park School has managed to stand, as it has, for 50 years without succumbing to this ossifying process. Perhaps size has something to with it. When I joined the school in 1975, it already had 60 students and enrolment, until recently, has rarely been much higher. ‘Small is beautiful,’ Schumacher wrote, and it is common knowledge that an increase in numbers axiomatically means regimentation. Proof of this lies in the fact that colleagues in India, wishing to start an independent K school, deliberately kept student numbers to about 60; in other words, they followed the Brockwood model. Small is good for many reasons and, quite specifically, for two: community and atmosphere. In a small community, we all know each other: we work, play and eat together; we get the sense that it is ‘our’ place or, as Krishnaji put it, ‘your home’. We relate naturally and easily with one another without, beyond a certain order, the feeling of hierarchy, status or authority. This, in itself, creates an atmosphere. As one staff member famously put it, ‘What we provide is an atmosphere.’ Fear, the stuff of authority, is largely absent from the mix, and what comes into focus is an open space, an unforced field of mutual learning. Surely this is what education is about. It is about this because it is present tense. It depends on the awareness of those living in the place to discern what is actually going on and to respond accordingly, to meet the challenge and move on. There is no time when vigilance is not required. In this way, Brockwood differentiates itself from a host of liberal-progressive schools, all doing good work, all ‘fanning the flame’. But it is Brockwood’s destiny to be that flame. As stated formally in The Good Schools Guide: ‘the school’s modest intention is to transform consciousness and bring about a new human being.’ Brockwood was pitched at that level, and it has never backed down.

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We do not come to Brockwood to acquire, or dispense, knowledge. We come to discover the truth about ourselves, which is, by extension, the truth about reality. This is the axis of inquiry, and it is not a matter of ideas or ideation; indeed, silence and listening are its building blocks. It is an invitation, in relationship, to plumb the depths of this long-established consciousness and, if at all possible, go beyond it. One enters into the ‘sacred space’ where the mind becomes aware of itself and where communication becomes communion. The bonds of the trained mind, the time-bound mind, cede to this current of immediate apprehension where seeing-doing (insight) is the instrument of action. For not only is Brockwood an international community, with students and staff from all over the world, it is also a microcosm of humanity, with whom it shares a common consciousness. In exploring this common consciousness, it is, in the best sense, a pioneer, a trailblazer, in a world on the brink of destroying itself. It is this ‘flame of attention’ that keeps Brockwood alive and ensures that it is much more than its historical record.

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Extract from Shattering All ConditioningConversation: Mary Cadogan and Mary ZimbalistBrockwood 1997

Mary Zimbalist: For years I kept notes of things that Krishnaji would say, not in public talks but in conversations. And the night before last I was rustling through these and I came upon something that I really would like to read to you. This was dated July 30th 1975, which means it would have been in Switzerland. He was talking about responsibility and he said:

‘Responsibility is not to the students but to “the other”, [MZ: “the other” is in quotes, and I think most of you will know what he meant by that] and that responsibility will translate itself into daily life. There is a need at Brockwood to move to a dimension where a flame of energy is always abundant. I am responsible to that, I am totally committed to that, not to tradition. Traditional energy is a total wastage of energy but in “the other” there is more and more and more. So we need leisure, space to find out how to convey that in education. How is a student to have that dimension, that flame? How do we bring this about? That is education, not by authority, compulsion, imitation, reward and punishment. I abandon all those ways. I want the child to have no problems. Is there some catalyst that will shatter all his conditioning and when he comes to Brockwood the thing is broken? In one week to uncondition the student. How? By bringing about an atmosphere, a seriousness, real affection in the air, disturbing but interesting, a sense of stability, abiding reverence in that immutable truth, unchangeable reality.’

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Extract from Brockwood Today and in the FutureKrishnamurti, 22 October 1983

For fourteen years Brockwood has been a school. It began with many difficulties, lack of money and so on, and we all helped to build it up to its present condition. There have been gatherings every year, seminars and all the activities of audio and video recording. We have reached a point now not only to take stock of what we are doing, but also to make Brockwood much more than a school. It is the only centre in Europe representing the Teachings, which are essentially religious. Though we have met in Saanen for the last twenty-two years for a month or more, Brockwood is the place where K spends much more time and energy. The school has a very good reputation and Mrs. Dorothy Simmons has put her great energy, her passion, behind it. We have all helped to bring the school about in spite of great difficulties, both financial and psychological.

Now Brockwood must be much more than a school. It must be a centre for those who are deeply interested in the Teachings, a place where they can stay and study. In the very old days an ashrama - which means retreat - was a place where people came to gather their energies, to dwell and to explore deeper religious aspects of life. Modern places of this kind generally have some sort of leader, guru, abbot or patriarch who guides, interprets and dominates. Brockwood must have no such leader or guru, for the Teachings themselves are the expression of that truth which serious people must find for themselves. Personal cult has no place in this. We must emphasize this fact.

Most unfortunately our brains are so conditioned and limited by culture, tradition and education that our energies are imprisoned. We fall into comforting and accustomed grooves and so become psychologically ineffective. To counter this we expend our energies in material concerns and self-centred activities. Brockwood must not yield to this well-worn tradition. Brockwood is a place for learning, for learning the art of questioning, the art of exploring. It is a place which must demand the awakening of that intelligence which comes with compassion and love.

It must not become an exclusive community. Generally, a community implies something separate, sectarian and enclosed for idealistic and utopian purposes. Brockwood must be a place of integrity, deep honesty and the awakening of intelligence in the midst of confusion, conflict and destruction that is taking place in the world. And this in no way depends on any person or group of people, but on the awareness, attention and affection of the people who are there. All this depends on the people who live at Brockwood and on the Trustees of the Krishnamurti Foundation. It is their responsibility to bring this about.

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Now Brockwood must be much more than a school

Brockwood Park School, Residential Staff 2019

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Extract from Can the Mind Be QuietKrishnamurti, Brockwood 16 September 1969 The room was very pleasant with a green carpet and lovely curtains. It overlooked a green lawn and a magnificent tulip tree which had blossomed so beautifully with large flowers in the early summer. On the left was a magnificent cedar, old and ready to die. Beyond the lawn was a field and a grove, copses and fields. It was a pleasant place and peaceful, undisturbed by passing traffic. There was great beauty and stillness. You really could feel the earth. There were trees all around, old, heavy with leaves, beautiful in shape. That evening they were casting long shadows. It was delightful to watch them and as you watched, the whole earth changed. Everything seemed alive and you were part of it, not only on the hard chair but out there, part of the throbbing beauty and stillness. You were not identifying yourself with them; it was not an intellectual process of identification but, rather, you were of them. They were your friends. Their whispers were your whispers and their movement was part of your mind and heart. It was not imagination either, for that can play tricks on you, deceiving you with fantasies, oversensitive reactions and false flights into emotional states called love. It was none of these things. There was no separation between you, the earth and the heavens and the trees. The colours of the green lawn and the deep shadows were the colours of your mind and heart. Yellow doesn’t aspire to greater yellowness. The green lawn was so fantastically alive in the evening light that every part of you was of it. A pheasant walked across the lawn and you went with it, disappearing behind a bush.

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