Friedrich’s Newsletter

Some News from the ‘K-World’

No. 10 · Spring 1996

Dear Friends,

Friedrich’s Newsletter started as a letter tofriends and is still a letter to friends, although ithas changed considerably since its humblebeginnings. There are now about 1400 people whoreceive the Newsletter.

Some people expressed the point of view thatthe part of the title cover “from the K-world”

sounds too enclosed. We have pondered over thistrying to think of another title – “News from andfor people interested in”... what? Should we put“K’s approach to life”, “the whole of life”, or “Newsof people, places, Krishnamurti and life”? We thinkthat for the time being “the K-world” is still thebest solution, but we ask our readers to offersuggestions.

The 10th issue of the Newsletter comes out in anew format and includes The Education Sectionwhich was a seperately printed supplement before.This issue is also the start for the previously an-nounced new section called The First Step, which

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Table of Contents

Newsletter

Dear FriendsIndia My Love 3How the AG Trust Came About 8Haus Sonne & My Relationship With It 9

Letters ReceivedA Letter from Holland 13A Letter from Sri Lanka 14Corrections 15

KrishnamurtiTwo Letters by K 16Brockwood Today and in the Future 17K: Which Way Will the Brain Move? 18

Reports About GatheringsThe 1996 Trip to Australia & NZ 19The KFA Dialogues at Ojai 21The First Hawaiian Island Gathering 22Saanen Gathering July 1996 24

Cover:Sunset at Adyar beach, Madras, December 1995

Various NewsObituary 25A New Publishing House 25Russian Report 26Recital for Brockwood Park 28A Special Sabbatical Year 29

The First Step

Editor’s Note 33Authority of the Known 33Growing with K 34Self-Questioning 38

The Education Section

The Mountain Factor 40Learning and Freedom 41A Village School in India 44Thinking Without Thinkers 46The Clearwater School 50The London Course 51

begins with three articles. The editor of thissection, who is independent of the usual publishingteam, desires to remain anonymous.

While this Newsletter is going into print I will beon my way to the Grand Canyon after having stayedat Ojai in California during the month of April.Raman and Rabindra will accompany me on thisjourney. Krishnaji himself told me I should go thereand stay at the old hotel ‘El Tovar’ where he oncestayed. In a beautiful statement which wasrepublished in the KFA Newsletter, Vol 8, No 2,1994, he describes the extraordinary atmosphere ofan ancient temple and equates it with the vastnessof the Grand Canyon:

“Have you ever been in an ancient templewhere there has been for thousands of yearsworship and adoration; where there still lingersthe sacred atmosphere; where people talk inbated breath; where a sound rudely awakens thedreamer; where everything is at peace, evenman; where imagination conjures up strange andfantastic pictures; where, with the intense gaze,shapes, grotesque and divine, begin to formthemselves; where all things are forgotten, evenyour petty worries and troubles; where you can behappy, even in spite of yourself; where you arenot always the center of your own creation;where you are a part of your neighbor; where youbegin to laugh, inwardly, at yourself; where youhave an intense desire to be really friendly witheverybody; where pure happiness brings forthdivinity, and where, now, you begin to close youreyes in deep adoration?

If it has not been, up to now, your privilege andpleasure to have been to such a temple, then go tothe Grand Canyon, in Arizona. If you have the eyesyou will see the creator and the creation.”

J. Krishnamurti, 1923

I will stay for two weeks at Brockwood Parkduring May and in June will be back in Rougemontor may even decide to visit Yewfield in the LakeDistrict.

The Saanen Gatherings start on the 14th ofJuly and continue until the 3rd of August. As well as

the week for the young people, this year Gisèle hasalso planned a week for parents and children. Ihave decided to go to this week with three of my sixgrandchildren (two are too young and the sixth isnot yet born).

Friedrich Grohe, March 1996

India My Love

What do I love about India? Is it the country? Notpossible. Is it the countryside? Yes. Is it the people?Yes. Is it the trees, the flowers, the animals? Yes, it isthe whole of life as it manifests in India.

Of course, India reminds me also of Krishna-murti. In 1985 he had invited me to travel withhim to India. When we stayed in Delhi, I went for ashort visit to the area in Uttar Kashi where it wasplanned to have a retreat centre near the, then asyet unbuilt, Bhagirathi Valley School. When I gotback to Delhi, Krishnaji asked me what I felt aboutIndia. I told him that the countryside was likeparadise and the cities were like hell. He agreed. Itis still like that, but the cities have become biggerand much worse. “The traffic is growing daily”, ourregular taxi driver Narsimulu, from Rishi Valley,told me on this year’s trip.

India, to me, is also the suffering of the commonman. This year in Madras I saw a man stirring a bigpot with hot liquid tar for repairing the roads, turn-ing his face away so that he could breathe some air.His face reminded me of Jesus Christ as he isportrayed in old paintings, suffering on the cross.

For me, India is also the noise and pollution ofthe traffic, especially in the cities like Bangalore andMadras where buses and trucks blow black cloudsof diesel exhaust into the air. It’s the blaring noiseof film music being played at top volume fromtemples, a terrible cacophony only surpassed by theloudspeakers in the village during festivals, whenthe music starts at 5 am till late at night.

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Coming for the tenth time to India this 1995-1996 winter after a three year interruption, italmost felt like coming home again. I felt revita-lised, although it is not so easy to start the visit intropical Madras after coming from the cold winterin Europe. It reminded me of coming with K fromthe airport after flying from Rajghat to Madras inDecember 1985. We were driving through the cityand feeling at ease when he suddenly said “It’s like coming home”. During that same trip, one dayat Vasanta Vihar I was sitting cross-legged in thehall downstairs, wearing Indian clothes, andKrishnaji came along and took me for an Indian.When he realised it was me, he showed greatamazement.

To be prepared for India, on the flight fromFrankfurt to Madras, I started to read the recentlypublished book Fire in the Mind, dialogues withKrishnamurti and Pupul Jayakar. Immediately I wascaught up in the intensity of the dialogues. I cameupon a part which answered a question I hadraised in previous newsletters: Why continue toread and listen to K? On page 62 of Pupulji’s book,during a dialogue held in Rishi Valley on the 15thof December 1978, Krishnamurti says, “If some-body were to ask me, ‘Why does Mr Rao or MrWilliams come to listen to you every year’, I willreply, ‘I don’t know’; but if I were Mr Rao,Mr Williams or Mr Smith I would come and listenevery year and if possible every day because aflower is different every day. Beauty is differentevery day.”

The same day that I arrived at Rishi Valley, wewent for a walk on the road down to the mouth ofthe valley. Along it there was an alley of floweringspatodia trees. In 1985-1986, I had walked withKrishnamurti for his last time on this same roadsoon after the trees had been planted. At that time,they looked like bare trunks, but when Krishnajiwent near and looked very closely, he discovered alittle button on the trunk. The next day there wasalready a little leaf peeping out which made himvery enthusiastic. So I told him: “In ten years’ timewe will walk under a shady alley of trees”. I didn’t

know then that it would be spatodias which wouldnow be flowering with their marvellous orange-coloured blooms.

At the end of the road, at the mouth of thevalley, there is now a herb garden. It was only afield some years ago. Now there are trees, bushes,flowers and about 300 different kinds of medicinalherbs that are used for ayurvedic medicines.(Ayur=life, Veda=science.)

The Schools and The Study Centres

After not having been to the Krishnamurtischools in India for three years, I was very muchimpressed with them. Each school produces anewsletter now. The School at Madras has created astudy room and library. The Valley School nearBangalore has many new buildings such as theinteresting open dining room looking from faraway like a temple. At The Valley School everythingis very well kept, with flowering bushes and treesall over the place. New things are constantly beingplanted and around a pond most of the land iskept completely wild and natural, bringing a greatvariety of natural flowers, grass and herbs. RishiValley, which has the biggest area of land, does alot for land care and this care extends to thesurrounding hills, the rural school program, theschool for rural education and the satelliteschools.

Every place has a study centre withaccommodation ranging from one room at TheSchool in Madras, (there is also a room forshowing videos and meeting visiting parents ofstudents) to several bungalows at The ValleySchool, Rishi Valley and Rajghat. In addition, thereis a study centre in Madras at Vasanta Vihar withseveral cottages and a guest house. What makes aKrishnamurti study centre is not so much thenumber of rooms, however, but the quality of thepeople there who take care of and interact with theguests.

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The most important thing about all the schoolsis that now they all bring Krishnamurti and theteachings in various forms to the students. InBangalore, I heard the most impressive radiointerviews with students of 15 and 16 years givingan introduction to Krishnamurti and his teachingsin an improvised discussion.

The Ladakhi Children

For several years during his lifetime, Krishna-murti had tried to find some interesting people andstudents in the Himalayas because of the specialqualities the mountain people have. About two yearsago, Rajesh Dalal and his wife Saraswati met fourchildren, two living with their parents in Ladakh andtwo living in a Buddhist monastery in Bangalore,and they decided to try to give them a very careful,affectionate education. I think the result is amazing.These four children are very affectionate and happy

children. They have visited the schools, and theteachers and students who have met them share myenthusiasm. When I saw them, I had the idea thatthey should become the future teachers of theKrishnamurti schools. It would be the best educa-tion anyone could have for this purpose.

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This is a copy of a diary entry of one of the Ladakhi children. Writing their daily entry is one way for themto reflect on their observations and to learn English. It is wonderful to see how they decorate their entrieswith their own drawings.

Three of theLadakhi childrenafter theirpresentation onwhat they hadlearned about theanimal kingdom

Rajesh and Saraswati are a little reluctant togive wide publicity to the children because they areworried that they might get too much of the wrongkind of attention and be spoilt and distracted. Ishare this view, but I’m glad they are letting uspublish an extract from the children’s diary.

The children and I quickly became friends. Wehad our evening meals together because they hadan early timetable, which I preferred. The mealsbegan with a prayer giving thanks for the food,followed by some chanting. The seven-year-oldmentioned that Buddha feeds the Buddhists andChrist feeds the Christians. Another asked who feedsthose who are neither Buddhists nor Christians,which caused some confusion. This seemed like agood starting point for a conversation, but theyquickly went off onto another subject.

The children called me Meme and thenMemele, which means ‘Grandfather’ in Ladakhi.The added ‘le’ is like the ‘ji’ in Hindi, a form ofhonorific. I told them that ‘Grandfather’ in Frenchis ‘Pepe’ and ‘Grandmother’ is ‘Meme’. After this,they called me ‘Pepele’.

One day we all went to the beach at Adyar. Theywondered if I was too old to run, so I promised thatonce I was accustomed to the Madras heat I wouldrun with them. They reminded me several times ofmy promise. We had arranged to go to the beach onthe last day of my visit but unfortunately they weretoo busy with a drama performance, so I had torun on my own. Gilbert ran with me, and I askedsome witnesses to tell the children that they hadseen me running. (Gilbert is a multi-talented artistand educator. He paints miniatures, plays theguitar and sings. He has taught guitar at BrockwoodPark.)

Meeting People

One of the fascinating things about the trip toIndia was the number of interesting people we met.

One reason for going to India is to meet old friendsin the schools and the Foundation, the cooks andhelpers and also the people who are there visiting.Some of these were:

– an Italian television official who will present theKrishnamurti schools on Swiss/Italian televisionin Tichino;

– a lady psychotherapist from the Lake District inEngland;

– an Indian lady who works for the World Bank inthe United States after studying in Germany,who was bringing her daughter to the ValleySchool;

– Natasha, who was visiting her father Narayan(see his poem in the following article) with afriend who is doing his PhD in literature inEngland; she was a student at Brockwood Parkand is now a journalist with The Observer inBritain;

– Aparna, a former Rishi Valley and Brock-wood Park student, who is now studying atOxford;

– a Swiss architect now living in Bangalore whosedaughter is studying at Rishi valley; he knew thesame Swiss mountain guides who had accompa-nied me on past mountain tours;

– four students from Oak Grove School in Cali-fornia with one of the School Directors, Mary-Lou Sorem, and Jeff Ottersbein, all of whom wemet in Madras, at Rishi Valley and The ValleySchool;

– Suprabha, a dear old friend for years andformer Brockwood Park student, who is nowliving and working in a botanical sanctuaryin Kerala; I call her the ‘Beauty from theJungle’; she is one of the few ladies who havedared to stay alone in my mountain hut inSwitzerland;

– Dr. Stephen Harding and Julia fromSchumacher College in England, who are veryknowledgeable in ecology; Stephen is a guitaristand composer; after visiting Pallamaneer, apromising but uninhabited land of rivers andwaterfalls partly owned by the KFI, not far fromRishi Valley, they thought of living there;

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– the husband and wife who are the new doctorsat Rishi Valley: they look after the Herb garden;we had a lot of interaction with them; Dr. AjitGite gave a lesson everyday on AyurvedicMedicine to Rita, Layla, Devendra and Rabindrawho were all very diligent students. Nalini, thedoctor’s wife, prepared ghee, the Indian butter,which can be made with Indian cows milk andcan be kept forever – they were in the processof getting a white Indian cow. They gave me a lotof Ayurvedic powders which I’m hoping that byusing I will be able to go many more times toRishi Valley;

– and many long-time friends of the schools andFoundations who are too numerous to list.

We will keep in touch, and I hope to see themall again.

Friedrich Grohe, February 1996

A Poem

While staying at Valley School we had many talks with Giddu Narayan, Krishnaji’s nephew. Withhis educational background being in law andmathematics, he became a school teacher at K’sinsistence. He had taught in England and at RishiValley for twenty-five years and for ten years he wasthe principal of the Rishi Valley School. Heparticipated in most of the dialogues with K,including the so-called Buddhist dialogues with theBuddhist monk Rahula Walpola which exist onvideotape. For many years Narayan was a trustee ofthe KFI. Now at the age of 70 and in fragile health,he has retired from active life and leads a secluded,quiet life at the Valley School. On this visit heshared with us his selection of poems he wroteduring the last decades. One of these poems iscalled “Death is Waiting”:

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Road leading to Rishi Valley School lined with Spatodia trees (as mentioned on page 4), Rishi Valley,December 1995

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Death is waitingAt the doorstep

In the midst of actionThe music of silence

Deep impenetrable still overfiowing without movement

The balm of sorrowingof labouring mind

Ache dark lonelyYet moving and doing

In the glory of colour light behind the clouds

Death is waitingAt the doorstep

Giddu Narayan, 1976

How the Educational Trust came about

The other day I came across the Minutes of the International Trustees’ Meetings at BrockwoodPark in 1984, which I was then attending for thefirst time as a new trustee of the KrishnamurtiFoundation Trust. I was very impressed by all thepeople who spoke so well and who knew so much,but the only person I could really understand wasKrishnamurti himself.

During one discussion, the question arose ofwhat would happen when Krishnamurti was nolonger here. What he then stated was exactly what Ifelt at the time and still feel today:

“Say, I have heard of K for a number of years,have read his stuff, and attended some of thegatherings. I have really moved away from thetraditional way of life, traditional worship and all

that business, and I see for myself that what hesays is true, sane and common sense. I am veryabsorbed by it, it is my life, and I want to talkabout it. It isn’t that I keep it to myself; I want towrite about it and if I have the capacity, the gift towrite, I will do it. Or if I am a teacher, I say, ‘ByJove, this is a new way of looking’, and I will workat it as a teacher. And I would want to collect awhole group of people who are going in thatdirection, not an organised group, or organisedbut not as a commune or community or someexclusive body. I will work at that. I will work myhead off because, to me, that is my life. It is notthat K tells me to do it, or that I must do it, it isbecause what he has said is so true and I amliving it and I want to burst with it. That’s all.”

Before I met Krishnamurti, I had often won-dered what one could do to help humanity. Merelyto help on an individual basis seemed hopeless,just a drop in the ocean of human misery. HearingKrishnamurti, I realised that he was pointing to adifferent solution altogether. It was unique anddirected towards a change of the whole of humanconsciousness starting from oneself. ‘You are theworld. You can change the world by changingyourself.’ And this applied to everyone.

Education seems important in this. It isnecessary to have an education in which theteacher and the student are in a relationship inwhich they are learning to understand themselves.Schools offering such an education now exist inIndia, in England and in California. Projects overthe years to start schools in Europe failed becausethere were not enough teachers or students orparents interested. Costs, too, seemed very high.When some of us wanted to start a school inSwitzerland, Krishnamurti asked us not to use hisname because he was too occupied already to beable to be involved in it, and he felt obliged to visitregularly any school that used his name.

Krishnamurti had been concerned over theyears with the idea of adult study centres. Histhoughts in this area are clear from his statement

the study centres in Bangalore, Rajghat, RishiValley and Madras;

– the International Teachers’ Exchange Programof KFA and KFI;

– travel expenses for the international meetings ofFoundation trustees;

– the centre in Geneva “Rencontre & Documen-tation Krishnamurti” run by Gisèle Balleys;

Another of our activities is to encouragecommunication among all those involved inKrishnamurti related activities, and to bring peopletogether to exchange ideas and further their ownself-exploration of it through discussion. Oneaspect of this has been the recent trip to the FarEast, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii by Vicky,Raman and Rabindra and their participation –with Nick and Bill Taylor in New Zealand, and withMark Lee in Hawaii – in gatherings held in theseplaces. This will be an ongoing aspect of our work.

Friedrich Grohe, March 1996

Haus Sonne and My Relationship With It

Haus Sonne has been mentioned several timesin my previous Newsletters. It is a special place. Itattracts serious people, many of whom are awarethat ‘something’ has gone wrong with the way welive.

The house is surrounded by forests and islocated at an altitude of a thousand meters in thesouthern Black Forest. Not only is the environmentsurrounding the house very quiet but there is alsoan inner quietness – a quality that was noticed byseveral visitors as they first stepped inside thebuilding. Haus Sonne has vegetarian health foodand is a non-smoking and alcohol-free guesthouse. The inevitable cups of tea and coffee areserved, but on request only.

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‘Brockwood Today and in the Future’ (see reprinton page 17 in the Newsletter). Therefore, when Ifirst started working with the Foundations, inaddition to continuing to help the various schoolsfinancially, I supported the construction of theKrishnamurti Centre at Brockwood Park, and laterhelped the Centres in India and in California aswell.

In the 1990s, I began to support projects otherthan those of the Foundations and found itnecessary to set up an organisation to look aftereverything, including Friedrich’s Newsletter whicharose because I felt the necessity of informingpeople about the happenings in the K-world throughan international newsletter. This organisation hasnow become, in part, a registered charitable trustbased in England.

Through the AG Educational Trust and relatedsources we have supported or contributed to thefollowing:– international Krishnamurti gatherings in

Saanen and Hawaii;– the Ojai Institute; – the Centre for Learning in Bangalore;– a Botanical Sanctuary in Kerala;– the Krishnamurti Committee in Russia;– Haus Sonne in Germany, as an international

meeting place;– activities of the Fundacion Krishnamurti

Latinoamericana in South America and Spain;– the International Archives Exchange Program of

the Krishnamurti Foundations;– an educational project in London run by Paul

Herder;– the Tiradentes School in Brazil;– within Krishnamurti Foundation India:

the Ladakhi Children project;the Forum for New Education based at VasantaVihar in Madras;the Young Adult Scholarships at Vasanta Vihar;the Resident Scholars Program at Vasanta Vihar;the Bhagirathi Valley School near Uttar Kashi;the work of the Krishnamurti Foundation IndiaArchives;

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The guest house was started by Christian Leppertin 1983, with the strong support of ManfredSchneider who has been in charge of the GermanCommittee for many years. The first intention wasto make Haus Sonne a centre for people interestedin Krishnamurti, but it is not possible to operateeconomically with such guests only.

In recent years we have been supportingChristian’s and his partner Eva’s idea of also mak-ing it an international meeting place for peoplefrom the K-schools and Foundations in Europe,India and America. This year a group of abouttwenty-five people from all over the world will meetin Haus Sonne, after the Saanen gatherings, andafter a short tour of the Swiss Alps guided byChristian (who is also a qualified geographer).

Christian, who visited Saanen, Ojai, and Brock-wood in the ’70s, returned to Brockwood Parkagain this year to give a seminar on ecology. He willsoon visit again. He was impressed by the quality ofthe students at Brockwood.

Unfortunately, guests have become rarer in thepast two years, so Christian has had to becomemore active in his other job as a managementconsultant for business enterprises in publishingand multimedia. He gives seminars on topics suchas management style, hierarchy, new ways ofthinking, team organisation, and teaches interactivemultimedia programming. Christian, who is also anexpert in ecological matters, tries to put his findingsinto practise as much as possible. The house,therefore, has one of the biggest solar electricityinstallations in the region. Furthermore, Christianand Eva have stopped organizing air tours to Hawaiiand the American Southwest, and they haverenounced the use of their private car, using onlytheir bicycles and public transport instead.

An interesting development is that Christian wasable to introduce a new aspect into this work withsome managers by raising the question of how toapproach the problems of existence the ‘K-way’, ifone may say it that way. When they start with theusual questions like ‘How to get rid of fear’, etc.,Christian puts the counter-questions: ‘Can one livewithout expectations, or ideals, or hope?’ Accordingto him, these people are fascinated and amazed bythis new way of looking at things. At the end of oneof the meetings, one manager thanked Christian forputting the questions he never dared look at

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Since what one can do alone in practicalterms is so limited, the many projects I amengaged in mean that I work closely together withmany people. Here are some of them: 1 HilkkaSilva; 2 Cathy Horn, our secretary at Rougemont;3 Nick Short; 4 Lorenzo Castellari; 5 VickyDonnelly, Mary Ann Ridgway, Loic Lopez; 6 RayMcCoy; 7 Raman Patel; 8 Friedrich Grohe;9 Quenby Dunlap; 10 Michael Krohnen; 11 JavierGomez Rodrigues; 12 Gopalan Krishnamurti,Suprabha Seshan, Gary Primrose; 13 RabindraSingh, 14 Jurgen Brandt; 15 Gisèle Balleys,16 Paul Herder

himself. They decided to proceed with theirinvestigation in further seminars.

Haus Sonne has an extensive K book and tapelibrary. Quite often guests will start listening to atape or reading a book out of their own interest.What is interesting in Haus Sonne is that guestsdon’t come there, as people often seem to come tothe Study Centres, with all kinds of images andideas already in place.

Several times I have found myself in thechallenging position of having to introduce K andhis teachings to some of the guests. It is easier forme to do this in German because it is my ‘father-tongue’ (my father was German, and although mymother spoke Swiss-French I only practised it whenI came to stay with my grand-parents in Switzer-land, although it will soon have been 30 years sinceI came to live in the French-speaking part of thecountry). As these introductions are always achallenge, I learn a lot. The seriousness and theconcern of those guests is very helpful. When I seetheir interest grow, I mention my booklet TheBeauty of the Mountain which creates gooddiscussion topics.

Once there was a white-haired elderly lady whowas obviously very well educated. Her husband wasa university professor. After becoming acquainted,she gave me a children’s song book written andillustrated by herself. Initially, I had thought talkingto her would be rather pointless as she seemed tohave conclusions about everything. But after givingher The Core of the Teachings, my booklet andanother K-book, she decided that out of all thespiritual movements she had seen or followed, thisone was the most serious.

Another lady, a little younger, in her fiftiesmaybe, almost shocked me as she was wearing bigChristian crosses on her chest. But in talking shewas very open and intelligent. After reading mybooklet, she commented: ‘Well written, one can seehow you loved this man’. This was the biggestcompliment I could get.

This little episode reminded me of K’s state-ments in the 1977 discussions with the Trustees inOjai. These discussions lasted four weeks duringwhich K met the Trustees nearly every day. This isfrom a booklet that was published by the KFT onthe occasion of an International Trustees’ Meetingin Brockwood Park. It shows how K discussed indetail what he expected from the FoundationTrustees concerning the Study Centres and also asto holding the whole thing together.

The following part of the discussion isconcerned with how the participating trusteeswould convey, after his death, what K had meant tothem to a future visitor to the centre, whom Kcalled ‘the man from Seattle’:

K: “… I (the man from Seattle) come to youand say, ‘That man you are in love with, tell meabout him’. Wouldn’t you tell me? You’d be a littleshy, but you‘d tell me … I want to know how helooked like, what he felt, what he said. You can’tsay, ‘Sorry, its too personal’, and brush me off…”

K: “No, no. Your love will do something to theman from Seattle, not your love for me.”

I understand K to be using the word ‘love’ herein the same way as he described it in the ‘Note-book’ on page 34, 29. July 1961, when he explained‘maturity’:

“It’s absolutely necessary for maturity thatthere should be – 1. Complete simplicity whichgoes with humility, not in things or possessionsbut in the quality of being. 2. Passion with thatintensity which is not merely physical. 3. Beauty;not only the sensitivity to outward reality butbeing sensitive to that beauty which is beyondand above thought and feeling. 4. Love; thetotality of it, not the thing that knows jealousy,attachment, dependence; not that as divided intocarnal and divine. The whole immensity of it. 5.And the mind that can pursue, that can penetratewithout motive, without purpose, into its ownimmeasurable depths; that has no barrier, that isfree to wander without time-space.”

Friedrich Grohe, March 1996

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A Letter from Holland

First let me thank you for sending the News-letter which I read attentively. As you are invitingyour readers to make comments, here are mine inFrench, because my active knowledge of Englishdoes not allow me to express my thoughts withmuch precision.

1. According to some, your Newsletter would be‘too personal’? A letter is not a review, nor is it acircular; a letter is indeed personal, just as eachpainting (or each cook) has his own ‘palette’. Ithink I sense here some perplexity among some Kreaders concerning the ego, the known, the mind,the memory as if these things were in themselves‘bad’, even though K has always stressed theimportance taken or usurped by the ego, the mind,etc. and the way they function. I live in a body, inan ego that I am at the same time. By wanting toescape from the ego, we strengthen it and wearourselves out. (Some people might not distinguishbetween ‘personal’ and ‘ego-centric’; to me‘personal’ means not copied, not imitated, butnatural, spontaneous.)

2. Photos are a different language from words.‘Personally’, I like photos of landscape. There aresome in your letters that seem to have captured thetimeless instant of beauty, of happiness to be thenpassed on to the attentive eye. Perhaps my eyes owesomething to the fact that I was practically born ina painter’s studio!

3. A supplement dedicated to “The First Step”could offer some interesting prospects, but there

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always are risks of ‘dangerous waters’. I think, likeAnderson if I am not mistaken, that the first step isa ‘point of no-return’ too, even though a wearinessor laziness takes over at times.

4. You were struck to see the word indifferencein a new light. One should be careful withetymology but in this case, in the warm andaffectionate context, in-difference very clearlyshows not a state of insensitivity but one of balanceof mood, equanimity, a state in which the mind isnot under the influence of events. I think I see heresome close connection with pure observation.

5. You are not frightened of the death of the‘me’. I am 90 and honestly I don’t know yet. Imight find out when the challenging momentpresents itself. A recent admission to hospitalrevealed a number of illusions about myself; timesof crisis are unique occasions to learn aboutoneself. Each moment can be one of truth. I cameout of it rejuvenated and refreshed.

6. K fascinates me more profoundly now thanwhen I first met him 72 years ago. He invites us toverify for ourselves: “check it”; it is very effective.When what he says moves me deeply, I feel it in thesame way that I feel beauty.

7. Thank you for showing passages from “Livingand Dying”. I was also captivated by the little piece“To Be Alone” for which I thank the author.

8. You travel and that establishes or drawscloser the bonds of friendship, it is a kind ofdialogue. I would like to go myself to see, but I find

Letters Received

Of the many letters we have received since our last issue we selected two to share with the readers ofthe Newsletter since we feel they are interesting also in general terms. The first letter was written inFrench by a Dutch lady who is 89 years of age and her inspirational letter finishes like this: “I send youthis letter as people used to entrust a bottle to the sea: do with it whatever seems right to you, let othersread it if they are interested use parts of it if that suits you, and you have my friendly greetings.“

fruitful exchanges with people who are trulyinterested in K’s teachings, on a smaller scale it istrue, in meetings at the Leerproject here inHolland.

9. I hold on to the question from MaryCadogan’s article: “Is there any breaking of thepattern in us?” and let it fill me pleasantly.

Seeing your small photo in the latest letter(I could imagine the humour of that situation),I recognised you from having met you years ago in Brockwood.

This is a long letter. I send you this letter aspeople used to entrust a bottle to the sea: do with itwhatever seems right to you, let others read it ifthey are interested, use parts of it if that suits you,and you have my friendly greetings.

Zette

A Letter from Sri Lanka

Thank you indeed for your beautiful Newsletterno. 9 and the Supplement. I was introduced to theteachings of K about two years ago when a dearfriend showed me to the K centre in Sri Lanka.Since then I have tried to walk along with K asmuch as possible.

The K centre in Sri Lanka was founded byDr. E. W. Adikaram, a great educationalist, aprofound thinker and a personal friend of K. It ispresently housed in a small room at Anula NurseryHall, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka. Audio/Video talks of Kare held on Sundays for a small but representativegathering.

This Centre is a government approved charityand has purchased a plot of land ‘with trees, birdsand quietness’ for a fully fledged K Centre and it ishoped that the finished product will answer thedescription of a Religious Centre as envisaged by Kand referred to in your Newsletter.

My thanks go out to three dedicated menbehind the present Centre as well as the proposedCentre, namely, W.H. Bodhidasa, W. K. Fonseka and Weerawardena, if not for whose self-less workthis source of great benediction would be lost tous.

Your Newsletter no. 9 and the Supplementcontain great insights into K’s teachings. As themajority in Sri Lanka are Buddhists it was ofimmense interest to read the Report on the KCentennial Conference at Miami University, Ohioand particularly Dr. Indra Somani on K and theBuddha.

The four noble truths and the noble eightfoldpath have been interpreted over the last 2500 yearsin many diverse ways. If the core of what theBuddha taught is truly understood, the traditionalinterpretations, which are the result of thousandsof years of propaganda and conditioning, becomewholly unacceptable.

The Buddha had categorically stated that truthis one. Thus suffering, its cause, its extinction andthe way have to be seen in unison. In the veryseeing of Suffering is its Extinction. Similarly albeitthe eight fold path has been described analysed andcommented upon over the years, in relation to timeand space, if the timeless quality of the Buddha’smessage is realised, then the charting out of a pathin time becomes an antithesis of the Buddha’steachings. It is verily a pathless state one comesupon in a flash.

In point of fact most episodes in the Buddha’slife illustrate how those who obtained insight didnot follow any path but saw it in a flash on listen-ing to the Buddha. Listening plays a vital role inthe Buddha’s teaching. There is no meditative pathor practice laid down by the Buddha if oneexamines his early teachings. The latter-daycommentators not weaned away from the pre-bud-dhist ascetic conditionings, developed his teach-ings into an – ism and set up various schools ofmeditation.

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It is to be also noted that the Buddha eschewedall dogma and invited those who listened to him tocritically examine and analyse his teachings.

For as K once said: ‘Nobody really listened tothe Buddha and that is why there is Buddhism.’

Sarath Lewke Bandara

Corrections

Alan Rowlands’ article ‘To Be Alone’ which wasreprinted in the last newsletter received manypositive comments from our readers, and thisalthough several mistakes were introduced into theletter when we transferred it from the handwrittenmanuscript into typed form. Our apologies go firstof all to Alan who had taken his usual care with

every word of his letter, and also to our readers.Some of the mistakes actually changed the mean-ing of the original or made no sense at all.

Page 13: … hearing the birds chirp (instead ofchatter) outside.

Page 16: “No brims (instead of brain) norborders in my soul I see, my essence is Capacity.”

Page 16: Perhaps we can indeed “turn again andbe as little children”, turn our attention (instead ofintention) inward with the simple vision of a child.

Page 16: The house (instead of response) isvery peaceful, especially at night, as it now is.

And finally Alan’s last name was misspelled atthe end of his letter. Once more our apologies

Editor

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Climbing the Belchen on a sunny afternoon in winter, Black Forest, February 1996. This and the followingwinter pictures from the Black Forest were taken on walks from Haus Sonne.

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Two Letters by K

In February 1996 two old letters signed by Krishnamurti were found in the office ofthe Brazilian K Committee in Rio de Janeiro. Both letters were written in Ojai,California. In his first letter from May 1945 to friends in Mexico, Krishnamurti explainswhat it means to come together and to discuss:

“With regard to the group activities I do not see any harm if they can cometogether naturally to discuss these ideas, without any formalism, without thecompetition of President and Secretary which generally goes with group activities.Surely it is possible for several groups to meet without all these unnecessaryformalities, for what is important is not who is the President or the Secretary or theTreasurer, but being in relationship with different minds, each one can discover hisown responses and attitudes, prejudices, and thoughts. After all, discussions shouldreveal, without the imposition of any authority, the state of one’s own conditioning,so that during discussions these conditionings are broken down. In other words,discussions, if they are to be worth while at all, would act as a mirror in which eachone is discovering, through the tribulation of thought, what he is, how he isthinking-feeling. If such groups can naturally come into being I feel it will be anexcellent thing and they can become the means of spreading these ideas. After allone cannot merely spread these ideas through literature but really through one’sown life...”

In another letter from August 1947 starting with ‘My dear Sendra’, Krishnamurtiaddresses also the issue of coming together and forming a group of like minded people:

“As I said at a meeting at Ojai, a group of those who are really interested, who areseeking self-knowledge and not the imposition of knowledge on others, self-knowledgeor otherwise, would be beneficial. Such a meeting should be voluntary and notinduced with any promises whether economic or spiritual. They meet out of anintention to understand and therefore may bring about a cooperative action whichwill naturally take different forms, depending on the individual. It seems to me, tomake such a group really worthwhile, there should be an inner revolution whichdemands a complete dedication and not mere verbal assertion of belief or nonbelief. Ifthere are such people then they will naturally come together to form a group or to dodifferent kinds of work, but it seems to me to have a set pattern of action or a plan fora community is a hindrance for such people...”

J. Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti

Brockwood Today and in the Future

Brockwood perhaps remains close to our hearts.It has recently been and still is in transition. Withthe International Trustees’ Meeting to be held therethis May, we are taking the opportunity to reprintthis statement written by K in 1983.

For fourteen years Brockwood has been aschool. It began with many difficulties, lack ofmoney and so on, and we all helped to build it up toits present condition. There have been gatheringsevery year, seminars and all the activities of audioand video recording. We have reached a point nownot only to take stocks of what we are doing, butalso to make Brockwood much more than a school.It is the only centre in Europe representing theteachings, which are essentially religious. Thoughwe have met in Saanen for the last twentytwo yearsfor a month or more, Brockwood is the place whereK spends much more time and energy. The schoolhas a very good reputation and Mrs. DorothySimmons has put her great energy, her passion,behind it. We have all helped to bring the schoolabout in spite of great difficulties, both financialand psychological.

Now Brockwood must be much more than aschool. It must be a centre for those who are deeplyinterested in the teachings, a place where they canstay and study. In the very old days an ashrama –which means retreat – was a place where peoplecame to gather their energies, to dwell and to ex-plore deeper religious aspects of life. Modern placesof this kind generally have some sort of leader, guru,abbot or patriarch who guides, interprets anddominates. Brockwood must have no such leader orguru, for the teachings themselves are theexpression of that truth which serious people mustfind for themselves. Personal cult has no place inthis. We must emphasize this fact.

Most unfortunately our brains are soconditioned and limited by culture, tradition andeducation that our energies are imprisoned. We fallinto comforting and accustomed grooves and so

become psychologically ineffective. To counter thiswe expend our energies in material concerns andself-centred activities. Brockwood must not yield tothis well-worn tradition. Brockwood is a place forlearning, for learning the art of questioning, the artof exploring. It is a place which must demand theawakening of that intelligence which comes withcompassion and love.

It must not become an exclusive community.Generally, a community implies somethingseparate, sectarian and enclosed for idealistic andutopian purposes. Brockwood must be a place ofintegrity, deep honesty and the awakening ofintelligence in the midst of confusion, conflict anddestruction that is taking place in the world. Andthis in no way depends on any person or group ofpeople, but on the awareness, attention andaffection of the people who are there. All thisdepends on the people who live at Brockwood andon the Trustees of the Krishnamurti Foundation. Itis their responsibility to bring this about.

So each one must contribute. This applies notonly to Brockwood but to all the other KrishnamurtiFoundations. It seems to me that one may be losingsight of all this, becoming engrossed in various de-manding activities, caught up in particular disci-plines, so that one has neither time nor leisure tobe deeply concerned with the teachings. If thatconcern does not exist, the Foundations have nosignificance at all. One can talk endlessly about whatthe teachings are, explain, interpret, compare andevaluate, but all this becomes very superficial andreally meaningless if one is not actually living them.

It will continue to be the responsibility of theTrustees to decide what form Brockwood shouldtake in the future, but always Brockwood must be aplace where integrity can flower. Brockwood is abeautiful place with old magnificent trees surroun-ded by fields, meadows, groves and the quietnessof the countryside. It must always be kept that way,for beauty is integrity, goodness and truth.

J. Krishnamurti 1983

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Krishnamurti: Which Way Will the Brain Move?

This article is an excerpt from the soon to bepublished book ‘The Kitchen Chronicles – 1001Lunches With J. Krishnamurti’ by MichaelKrohnen (see also the article about the newpublishing house on page 25).

It was in the late ’70s and early ’80s thatKrishnamurti became fascinated by the computer,by the increasing importance it played in humanaffairs, and its role in the future development ofthe human mind. What particularly intrigued himwas the computer’s extraordinary capacity to out-think and out-perform its creator in mostmechanical mental tasks. During his talks anddiscussions, and also at the lunch table, he oftenmentioned its positive impact on our lives withoutneglecting to see its negative aspect.

Toward the end of March 1981 an Indian friendof his who had provided him with a lot ofinformation about the function and role ofcomputers visited us for several days. On April 1,1981, the Bohms returned to Ojai from a seminarthey had attended in Los Angeles. During lunchthat day, the conversation, primarily between thethree of them, revolved around computers andartificial intelligence.

Krishnamurti was saying to Dr. Bohm, “Sir,there is a great similarity between the brain and thecomputer. Both are based on memory, arestorehouses of knowledge and function accordingto programs. The computer can do anything thehuman brain can do. And it can do it a thousandtimes faster and more accurately.”

His Indian friend added, “The Japanese areplanning to create the fifth generation ofcomputers which will replicate the processes of thehuman brain. The government is investing vastamounts of money in this project. There alreadyare some prototypes which can learn from the datainput they receive and modify their own programs.

And the geneticists are working together with thecomputer scientists, researching the use of thebrain’s hydrogen and carbon molecules, instead ofsilicon, in the making of computers.”

Dr. Bohm was sceptical and stated in hismeasured, careful way, “I doubt that any such link-age of the organic and the machine will lead toanything.”

Krishnamurti pursued his line of questioning,“Sir, if the computer takes over most mechanicaltasks, what is left for the human brain? Maybe thecomputer won’t be able to compose music likeMozart and Beethoven, or write poetry as Shakes-peare and Keats did.

It will probably never be able to look at thestars and appreciate the beauty of nature and theuniverse. But most other work will be done bycomputers and robots, so what will happen to thehuman brain? Will it atrophy?”

I was puzzled, as were several other listenersaround the lunch table. “What do you mean bythat, sir?” I asked.

He carefully amplified on his musings, “Thereare really only two ways for the brain to move: oneis toward the inside, into itself, into self-inquiryand so on. Which is what we are talking about. Theother is toward the outside: more entertainment,diversion, amusement, stimulation, you knowwhat’s happening. So what is left for the brain todo? Almost all of its functions have been taken overby the computer, right? There is a tremendousincrease in the leisure available to the humanbeing. And unless the brain finds a totally differentapproach, it will atrophy like a muscle that is notbeing exercised any more. It will simply witheraway, shrivel up. It’s happening now, sir!”

Not everybody at the table seemed willing toaccept this kind of prediction and quite a fewobjections were raised. Krishnamurti usuallyenjoyed being challenged and continued with calmcertainty against a tide of scepticism, “The

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computer is not limited by borders, nationalitiesand governments, as we are. It’s beyond all those,and it can out-think us. It will probably invent itsown god which we will worship. I must tell you agood joke about this:

“A man enters a room full of computers and thescientist there tells him to ask any question he mayhave. So the man asks, ‘Is there a god?’ Thescientist enters the question, and the computers

start to flash and buzz. After a while the answercomes, ‘Now there is’.”

As we were laughing, Krishnamurti looked at uswith something like pity and sceptical amusementand said, “Yes sir, face it.” Turning toward DavidBohm and his Indian friend, he asked them, “It’sgetting late. Shall we continue this conversationthis afternoon?”

Michael Krohnen

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The 1996 Trip to Australia & New Zealand

In mid January this year a small group ofpeople arrived in Sydney at the beginning of a tripwhich would take them on to Queensland and then throughout New Zealand with the view ofmeeting and talking to other people in those placeswho were interested in the teachings. Initially thenumber consisted of Raman, Rabindra, VickyDonnelly and the writer, who was native to the areabeing a New Zealander who had lived in Sydney andstill had family there.

For the two weeks or so that we were in Australiawe were much indebted to Donald Ingram-Smithwho arranged meetings for us in advance and didmuch more besides, often in the face of difficultiesengendered by changing numbers and dates ofarrival.

January, of course, is the major summer holidaymonth in Australia and for that reason our contactswere limited. Nonetheless, we had a pleasant andexplorative meeting with Donald and a number of

others from in and around Sydney who wereorganisers of Krishnamurti discussion and videoviewing groups. To begin with there was a certainamount of confusion as to what we were all doingthere, but by the end I felt that there had beensome interesting and surprisingly deep discussionsgiven our limited time together. For us as much asthem there was uncertainty about our role andpurpose, but even by the end of this first meetingthere was a mutual feeling that such contact andtalk was useful to all of us in that the differences incultural contexts can provide fascinating cameos ofthe diversity of human experience, as well as thedeeper uniformity of it. And, of course, there wasthe opportunity to compare experiences regardingour attempts to bring the teachings to wider notice.Through all the talk ran the common thread ofKrishnamurti’s insights into the human conditionand our common interest in them.

This initial conclusion about the purposefulnessof our travelling and discussing such commonissues with other people was constantly reinforcedas we progressed, which, together with the sheerpleasure of meeting and talking with such delightful

Reports About Gatherings

This section includes reports of gatherings in Australia, New Zealand, Ojai and Hawaii as well as anannouncement for the Saanen Gathering in Switzerland in July next.

people, made the whole exercise worthwhile, atleast for me.

While in Sydney we also spent a day being verykindly entertained by an old friend, Greta Wright, ather lovely house overlooking the harbour nearManly, at which time we were also able to meet hergrandson David and their friend Geetha, both ofwhom were ex-Brockwood students and known toRaman accordingly. This was the first time that thesubject of education came up, in this case becauseGeetha has a strong interest in being involved insuch a venture if one could be started in Sydney.This, as ever, is difficult to do because of the rela-tively small number of potential participants, vastdistances involved, and, in Geetha’s case, the de-mands of young motherhood. But the need and thedesire are certainly there, as we found later in NZ.

From Sydney we flew to Queensland’s Gold Coastto spend some time with Geoff and Shirley Millerand their friends and assistants, Kate and Charley,on their tropical rainforest sanctuary at Kuranda. Anarrangement with the Theosophical Society hasmeant the creation of guest-quarters on the propertyin which we were able to stay. The early morningbirdsong was as varied and unique as any I haveheard – the kookaburra, with its distinctive mocking‘laugh’ giving a singular flavour to it all. Geoff andShirley maintain an impressive and very compre-hensive library of Krishnamurti books and tapes,and perform the role of Australian distributors forsuch material. Apart from personally having to dealwith some unsuspected negative conditioning aboutone’s intimate relationship with leaches, the timespent at Kuranda was a delight.

At the beginning of February we flew to Auck-land, New Zealand, in which country we were tospend the better part of the rest of the month. Atthat point we were joined by Derek Hook and BillTaylor, a fellow kiwi. This part of the itinerary hadbeen centred around two public weekend gatheringsorganised by the Krishnamurti Association of NZ,one in each of the North and South Islands. Bet-ween times, there was time to relax and enjoy thespecial and varied beauty and the peace of this

largely empty land (three million people in acountry approximately the size of Great Britain). Forthe period up to and including the first gathering atTaupo, Bill took charge and expertly shepherded ourguests to two of the more visually spectacular partsof the North Island, Bethels Beach, west of Auck-land, and Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty.

The Taupo gathering, like its successor at Rain-cliff in the South Island, was conducted informally,in that there was no organised agenda apart fromgeneral meetings to begin and end our time there.Bill has kindly provided a report on this gatheringwhich follows on from this, so I will content myselfby saying that there appeared to be an intense levelof discussion occurring constantly on a wide rangeof topics, including the newly created school inChristchurch, and a real enthusiasm for takingadvantage of this opportunity to get together withlike minded people.

The two weeks between this and the secondgathering at Raincliff saw our group reduced by thedeparture of Rabindra to help organise the impend-ing Hawaii gathering, and Bill to return to hisfamily and staff duties at Brockwood. Thoseremaining were able to wend their way slowly souththrough the magnificent, diverse scenery of theSouth Island: Nelson, and Golden Bay’s parks andbeaches; the Southern Alps, and West Coast’srainforests, and finally to Queenstown and ‘theLakes’ before finishing up at Raincliff.

This gathering was smaller but otherwisesimilar to the first, being organised on an equallyinformal basis and engendering just as muchintensity in the personal dialogues as at Taupo. Theschool was again an immediate issue, particularlyfor me, perhaps, as I have a strong interest in whatmight be very loosely called ‘Krishnamurti edu-cation’ and the special difficulties of creating it.Readers of earlier newsletters may recall articles onthe efforts being made to start this school. Well, theClearwater Learning Centre (now the ClearwaterSchool) has become a reality, having kicked off withfive primary school-aged students and two teachersin a characterful old house in a leafy Christchurch

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suburb, within 50 yards of the River Avon. It hasthe inevitable initial funding problems but it has,too, the initiative, care and wider concern of itsfounders to make it survive and prosper. It also hasa small but effective band of sympathisers andhelpers to sustain it, and the (necessarily) informalsupport of the Krishnamurti Assoc. of NZ. We wishit well. Those interested may refer to the educa-tional section of this newsletter where the school’sstatement of purpose is to be found.

This gathering marked the effective end of thegroup’s time together. Something of an experiment,the trip had proved worthwhile I believe, for thereasons given earlier. The people we spoke toseemed as pleased to have had an opportunity totalk with friends as we had been. The interest inthe teachings in both countries seems vibrant, andthe kind of contact we experienced hopefully assistsin sustaining that interest.

Nick Short, March 1996

The Volcanoes Remain Active

From the hilltop where the gathering occurredone looked out over the chilly and expansive watersof Lake Taupo, in the central North Island of NewZealand. This is a plateau renown for its volcanicand thermal activity; Lake Taupo itself was formedfollowing the single most violent eruption the worldhas known in the last 5,000 years. It seemed theideal spot to be contemplating the nature ofconciousness, its inscrutable depths, its unpredic-tability, its potential for explosive change.

This gathering as with the seven that have pre-ceded it in New Zealand since 1989, was intended toprovide participants with the opportunity to meetothers who are interested in Krishnamurti’s teach-ings and to engage in serious enquiry. Up until nowthe gatherings have occurred in different parts ofthe country, thus ensuring that a wide range ofpeople have been able to attend, this was the firstoccasion on which a gathering was returning to a

venue, in this case a popular and spiritual centrecalled Tauhara.

For three days in early February, over 40participants from all over New Zealand and abroadmet. Limited time meant that participants tookevery opportunity to explore questions, clarifypoints and, naturally, greet old friends. Specialtimes were allotted for meetings on education asthere was much interest in developments atBrockwood and the establishment of a small schoolin New Zealand, called Clearwater (see TheEducational Section of this newsletter).

In addition to all this trustees of the NewZealand Krishnamurti Association found time tomeet, discussing business matters and sharingideas for new initiatives. The Association, which is aregistered charity in New Zealand, prints around athousand copies of a quarterly newsletter, sellsbooks and runs a video lending library, in additionto organising gatherings.

For me, personally, attending the Taupo gather-ing was both enjoyable and disturbing. It was adelight to reconnect with the people and the landafter an almost three year absence from NewZealand and it was a reminder of the universality ofour human dilemma and concerns. We grappledwith questions old and new, while the waters of thatvast lake lay before us, silent, implacable,mysterious.

Bill Taylor, April 1996

The KFA Dialogues at Ojai

From February 16 –19, 1996 the KrishnamurtiFoundation of America held the eighteenth bian-nual dialogue meeting at the Oak Grove School atOjai, California. The theme of the dialogue was‘Conflict’.

The event started on Friday evening at the highschool library with a reception buffet and the

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showing of a K video. About eighty people from allover the United States and also a few from overseasgathered to inquire into conflict and the signifi-cance of their everyday lives, using K’s teachings asan inspiration and a mirror. The fact that twothirds of the participants took part in the dialoguefor the first time gave an indication that K’s workcontinues to attract new people from all walks oflife. Interestingly, several participants learned ofthe event over the Internet.

The following Saturday, Sunday and Monday, for the actual dialogue meetings, people werearranged in seven different groups, each with afacilitator and about ten to twelve participants.These groups met for two-hour morning and two-hour afternoon sessions (except Monday whenthere was only the morning meeting). Other dailyactivities included common meals at the OakGrove School Main House, featuring excellentvegetarian food, videotape showings relevant to thetheme of conflict, and nature walks in thesurrounding hills of the Ojai Valley. On the finalday, Monday, the wrap-up session revealed that thedialogues had been – in spite of the volatile subject– an event of togetherness, learning and a genuinesense of friendship and affection.

Apart from the annual KFA Gathering on May 4and 5, the next dialogue meeting at Ojai will beOctober 11–14, 1996. The theme will be ‘Fear – Tothe Root’. The cost is US-$ 175 which includestextbook, meals etc. but not accommodation(student rates are available).

For information/reservation please contact:

Michael Krohnen, March 1996

Krishnamurti Foundation of AmericaP.0. Box 1560, OjaiCA 93024-1560 USATel. (805) 646-2726Fax. (805) 646-5674

The First Hawaiian Island Gathering

The organizers of the first KrishnamurtiGathering on the Hawaiian Islands could not haveselected a better place to explore “Sensitivity toNature” than the Big Island’s east coast. The onlysounds were those of brilliantly colored birds, thewind in the coconut palms, and the distantthunder of the ocean. What was immediatelyapparent was that the group of six organizers hadbeen meeting together for several years as adialogue group without any formality. They did notthink of themselves as other than a group offriends who were mutually exploring together thelives they were living. What they all shared wasliving on the land, self-sustaining activities thatkept them on a sparsely populated island close tonature, and a simple, albeit sometimes hardexistence. They often audiotaped their dialoguesand then played them back to hear the quality oftheir self-revealing exchanges. Therefore, the thirtyparticipants who came from across America,Switzerland, and Hawaii in mid-March, 1996 weresharing with a small group of people who hadalready done their homework; the Gathering was anatural and informal extension of their alreadyvery serious lives.

Sea Mountain Resort at Punaluu on the BigIsland of Hawaii is a tropical paradise. Located overan hour by car from either of the two major towncenters, Hilo and Kona, the area is rich in naturalbeauty. To catch the sunrise out of the Pacific Oceaneach morning, you need only walk a few minutes toone of Hawaii’s famous black sand beaches. Aftersunrise, you can safely swim with giant greenturtles. Everywhere are the ancient black lava flowsthat for centuries have created more land masseach day from ceaseless volcanoes on the island.Accommodations for participants were in the SeanMountain resort and the dialogues, videotapes, andexcellent vegetarian meals were in the adjacentAspen Institute. The daily schedule was open andfluid with videotape showings and dialogues onsome days, and talks and question and answer

sessions on others. All afternoons were free but forthe adventurous, as all 30 participants seemed tobe, there were excursions, hikes, swimming, andwalks. Walks through the soon to be abandonedsugar cane fields, valleys of tree ferns, delicateorchids, and macadamia nut and Kona coffeeplantations were spectacular.

In the first dialogue the participants looked atall aspects of psychological death and venturedthrough the labyrinth of thought as it createddefinitions, names, and other identifiers to capturethe difficult to describe dimensions of awareness.Subsequent dialogues ranged over many topicsthat arose from the videotapes. A unique feature ofthis gathering was the small dialogue group oflocal Hawaiian residents who dialogued, while thevideotape captured the interaction of the smallgroup. Their purpose was again to watch the tape

later and hear exactly what they had said, to seethe way they behaved for themselves and for theirown on-going interaction. For some of us who have been steeped in dialogue for years, this mechanicalmirror was innovative. A mirror that does not dis-tort is far better than retrospection.

For further information and to be on their mail-ing list for annual Gatherings on Hawaii, write to:

Mark Lee, April 1996

John Farquharson or Rabindra SinghBig Island Krishnamurti CircleP.O. Box 659, HaalehuHawaii, 96772, USAor call (808) 929-8608or (808) 334-3348

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Fishing boat at Adyar beach, Madras, December 1995

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Saanen Gathering 1996

From 14th July to 3rd August 1996 there willagain be a meeting of people who are interested inexploring the work of Krishnamurti. People can jointhe gathering whenever they want for however long.

During the first week (14-20 July) the maintheme will be ‘On Right Relationship: Living ina Technological Society’. Dr. P. Krishna from theRajghat Educational Centre has offered his specialparticipation for this week.

The second week’s subject (21-27 July) isentitled ‘Self-Knowledge and Regeneration’ andwill be headed by Froede Steen, who is presentlycompleting his PhD in Education, and Javier GomezRodriguez, an ex-Brockwood teacher.

‘Exploration into the Sacred in EverydayLife’ will be the last week’s subject (28 July-3August). Mary Cadogan, author and trustee of theKFT in England, will be the main facilitator for thisweek.

The organised programme includes Saturday,Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursdaymornings and is structured as follows:

9.45: video or talk or reading followed bydiscussion; ending at around 12.30

3 pm: study of the theme of the day/week5 pm: body work

On Tuesdays and Fridays people can organisehikes in the beautiful surroundings. For those whoare interested there is also the possibility to set upfurther video showings or discussion groups.

Place: The new primary school in Saanen,Switzerland

Parallel to the three weeks main programmethere will be a special week for young people andanother week for parents and children.

Programme for Young People

(July 27-August 4)

For the third successive year a specialprogramme is offered for people under or aroundthirty. The main theme is ‘Why is the MindLooking for Security?’ Interaction with the mainprogramme is possible. Participants will beaccommodated in the large chalet ‘Roberti Rosey’ inGstaad near Saanen. Please bring a sleeping bag,good hiking shoes, comfortable clothing andwhatever you would like to share with the othersduring this week (poems, music etc).

The price for the programme is Swiss Francs270.– including accommodation, breakfast anddinner.

Programme for Parents & Children

(13-20 July)

This week is intended for parents and peopleinterested in education to inquire into the parent-child relationship. From 9.00 to 12.30 and from16.00 to 17.30 (except on Tuesday and Friday)children will be taken care of to allow parents tomeet and discuss, or partake in the activities of themain programme. The children should be betweenfour and twelve years old.

Price: Swiss Francs 300.– for adults, 200.– forchildren.

Place: chalet Ostermundigen in Vispiele,Gstaad, near Saanen.

Information and Reservations for allprogrammes:

Gisele Balleys 7 A chemin FloraireCH-1225 Chene Bourg, GeneveTel: ++41-22-349 65 74

Obituary

Albion Patterson died in February, 1996, at theage of 91. As a young man in the early thirties hehad an intimate personal friendship with K. Hespent his professional life in South America wherehe was one of the most important agents of USpolicy, through the Agency for International Deve-lopment. He controlled vast sums for investment ineconomic development, and influenced thenational life of several countries. During thoseyears he planned upon retiring to give himselfcompletely to K’s work. He became one of the firsttrustees of KFA and helped create the Oak GroveSchool. A man of great energy and generosity,bringing K to a wide audience was his chiefconcern. For more than a dozen years he fundedand worked on the huge project of indexing K’spublished works, and creating the topicallyarranged Collection of thousands of his mostsignificant passages. He initiated the anthologies ofpassages on such subjects as Death, What Is andMeditation. He foresaw and argued the need forputting the body of K’s work on a single indexedcomputer disk. His brilliance, passion and know-ledge of men and affairs made him a valuedmentor to many within the Foundations, and toother friends of K.

A new Publishing Company

In California, in 1995, R. E. Mark Lee foundedEdwin House Publishing Inc. as an independentpublisher. The first EHP titles to be released bysummer 1996 will be, California Herb Cookery:The Ranch House Restaurant Cookbook by AlanHooker, and The Kitchen Chronicles – 1001Lunches With J. Krishnamurti by Michael Krohnen.EHP is not a cookbook publishing company

contrary to what is implied with these first twotitles. Rather, it will publish works of interest tothose familiar with Krishnamurti’s teachings.

Authors Hooker and Krohnen both had long-term associations with Krishnamurti. The latter haswritten a revealing and lively record of the everyday life of Krishnamurti, in Ojai, California over aten year period when he cooked at Arya Vihara,Krishnamurti’s home in America. His memoir is atreasure of first person accounts of lunch-with-Krishnamurti mealtime conversation and hissplendid sense of humor, illustrated by anabundance of often irreverent jokes and anecdotes,his affectionate friendships with those around him,and the considerable impact he had on the authoras a student of the teachings.

Alan Hooker founded a highly successful gardenrestaurant literally next door to the Oak Grovewhere Krishnamurti spoke from 1922 to 1985 inOjai. This 275 recipe cookbook is the result of alifetime devoted to good cuisine and the joys ofcooking with herbs and spices. An earlier Hookervegetarian cookbook sold a quarter of a millioncopies. The 63 duotone drawings in this new bookand the four color art cover were created by 103year old friend of Alan and Helen Hooker, MissBeatrice Wood – a recent recipient of the EsteemedLiving Artist of 1994 by the Archives of AmericanArt, Smithsonian Institution.

Manuscripts will be considered. Write to:

Mark Lee, April 1996

Edwin House Publishing1014-D Creekside WayOjai, California 93023 Tel: 805-646-6647Fax 805-646-8693

25Newsletter

Various News

26

Russian Report

“When someone like me uses the wordconciousness – perhaps wrongly – it means thetotality of life. You see, for me conciousnessmeans not only my life, your life, and X’s life, butthe life of the animal and that of the tree; itencompasses the whole; it encompasses thetotality of all that.”

From ‘Fire in the Mind’, J. Krishnamurti

It was through an article in the GermanNewsletter about the summer school in Russia in1994 that the writer and his wife first heard aboutVladimir and the Krishnamurti Association of Russia(KAR). Our desire to go there was spontaneous. Wehad felt for some time that contact and exchangebetween the West and the East European countrieswould be vital, and there was a vague feeling of theresponsibility of being someone living in aprivileged part of the world regarding materialwealth and freedom of information and speech.When we met Vladimir in Haus Sonne during aGerman committee meeting in October 1994, it wasclear to us that we wanted to help as much as wecould. Since that time we have been in regularcontact with Vladimir and visited him and his groupin Krasnaya Polyana in the Caucasus in summer1995. There we experienced first hand the immenseproblems which overshadow the simple necessitiesof daily living as well as the work of KAR, which ismainly to organize gatherings and publications, notto mention the difficulties in developing a differentway of life.

How it began

Krishnamurti in Russia would not be thinkablewithout Vladimir Riapolov, a man in his earlyforties. His interest in eastern philosophies broughthim automatically into opposition to the oldcommunist system, and only through public self-criticism could he escape prison or compulsorypsychatric treatment. In order to realize at least

some of this approach he studied physiotherapy,which included the study of yoga. Still beforePerestroika he opened a yoga school in Sochi andcame across the writings of K, which he helped totranslate and to publish underground. In 1990during his first visit outside Russia he madecontact with Brockwood Park and with theirsupport the Krishnamurti Association of Russia wasfounded as one of the first charitable organizationsin Russia. The sweeping changes which came withPerestroika – freedom of speech, and virtually freeair travel if one paid in dollars – allowed him toorganize K gatherings and video showings all overthe country, from Moscow to Siberia. Thegatherings usually took place at Universities andthere was no shortage of curious and interestedaudiences.

The study centre and the situation today

The yoga school was in a beautiful building inSochi right on the promenade. The group aroundVladimir had the idea of extending it into aKrishnamurti centre and to support it financiallyby running a vegetarian restaurant. But growingviolence and the appearance of organized crime,with speculators twice setting fire to the building totry and to force the school to leave, finally made itnecessary to look for a safer place. They found thisplace near the village of Krasnaya Polyana, seventykilometres from Sochi in a beautiful valley of theCaucasus. No member of the group was an expertin building but prices were still very low and itseemed possible to undertake the construction of anew study centre and head office. The difficultieswere immense and improvisation was the rule ofthe day. When the rubel was de-regulated and thedollar became the nominal currency, pricesincreased by the month. Without considerable helpfrom outside the project would have failed. Fortu-nately there were enough donations to completethe building to a stage where it is inhabitable formost of the year. But it will take another year ofwork and more donations to make the house fullyfunctioning. It will then provide guest rooms for

up to twenty people, a gym, a beautiful yoga andmeditation room, a library and a living and diningroom.

The location is spectacular. The valley issurrounded by mountains up to 3000 m high,densely covered with forests of walnut and ediblechestnut. The climate is comparable to northernItaly. In the summer, grapes and figs grow here andthe winters, although mild, bring snow of three tosix feet from January to March. The area is part of ahuge protected reserve with almost untouchedrivers and lakes, and the wildlife includes bearsand wolves. Vladimir, who is an outdoor enthusiast,is planning trekking expeditions in the area. Thereis the very realistic prospect that this study centrewill become an attractive place for meeting,

recreation and retreat, especially for people fromWestern Europe. There is already a weekly non-stopflight from Frankfurt to Sochi which only takesthree hours.

The core group of KAR consists at present offour adults: Vladimir and his partner Svetlana, whois also a physiotherapist and worked at Brockwoodfor two years, Natascha, a former theatre directress,who runs the KAR office, and Ira, once manager ofa big Intourist restaurant in Sochi. A couple ofvolunteers usually live with them and help with thework.

The activities of KAR are much more restrictednow. The completion of the centre still needs a lotof the group’s energy. The cost of travelling has

27Newsletter

The study centre in Krasnaya Polyana, Caucasus. This picture was taken by Hilkka during her visit inJanuary 1995

Recital for Brockwood Park School

The internationally recognized pianist Andrew Wildewill play works of Bach, Mozart, Schumann andChopin at St. John’s, Smith Square in London onMonday 3rd June 1996 at 7.30 pm. Our newsletterwill reach our readers most probably after the event,but we feel that this distinctive way of bringing theSchool to the attention of the wider public, as wellas helping it financially, deserves mentioning. Thewell designed leaflet for this concert describes theSchool as follows: “Brockwood Park School (a

charitable trust) is a unique educational centrefounded in 1969 by J. Krishnamurti in beautifulgrounds in the countryside of Hampshire, England.Brockwood is an international residential secondaryschool for girls and boys aged 14 to 20. It providesan academic education up to university entrance. Aswell as the usual academic subjects, there arecourses that explore our relationship with nature,technology and the environment. More importantly,in the light of Krishnamurti’s views on education,the School is concerned with the possibility ofawakening in the student an understanding of life asa whole.”

reached western standards and makes an exchangeamong the various K groups very difficult. Thegroup in Siberia can only be visited once every twoyears now compared to twice a year previously. Thepublication business has become much hardersince book prices stay far behind the rate ofinflation. The Moscow publisher of the last two Kbooks, for example, could not afford the fare for hisdaughter to join the summer school organized byKAR last year. A distribution network is practicallynon-existent. Books are sold in market stands likemost things in today’s Russia.

What can we do?

It seems to be of utmost importance that thepeople in Eastern Europe receive support in theirstruggle to develop new ways of living. The vastchanges in Russia can only be compared with thesituation after the war: the cold war has been lost,the old authoritarian order has collapsed, economicdifficulties create fear and a loss of self-esteem,violence and crime fill the vacuum. Many peoplewant quick and simple answers and a strong leader,while a liberal, democratic society remains just avague idea without much relevance to most. The

danger of a new nationalistic oriented dictatorshipis serious.

To help people to develop a new awareness andunderstanding of life and the world cannot beachieved only by making Krishnamurti’s books andvideo tapes available, it also requires personalcontact. We in the West have to be prepared to visitpeople in Russia and – having made friends – inturn to invite them to our places. The personallevel is the basis for fostering changes. In additionto that, one can perhaps organize lectures anddiscussions in educational and other institutions.

Financial support from outside will be necessaryat least for this and next year in order to pay for thecompletion of the study centre. Fully operable, itshould attract enough visitors who are able to pay inhard currency. This could cover most of the runningcosts and any surplus could be used to pay forfurther work of KAR.

It will therefore also be our responsibility to seethat what we consider important will get a chanceto take root in Russia. If we truly feel that we arepart of the big stream of life, then we will also havea sense of how and where we can help according toour means and capabilities.

Bernd Hollstein, April 1996

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29Newsletter

I had promised to send you a report about mysabbatical year which started on the 24th of July1995. It has enabled me to travel to several partsof the world and discuss K’s teachings (or thequestions raised by him) with friends, youngstudents, highly educated scientists and otheracademics, simple house-holders and people ofevery description. After all, the teachings aremeant for all people, and not for any special orprivileged group, because basically we are all thesame, however much we may like to feel differentby labeling ourselves as Indians, Americans,Russians...or Hindus, Christians, Muslims...orscientists, artists, housewives, cooks...etc. Thelabels are our creations and they are notimportant. I feel very grateful to KFI for enablingme to do what I am doing, free of the hassles ofadministration.

The year began with my participation in theSaanen Gathering during the last weeks from the26th of July to the 5th of August. This is perhapsthe only truly international annual gathering ofpersons seriously interested in K’s teachings. Theparticipation has been growing each year, as alsohas the depth of the inquiry. We all owe a debt ofgratitude to Gisele for organizing these so well andwith the right atmosphere. The week I attended wasdevoted to religious inquiry into K’s famousstatement, “You are the World”.

In September I went to Seoul in South Korea toparticipate in an International Conference on theUnity of Sciences (ICUS) from August, 21 st to 26th.I was invited by Prof. Ravi Ravindra to present apaper in a session entitled, “Nature, Science andthe Sacred”, of which he was the Chairman. I spokeon “Science and Religion – Two aspects of a singlereality” describing these as two complementaryquests for truth – one about the external worldaround us and the other about the inner world of

our consciousness. Other speakers included Prof.E.G. Sudershan, an eminent theoretical physicist,who was a Trustee of the KFI for many years andparticipated in several dialogues with Krishnaji. Hespoke on “Witnessing Awareness: Nature ofCreativity”. Prof. Ravi Ravindra spoke about“Science and the Sacred”. There was also a paperon David Bohm’s approach to physics, entitled,“Towards a Science of the Heart”. There werepapers by brain scientists from Belgium and Russia.It gave me an opportunity to present Krishnaji’sthoughts before an international academiccommunity.

This was my first visit to Korea and I was verystruck by the ‘progress’ that country has made. Italmost felt like one was in Europe and not in Asia!The Korean people, like the Japanese, are veryhard-working and disciplined. Their standards ofliving are comparable with those of England andItaly. The cities are clean, the traffic orderly and thepeople well-behaved. I did not come across a singleact of misbehavior- no pushing, shouting, fighting,drunkenness or rudeness anywhere – despite thehigh density of population. I was very impressed,though one is aware that underneath this outerappearance there must be the usual humanproblems of corruption, intrigue, domination andaggression, which were not personally encountered.

From Seoul I went to Ojai California, at theinvitation of Ulrich Brugger, and spent two months(Sept. & Oct. ’95) at the Ojai Institute as a Scholarin Residence. We organized dialogues around K’steachings twice a week and public lectures on theweekends. The attendance varied from 15 to 40 andthe atmosphere was very cordial and the inquiryserious and intense. I feel that the Ojai Institute fillsa real need for a Krishnamurti Study Centre in Ojai.The accommodations are good and inexpensive (by

A Special Sabbatical Year

Dr. P. Krishna went on sabbatical for a year from last July. As it turned out it became a year of travelwith Krishna participating in many conferences and gatherings around the world. We urged him towrite a report for the Newsletter. It reflects how intertwined the world has become and how diverse isthe interest in Krishnamurti.

US standards), the atmosphere warm and friendly,and there is a quality of silence and beauty in theenvironment which is conducive for a religiousmind. It is an excellent place for a retreat – thekind Krishnaji advocated people should take fromtime to time. Like all new enterprises of this kind,the Institute has its teething troubles, especiallyfinancial ones, but the community around Ojai isvery supportive and I feel the Institute deserves thesupport of all of us – both financially and in kind.

From there I went to Albuquerque in the state ofNew Mexico, to participate in an educationalconference organized by the members of “TheGlobal Alliance for Transforming Education” (orGATE) whose Executive Director, Dr. Philip SnowGang is a Montessorian, keenly interested in K’sapproach to education. I spoke about the Edu-cational philosophy of Krishnamurti Schools aboutwhich most of the 40 heads of different schoolsthat participated had never heard before. The con-ference was held in a beautiful conference centrenear the Native lndian town of Santa Fe. The earththere is red and the houses have a totally differentarchitecture and construction from what one seesanywhere else in the US The terrain of the country-side is quite unique too. There is a large populationof native lndians there, who are trying to adjust tomodern society without losing touch with theirancient culture – a very difficult enterprise! It is avery different world from what we normally knowin the US.

The principles around which GATE has beenorganized are almost the same as those of Kschools. Their international membership andefforts to transform education are both growing,along with the awareness for the need to do so. Ifeel that all K schools should collaborate with andhelp this movement. It is quite strong here inSweden, too, and Dr. Gang is coming here at theend of March to conduct a GATE seminar inStockholm, in which I shall also be participating.

From Albuquerque I returned to Rajghat totake part in the Centenary Gathering held therefrom November the 16th to the 19th. About 225

delegates had come from all over India and abroad,including 15 persons from Thailand. With the rainyseason ending and the winter just setting in, it wasa very beautiful period at Rajghat. The staff andstudents of Vasanta College presented a specialopen-air drama in the amphitheatre, depicting thelife of the Buddha. The dialogues were initiated byPupulji, Prof. Rimpoche, Rajesh Dalal and SatishInamdar on different days and there was aninteresting panel discussion on Education betweenthe Principals of all the K-schools in India. Therewere chanting and silence sessions in the morningand classical music in the evenings. The dialoguesvaried in intensity in the different groups but theatmosphere was one of serious inquiry shared infriendship and freedom.

From Rajghat I went to the University ofGuadalajara in Mexico for the Third InternationalConference on “New Paradigms in Science”organized by Prof. Ramon Gallegos Nava, who isdeeply interested in K’s teachings and gives a verywide interpretation to ‘Science’ so as to includesocial scientists, educationalists, environmentalistsand psychologists. The speakers included DavidPeat (who collaborated earlier with David Bohm),Prof. Alan Anderson, Ramon, Dr. Philip Gang, Dr.Edward Clark and other university professors andacademics. There were nearly 400 participantsfrom all over Mexico and I was astonished to seethe high level of interest in K’s teachings among theacademicians in Mexico. It was an excellentconference with simultaneous translation fromEnglish to Spanish, and visa versa, throughearphones distributed to all participants. K videoswere shown almost every day and were watchedwith keen interest and great respect.

Social conditions in Mexico are in turmoil witha lot of poverty, corruption and violence. There isalso a financial crisis facing the country and onenoticed a lot of similarity with the situation inIndia. Even the emotional make-up of the mindand the food they eat is similar!

From Mexico I returned to Adyar, Madras, totake part in ‘The School of Wisdom’ organized by

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the Theosophical Society as a special event to com-memorate the Centenary of K’s birth. The subjectwas “Understanding Life: J. Krishnamurti’sapproach”. The school ran on from October 3rd toDecember 15th, 1995, with a different speakerconducting lectures and dialogues each week on adifferent aspect of K’s teachings. Speakers who hadparticipated in earlier weeks included Ms. AhalyaChari, Dr. Sunanda Patwardhan, Dr. SatishInamdar, Prof. Krishnanath, Mrs. Radha Burnier,Mr. Redro Oliveara, Shri Susendra Narayan andothers. The week in which I participated (7th-15thof December) was devoted to inquiring into ‘TheReligious Mind’. The mornings were devoted tolectures and dialogues and a video of K was shownin the afternoons. About 30 persons attended allsessions regularly and there were additional visitorsin the morning lectures. It was quite an inter-national group and the atmosphere was similar tothat at any serious K- gathering. The campus of theTheosophical Society at Madras is something out of

this world, with the (unfortunately polluted) Adyarriver on one side, the roaring sea on the other andthe great Banyan tree in the centre.

From Madras I went home to spend a quietmonth at Rajghat. At the end of January I went tosee the new Sahyadri School started by the KFInear Pune (Poona) in Western India, in September1995. What a breath-takingly beautiful location ithas! The school is situated on a hill surrounded bydams on the river Bhima on two sides, with hills ofthe Sahyadri range all around in the distance. Thelocation is remote – about 50 miles from Pune city– and a whole new road had to be built to haveaccess to the hill. Hats off to the ingenuity andperseverance of Pamaji and Sunanda Patwardhanthat, despite their age and indifferent health, theycollected the necessary donations and gathered ateam that could realize this distant dream of ShriAchyut Patwardhan after his passing away. A fullyresidential school with 100 students and 15

31Newsletter

Farmer bringing home his cattle at sunset near Valley School, Bangalore, December 1995

teachers has started functioning with Mrs. UmaKalyanraman (ex-Rishi Valley teacher) as Head-mistress and Mrs. Rebecca Thomas as theEducational Advisor. I spoke with the staff andstudents and some parents and felt a wave ofenthusiasm which is bound to spread. One moregreat responsibility for all of us!

On the 1st of February my wife and I came tothe University of Karlstad in Sweden, about 200miles North-West of Stockholm. I am associatedwith the Teacher Training College of the universitythere. Some staff and students of this college havebeen visiting Rajghat and Varanasi for a few weekseach year, for the last five years or so. Severalteachers from Rajghat have also been here as partof a regular exchange program. I speak to differentgroups of teacher-trainees here about theeducational philosophy of K-schools and spend therest of my time studying and doing what I have longwanted to do without any of the worries and pre-occupations of administration. This sabbatical hasbeen a great joy for me. Even the cold winter here(-20°c to 0°c) is a new and enjoyable experiencefor us! There is snow everywhere and all the lakesand rivers are frozen. The days are now rapidlygetting longer and spring is in the air.

Almost no one has heard about K here and itgives me an opportunity to introduce his teachings,at least in the academic circles. I am going tolecture at universities in the North of Sweden laterthis month. Sweden has a very distinctive culture ofits own, highly socialistic but democratic. No onehere is poor and no one is stinking rich. People aresimple and humble, they put on almost no make-up and are visibly less aggressive. Cities are cleanand orderly with very little crime. There are not

many foreigners here and we are treated withspecial cordiality, like guests. People pay almosthalf their salary in tax but the state looks aftermost of their needs – health, security, education,old age – remarkably well. The disadvantages ofsocialism are also visible – a highly centralized andbureaucratic administration, the consequent lackof initiative and enthusiasm among the workersand a slower pace of life. They do not realize fullywhat they have and are trying to Americanize. Thegrass always looks greener on the other side! Theyhave not experienced the problems of capitalistsociety yet so they still see it as glamorous.

The deeper question, of course, is whether manis destined to choose only between the evils ofsocialism and those of capitalism, or can he gobeyond both to something that we have not beenable to create yet (humanism?). The kind ofwelfare state that Sweden has is consistent with K’steachings, where all citizens are free and nearlyequal; but without self-knowledge all this is fragileand it can disappear over night!

In all these talks, discussions, dialogues, onequestion that K asked seriously still haunts me –the question, “Who will listen?” Everyone thathears of K’s teachings likes it, thinks it is amarvelous idea, pays compliments to him but thengoes on with his or her life the same way. It justbecomes another nice thing on the side to admire.Everyone is busy doing his own thing – law,business, administration, cooking, whatever – andlife has set a pattern in which it revolves. So, whowill listen? Of course that question is not differentfrom the question, “Am I listening and observing oronly verbalizing these ideas?” Each one of us has tobe acutely aware of this in oneself!

P. Krishna, March 1996

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33The First Step

Editor’s Note

Beginning with this issue, First Step is beinglaunched as a new section of this publication.Edited separately from the rest of this Newsletter,First Step will attempt to seriously address theimplications of considering (living) the challengingquestions raised by Krishnamurti. We ask thatthose interested in this kind of communicationsubmit articles to the editors for consideration.

Articles may be personal or non-personal butshould refer to what is common (self) rather thanuncommon (“my” self). Since the point of thesearticles is not to glorify or promote the writer, weplan to publish them anonymously. This policy ofanonymity is meant to encourage honesty and notto create mystery. Reader’s comments on articlescan be directed to Editor, First Step and identifiedby their title. All comments on articles will bepassed to their respective authors who could

reply, if they wish, thereby beginning an ongoingdialogue.

Through these articles, we hope to stimulateinquiry into fundamental questions which becomespossible only if they are written in the spirit of adialogue with oneself and not as an authoritativeinterpretation of the teachings of Krishnamurti orof life in general. Can the action of writing anarticle be itself both the first step and the last step,rather than a means to an end? This may be im-possible but much will be revealed by the attempt,particularly whether one’s understanding isintellectual and therefore idealistic or actual andtherefore practical.

Our feeling is that, if used properly, First Stepcan become an excellent vehicle for interactivestudy of the teachings of Krishnamurti provided wedon’t forget that these teachings can finally beverified only by the study of oneself.

Editor

The First Step

Authority of the Known

Do we read K looking for answers, or do we takehim at his word and do what is required? Bydeclining a position of authority, Krishnamurti leftthe door open for us to explore beyond ourassumptions of what he meant, requiring us toundergo the very transformation that brings abouta mind in a state of poise. In order to explore, themind must be free of deference to authority,because being free of authority it is also free offear. A mind that is restrained by fear will notproceed beyond what is known to be safe.Haplessly, such a mind is susceptible to thereassurance provided by faith or belief, which only

furthers its dependency and enhances the sense ofinsecurity that drove it to seek certainty in the firstplace.

The first step away therefore is, of necessity, theone step away from the authority of the known.Only when the knower comes to an end is the mindfree to see beyond its own interpretations. It is thestep that leaves behind what is known, enabling themind to become aware of its presence as part ofcreation. Recollection is always present as an act ofwill. In stepping out one realizes the new; recol-lection follows in an effort to install the new withinthe context of what was known. Identificationoccurs, and the sense of novelty disappears as the

mind pans the realm of significance required tointerpret the event. In this peculiar fashion, thenew is always one step ahead of one, since thesense of the new subsides with recollection.Whereas awareness uncovers the new, thoughtidentifies the known in the new, giving rise to alimited point of view.

Subservience to authority creates a mind that isincapable of facing fear. So a subservient mindcannot explore beyond what is familiar, what isknown. Such a mind does not see that its point ofview is limited, and can never be free of theconstraints accumulated in the past. It is not out ofmodesty that Krishnamurti declined a position ofauthority, but the understanding of its structuralrelevance in enabling those who were interested toundergo the psychological transformation that hespoke of as possible.

One can either follow the teachings orunderstand them. Understanding requires themind to penetrate beyond its assumptions of whatthe teachings are about, in order to come to termswith the limited nature of one’s perception. Themind is then free to countenance the fact thatconceptually duality is inevitable, but psychologi-cally the act of perceiving is one in that it gives rise,simultaneously, to the perceiver and the perceived.When this insight occurs, psychologically the mindexperiences freedom, being then in a state of‘regard’ that participates in present reality, ratherthan reacting against it. Such a mind is unmovedby the duality of existence and is capable ofresponding creatively, which is rewarding in itself.

***

Growing with K

I remember an inner struggle within myself as ayoung man, just out of college, full of knowledgeand full of images of older people, professors,doctors and other professional people all of whomseemed to be well-adjusted in society and all of

whom gave a certain encouragement that if Iapplied myself diligently I could be just like themone day. After spending four years at university(because I could think of nothing better to do), Iearned an undergraduate degree – a combinedHonors in Psychology and Mathematics. I was at acrossroads in life; a time, apparently, to makedecisions about my future. Advice came fromdifferent directions – friends, family, teachers. Myunusual combination of subjects had got theattention of some of the professors who encouragedme to apply to post-graduate school, especially asmy grades were high. Upon graduation, I wasinformed that I had earned the highest overallaverage grade in the university, higher than anyother student in any department of the university.Soon after, I received letters from variousuniversities asking me to please apply to theirgraduate departments (they wanted my brain) tothe consternation of some of my friends who,having already applied to these places, had as yet not even received a response to their applica-tions.

But, unfortunately or fortunately, through afriend who worked in a bookstore, I had justdiscovered Krishnamurti. As I read more and more,I became more and more captivated by a sense ofconsistency that existed in the Krishnamurtimaterial. Even though my immature mind couldnot then (and probably still does not) fully graspthe implications of how I was being affected bycontact with what Krishnamurti, for want of a betterterm, referred to as the Teachings, I knew that Iwas being permanently affected in a way that madeit difficult for me to continue with traditionaleducation. So, I chose not to continue a life in theworld of academia. Some months later the head ofthe department of a university discovered me at theinsurance company where I had taken a job. Hefound me because his insurance salesmanhappened to be the father of a friend of mine andsomehow my name came up in conversation. Thisprofessor, who several years later committedsuicide, wrote to me asking me to considergraduate work at his university. By then I was fed

34

up with my job and it’s promise of a ‘bright’ futurehad lost its meaning. In my co-workers andsuperiors were distasteful expressions of the effectof such a future on one’s mind and heart..

So I went back to graduate school. For sixmonths I endured it. No one at that time in thephilosophical, theological or psychologicalacademic circles had any interest in Krishnamurti.By tutoring undergraduates on the subject of‘statistical applications to psychologicalmeasurement’ I was able to earn enough money toleave the university and not have to work for oneyear. During this time that I had bought for myself,this time of leisure and mental space, I devoted myenergy to the study of K’s teachings.

It was Krishnamurti’s message that was finallygiving some understanding of a deep feeling of dis-content that I felt I had always lived with but whichI did not think that one could do anything about.The resignation which had kept me safelyconforming to the pattern of society had beenshattered by the words of a man that gave me aglimpse of the possibility of freedom. But freedomas a possibility rather than an actuality eventuallybecame the source of inner conflict. Life infreedom lay in contradiction to the actuality of amediocre life in a corrupt society, which was theonly actuality I knew.

My experience of life was very similar to thisdescription given by K:

When I went to Europe for the first time, Ilived among people who were wealthy and well-educated, who held positions of social authority;but whatever their dignities or distinctions, theycould not satisfy me. I was in revolt also againstTheosophists with all their jargon, their theories,their meetings, and their explanations of life.When I went to a meeting, the lectures repeatedthe same ideas which did not satisfy me or makeme happy. I went to fewer and fewer meetings. Isaw less and less of the people who merelyrepeated the ideas of Theosophy. I questionedeverything because I wanted to find out formyself.

I walked about the streets, watched the facesof people who perhaps watched me with evengreater interest. I went to theaters, I saw howpeople amused themselves trying to forget theirunhappiness, thinking that they were druggingtheir hearts and minds with superficialexcitement. (Life in Freedom, 1928. From EvelyneBlau’s book.)

Unlike K who, even as a very young man, hadthe capacity to see the truth in the false, I wasunable to ‘find out for myself ” and instead, lookedto his words to see if they could shed light on theconfusion in and around. I wished I could findsomeone who had found K before me, someoneolder who had been studying it for some years.Someone who could give me the benefit of hisunderstanding. I think that then I wanted to meetsomeone who is more like the person I am now. If Ihad met such a person then, I feel that I would bemuch more ahead now in my personal study ofwhat K referred to not as his teachings but as theteachings.

But I never met such a person, at least not tomy knowledge. It is possible that we did meet butfor some reason we did not recognize each other. Ithought of trying to meet K directly but through mysmall contact with the Foundations from organizingvideo showings in the city where I lived, I had gotthe impression that Foundation staff did everythingthey could to keep him inaccessible. Perhaps hewas too old to personally befriend any moreconfused people than the ones he seemed to besurrounded by. Seeing him talk a few times inpublic, observing the mad rush of people whoafterwards tried to get at him, made it clear that hecould not be both the world teacher and thepersonal friend I would have liked.

Twenty some years have passed. In those years Ihave tried to live, at least inwardly, as unmediocre alife as possible, limited by those ever-presentthough tolerable compromises one must make toearn a living in our silly, man-made society.Although I don’t bother to waste my time with

35The First Step

regrets about the past, I know I would livedifferently if I could live those twenty years againand this brings me to why I am writing this at all.

It is because, if by chance I were to meet ayounger person or, for that matter, anyone new toKrishnamurti who, because he (or she) likes theway I live or is receptive to the way I think or seethings and who cares to put a question or two forour mutual exploration, I feel a natural urge torespond to that person by sharing with him theunderstanding of the teachings that I have come toafter my years of exploration. While this response iseffortless, I don’t seek others to share this withbecause I know I don’t need to do so. Pleaseunderstand that while I would gladly encouragerelationship with such a person, I do so out of myown passion for human freedom and not out of amisunderstood desire for personal gratification orcontinued self-aggrandizement, which to me isutterly meaningless.

The relationship I am describing is one offriendship and affection, qualities I have noticed asbeing distinctly absent in the so-called dialogueand inquiry groups which are fast becoming therecognized forum for communication in K circles.In those groups, I often observe that friendship andaffection have been replaced with tolerance andsuspicion. Without denying the usefulness of suchgroups, I am suggesting a different kind ofinteraction be considered.

I have not forgotten my early struggle tounderstand K’s use of words. Because so much ofwhat he points at is not part of commonplacehuman perception, words simply don’t exist in thelanguage to easily express his views. K takes simplewords like leisure, indifference, commitment,intelligence, learning, sensitivity, etc and by activelyredefining them to create whole, new meanings, heexpresses the essence and process of the teachings.For example, take the word ’leisure‘.

From Letters to Schools, leisure as learning byobservation:

So we come to the question – what is leisure?Leisure, as it is understood, is a respite from thepressure of livelihood. The pressure of earning aliving or any pressure imposed on us wegenerally consider an absence of leisure, butthere is a much greater pressure in us, consciousor unconscious, which is desire …

It is only when you have leisure that you canlearn … Leisure implies a mind which is notoccupied. It is only then that there is a state oflearning.

We are so occupied with our livelihood that ittakes all the energy of the mechanism of thought,so that we are exhausted at the end of the dayand need to be stimulated. We recover from thisexhaustion through entertainment – religious orotherwise. This is the life of human beings.Human beings have created a society whichdemands all their time, all their energies, alltheir life. There is no leisure to learn and so theirlife becomes mechanical, almost meaningless. Sowe must be very clear in the understanding of theword leisure – a time, a period, when the mind isnot occupied with anything whatsoever. It is thetime of observation. It is only the unoccupiedmind which can observe. A free observation is themovement of learning. This frees the mind frombeing mechanical …

So can the teacher, the educator, help thestudent to understand this whole business ofearning a livelihood with all its pressure? … thelearning that helps you to acquire a job with allits fears and anxieties and the looking on tomor-row with dread? Because he himself has under-stood the nature of leisure and pure observation,so that earning a livelihood does not become atorture, a great travail throughout life, can theteacher help the student to have a non-mechan-istic mind? It is the absolute responsibility of theteacher to cultivate the flowering of goodness inleisure. For this reason the schools exist. It is theresponsibility of the teacher to create a newgeneration to change the social structure from itstotal preoccupation with earning a livelihood.Then teaching becomes a holy act. (Volume 1,1978.)

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37The First Step

From a conversation with Profs Bohm andWilkins, leisure as being only for the rich:

But as the vast majority of people areconcerned with immediacy, how are you going toshow them anything? You can’t. Therefore is itonly reserved for the well-to-do who have leisure,who have certain opportunities to be alone, tolook at themselves, talk about it? That seems soterribly unfair. But that is a fact. So will theleisure class, or people who have leisure, will theyunderstand their relationship? Or they use thatleisure to amuse themselves, to entertainthemselves. (1982, video)

Form a public talk, leisure as alertness: So there is very little leisure. I think leisure is

very important – that period when you havenothing to do, that time when there is no thought,no occupation, when your mind is not asleep, but

very alert. I would like, if I may, this evening toenquire into that quality of mind which hasleisure and has not commited itself to anything,which can see, act and yet be uncontaminated. Iwould like, if I may, to go into that – but not howto acquire it. (Varanasi, 1962, Talk 6)

From a public talk, leisure as school:The word ‘school’ means leisure – that leisure

is going to help you to learn. You follow? A schoolthat has no leisure, offers to the student amechanical movement, repetitive movementwhich is what is happening now. Our educationis mechanical. It has no leisure. I don’t know ifyou see this. (Saanen, 1975, Talk 3)

So, before I can get the gist of what he wants tocommunicate, I first have to understand his new orcontextual meanings of words and then learn, in

View from the Belchen toward Feldberg, Black Forest, March 1996

38

myself, how to hear with a kind of generosity oflistening. I have to learn how to take the whole ofthe teachings, allowing one part to influence an-other, allowing the teachings from one time-periodin K’s 70 years of speaking to affect what I under-stood from another period. This is not a process ofcomparison to decide which book is better or whoare the superior conversationalists among thepeople K spoke with but rather a process of com-parison to elucidate a more “holistic” or integratedunderstanding. So if someone asks why I continueto read and study, I answer that unless I can take onthe fullness of K -the change in his speaking styleover the years, the energy that he put into his 70years of speaking to clarify his communication, thespecial meanings he gave to words- and unless Irespond to his output of energy with energy of myown, responding to his passion for freedom withequal passion of my own, then what use is studyingat all? Without this positive response to both theteacher and the teachings, the study of self that Kemphasizes has no vitality and cannot bemaintained.

Yet all of this interesting and curious process ofstudy takes precious time and is not in itself more

than building a foundation. So if, by some luckycombination of chemistry between my nature andthat of someone else’s, I can impart somethingthat saves another a few years, then I feel I mustdo it, not out of duty, responsibility, ethics, sym-pathy, guilt, nor any of the second-hand reasons itis possible to conjure up, but simply out ofaffection for a fellow-traveller on the journey.

What I have written here, I gave to a friend toread for comments. He said he understood whatmy earlier questions were but asked : What areyour questions now?

I thought about this, looked into my mind butcould not pull out any questions. This doesn’t meanthat I have none, but my friend’s question made me realize that I depend on the observation of dailylife to create questions in me, that a mind full ofquestions is not a questioning mind and thatquestioning, observing, listening all have the samemeaning, representing a kind of quiet poise of amind unburdened by a pile of conclusions.

Now, I ask myself: Is this seen or merelyunderstood?

***

Working on a Project: Self-Questioning

I thought that others may find the followingquestions interesting. They are part of my privatestudy of the teachings. I create and go through thesequestions with regard to the projects I am workingon. It is an ongoing voyage of discovery which, Ithink, applies to both those who create and thosewho participate in these projects. These arequestions to ponder, discuss, not to quickly answerand cheat oneself into a happy misunderstanding.They apply to any project, whether an informationcentre, a gathering, a dialogue group, a studycentre, a school or anything else.

1. Is it to end one’s loneliness for people of like mind or out of a craving for affection orrespect from people of like mind?

2. Is it part of a hidden need for power orcontrol over something important?

3. Is it an attempt to gain some kind ofpsychological security?

4. Is it part of a search for a purpose thatbrings meaning to life?

5. Would you continue with planning if your source of funding became unavailable?

6. Are you deepening your awareness of self, your understanding of thought, as youproceed with planning the project?

39The First Step

7. Is a project a building, a plot of land, aplace, however beautiful, or is it you? Whattakes priority?

8. Is the urgency of change that K talks about agradual thing that comes at the end ofprojects or activities or is the future now? Arethe means identical to the end?

9. Are you feeling compelled to do somethingnoble with your life?

10. If this project was suddenly taken away,would you start another?

11. What is your overriding reason for involvingyourself in this project?

12. Is your inspiration coming from an attach-ment to the man, K, because he wanted studycentres and schools and perhaps other thingsor from an attachment to the teachings?

13. What affects society, the project or the humanbeings who built it or both or neither?

14. Is it to give birth to a new self?15. Is it just another activity, an escape to take

you further away from understandingyourself?

By coming to an understanding of thesequestions, their nuances and implications, theirwrongness or rightness in the way they are put,much will be revealed, will be pointed at forobservation.

The true answers are part of self-under-standing and not in self-deceptive responses tothese questions. I test myself but I am careful to neither kill my inspiration nor strengthen it. I play with it.

***

Evening sky from Chalet Solitude, Rougemont, March 1996

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The Mountain Factor

At the top of a Swiss mountain one summer, ayoung mother held her baby against her breast as itsurveyed the magnificence of the surroundingpeaks. The baby, awed and transfixed by the sight,and possibly also by the silence, pointed to oneparticularly spectacular peak and let out a spon-taneous and repetitive cry of acknowledgement. My gaze travelled to the view the baby apprehendedand then to the baby, and for a few timelessmoments I felt myself touched by somethingprecious and profound. I fancied I saw what thebaby saw, felt what the baby felt, and lost myself ina place words could never touch. The spell wasfinally broken by the mother’s natural urge toeducate: “mountain”, she exclaimed. “Mountain”!

The ‘mountain factor’ occurs in all families andschools countless times during the educational/rearing process, and sadly, more often than not. Itis difficult for the parent and teacher to shed theirperceived societal roles and acknowledge that aspace exists outside of this realm, where adult andchild participate together in learning about life.This other space is alive, deep and in a certain way,even magical. It is also the only space in which thechild’s needs can be fulfilled on any meaningfulorganic level. For myself, as a teacher of elevenyears standing, accessing this other dimension tothe learning process, and observing obstacles inmyself that prevent this access, has become thesingle most important challenge of teaching.

The mountain factor occurs, of course, becauseof the ‘human factor’ and it occurs at a tragic costto both parties. The parent/teacher who is unableto step out of his perceived role misses out on adeeper knowledge and understanding of the child’scomplex nature and is thus barred from thelessons the child unconsciously offers throughhis/her innocent exploration of both himself andthe world. As for the child, he stumbles through thematuration process bruised by other people’sexpectations and ends up with a self-image that isat worst the world’s view of him, and at best areactive negation of this. In either of these twoscenarios the child’s own individual seed has notbeen nourished, and therefore his true identity andpotential will not flower.

The degree to which I have crystallised my roleas teacher/parent correspondingly affects the degreeto which the child is free or imprisoned. It can betremendously limiting to teach or parent from anideal of what we want to achieve and then adopt amethod to that end. We will certainly get results ifwe teach or parent in this way, but we will not touchthat creative space alluded to earlier, where adultand child learn together. This was one of my earliestand toughest lessons as an adult in the classroom.

My first years of teaching coincided with a heavyinvolvement in a philosophy that encouraged me totread the path of self perfection. In my smug, self-satisfied naivety I imposed on the children in mycare the same disciplines, values and beliefs that I

This Education Section begins with an article from someone who teaches in the State sector inGreat Britain at infant level. She is an experienced teacher who is certainly successful in terms of“results” within her particular area. Yet she has a view of the teaching process which would hardly becalled ‘mainstream’, at least here in Britain. It is also of interest to us by coming from someone who is ‘outside’ that group of ‘Krishnamurti educators’ who are our normal contributors. Given thatfact, the views expressed make an interesting comparison with those in the following article by Kabir Jaithirta.

The Education Section

imposed on myself. I was quite oblivious of thepower trip I was on, having convinced myself that Iwas doing everyone concerned a great service. Theresults in terms of academic achievement andmanners were good, and some of the children evengrew to love the discipline, but those six year oldswere never allowed to be what they naturally wereand I feel great sadness now when I think aboutthat.

Thankfully, these hair-shirt days only lasted acouple of years and were gradually replaced by amore embracing and welcoming view of both my-self and the world. It was fascinating for me to seethat, as parents and teachers, we can only give tochildren what WE are. As I change, so inevitablydoes my teaching, and so it seems to me that anyserious examination of what education or parenting‘ought’ to be must start from an examination ofwhat we ourselves actually are.

For some time now I have been taking six yearolds through an intensive early interventionreading program on a one to one basis. There issomething quite special and unique about teachingin this way. An intimacy quickly develops that canbe to the child’s advantage or disadvantage,depending on how much quality space and mutuallearning occurs. For myself as a teacher, the onevital and constant question is this: can I see how Isee the child in my care as that seeing is takingplace, and thus put the brakes on my own tendencyto form an image of him. In other words, can I bewith the child without concretising ANYTHING inhis behaviour? If I can, then the two of us can learntogether in the spontaneous space referred toearlier. If, however, I can only address my image ofwhat the child ‘is’, whether that image was formedcumulatively or just a second ago, then I limit bothof us. It is not easy. Even with one child it is noteasy, because our minds are predisposed to labeland fix transient characteristics in both ourselvesand others. Added to this, I carry the baggage ofconventional morality society dumped on meduring my own childhood and this, too, must go ifadult and child are to learn together.

To teach/parent without ideals, without pre-determined role playing and without crystallisingimages can never become a goal, however, for assuch it would be merely another idea and a furtherobstacle. If we truly want education and parentingto be something more than a movie of our ownmyopic making then we must become watchmen:watchmen equally over ourselves and the childrenwe care for. If we take the job seriously then we seewith startling and unnerving clarity that every wordwe speak and don’t speak, every intonation andfacial expression sends a message to the childabout how we perceive him and thus limits or freesus both.

E. Stoddart

Learning and Freedom

The following piece by Kabir Jaithirtha of theCentre for Learning in Bangalore, is part of anintroductory package given to participants of theeducational conference at Rishi Valley lastNovember. This article has been slightly abridgedby the removal of its general introduction whichsets out the disordered state of the world in whichwe are attempting to ‘educate’.

What are the roots of this disorder? What is itthat separates man from man into nationalities,religions, ideologies and divisive groups of everykind? Surely it is our identification with particularbeliefs, patterns of behaviour, the following of oneauthority against another and so on. We have, fromchildhood, been brought up to adhere to certainbeliefs, conform to certain patterns and thatbecomes our conditioning. Though constantlymodified and added on to by the various experiencesand incidents in our life, the functioning frompattern, a background of ideas and conclusions,never ceases. Inevitably this becomes the source ofconflict between individuals and groups. Indeed thegrouping that takes place around ideas merelydeepens the conflict. We seek to resolve it by seekingalternative patterns but do not see that functioning

41The Education Section

from pattern in itself may be the problem. Butsurely, one would object, patterns are necessary tofunction in daily life, to acquire skills, do a job,accumulate knowledge. Indeed they are, but thequestion is, whether patterns are necessary,psychologically, at all. It is indeed easy to see thatmany patterns, psychologically, are very destructiveto the individual and to other people around. Wehope to replace these by more positive patterns. Butthe very functioning from pattern, psychologically,creates an identity, a centre, a self, which then needsto be nourished, sustained and protected from otherselves. It is this functioning from pattern orconditioning that is most destructive to humanrelationship. We begin to see ourselves and othersthrough ideas, images and conclusions, constantlysustaining division even while seeking integration.This division may be the most important factor ofdisorder in mankind, turning all his achievementsinto ashes. We see the results of this division inevery aspect of society. Hence all our efforts social,political, and environmental may not strike at theroot of the problem.

Can there be an education which is concernedwith the dissolving of conditioning? Much of oureducation has attempted to substitute patterns seenas undesirable with others. This has been theconcern of value education into which great efforthas been put by serious educators. We hope tomake our students into thinking, responsible andsensitive individuals. Yet, as we have suggestedearlier, freedom from conditioning may benecessary for this to happen in a truly radical way.Certainly, the acquiring of knowledge and skills areessential to function and survive in society. Butskills without clarity and compassion, as Krishna-murti has said, can only be destructive. So, can theserious educator see the necessity of the ending ofconditioning within himself and in the student?Naturally if this exploration is not going on withinoneself, one will inevitably communicate to thestudent at the verbal level of ideas and conclusions,which become the seed of further conditioning.Dissolving of conditioning may be the true move-ment of learning where the mind is constantly

freeing itself of psychological patterns even whileacquiring the skills and knowledge necessary fordaily functioning.

Krishnamurti makes a distinction betweenlearning, and the acquiring of skills and knowledge.It is important to understand clearly his perceptionof what learning is in order to understand all hisother insights in education. He suggests that the actof learning is the freeing of the brain from patternsof behaviour and frameworks of assumption whichlimit its capacity to look at something with a mindthat is fresh. This movement of learning is not thesame as the gathering of knowledge. It is notmerely the acquiring of a different framework as aresult of which one begins to see things differently,but the very act of learning is the freeing of themind to look afresh. Hence Krishnamurti says thatlearning is non accumulative. It is not theacquiring of a new skill or a different opinion orthe modified continuity of the old. It is also not theoutcome of a technique or a system, which itselfbecomes the pattern within the limits of which thebrain has to function. As teachers we appreciate thedifference between role learning, that is, theacquiring of knowledge through memorisation, andthe ability to think, analyse, and apply theknowledge to different situations. We are also awareof the phrase ‘paradigm shift’ where an oldframework is discarded in favour of an entirely newframework, for example, from Newtonian Physics tothe Relativistic approach or from the Socialisticpattern to the Free Market economy. Krishnamurtiis suggesting an even deeper and more radical dif-ference between the act of learning and the activityof thinking however subtle, complex, and skilled.As suggested earlier, in the act of learning the mindis freeing itself of all patterns, conclusions,opinions, emptying itself of its past and thusrenewing its ability to look at something fresh,unfettered by conclusions.

What are the instruments of such a learning?Perhaps the answer is deceptively simple; looking,listening and observing choicelessly what is goingon outside of oneself and within. As Krishnamurti

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points out, we never really look at or listen tosomething completely. Firstly, the action is dilutedby the constant movement of the psychologicalworld in which each of us lives and is preoccupiedwith. Secondly, even when we are jolted intolooking at something, how quickly our reactionsrush in to act as a barrier to the complete looking.If, for example, while reading this article one isconstantly agreeing, disagreeing, reacting withopinions and ideas, is one listening at all? We haveall seen a child walking with an adult. The childhas the space, the curiosity, the energy to look ateverything around him and interact with every-thing, the smells, the colours, the shapes, and thesounds in this marvellously rich and diverse worldof ours. The adult is intent on the goal, the aim,and the purpose of the outing. But ‘what is to bedone’ only makes sense in the context of, and whenthere is contact with, ‘what is’. Hence the aliveness,the awakening of the senses is of supremeimportance in the act of learning. They are centralto it because, being in contact with ‘what is’ thebrain is freeing itself of the past. Without thisconstantly renewed act of relating, which is theaction of looking, listening, observing withoutconclusions, the mind inevitably gets conditionedby the knowledge that one acquires; knowledgebeing not only the functional knowledge but thehurts, hopes, fears, pleasures and so on.

What is the environment in which the mind canbegin to free itself of conditioning? Implied inconditioning is conformity to the patterns andtraditions of the environment in which one growsand to patterns and conclusions one acquiresthrough one’s own experiences. The patterns,whether my own or that of society, become theauthority which I more or less unquestioninglyaccept or react to. Without perception of the wholeprocess of pattern conformity-authority, reactionmerely becomes another pattern. Fear andauthority go together with it. Reward, punishmentand fear become the means by which patternasserts itself. Aren’t all our schools based on these?Do not examinations, marks and grades becomethe means by which the child is unconsciously

made to conform to the pattern of society? Yet wecannot think of schools without examinations andmarks. Is it because the teacher is not in contactwith the student, observing, learning, challenging,and moving together with him?

Comparison is a pressure to conform andimitate. And conformity can never be the soil inwhich creativity and originality come into being.Comparison also brings about competition with itsdemand to be first and its fear of failure. Krishna-murti has emphasized that competition andcomparison are destructive of the individual. Manyof us appreciate that freedom from a competitiveatmosphere is necessary to create an environmentconducive to the acquiring of skills and knowledge.Conformity and competition are two expressions ofthe same pattern and reinforce each other. In anenvironment free of these factors the space iscreated to perceive and dissolve conditioning.

What then is excellence? We tend to see ex-cellence in comparative terms, for example, ascoming first, doing better than others or evencompeting against oneself, doing one’s best, selfsatisfaction etc. In each of these movements thereis comparison and authority, either external or thatof one’s own experiences. And comparison isdivisive. Perhaps excellence is really the summa-tion of all of one’s energies, that is, the gathering ofenergy without division. In this gathering is impliedno comparison or measurement, but this fullnessof energy is naturally creative and excellent inaction.

As educators we have been concerned withgoodness, responsibility and right values. But,Krishnamurti asks, is goodness the following of apattern however noble or hallowed by tradition?Can there be goodness when there is fear andauthority? Is goodness an ideal to be achieved, or isit the living action of a mind freeing itself from alldivisiveness? For Krishnamurti, the coming ofgoodness is not through the positive inculcation ofvalues but negatively, through the dissolving ofconditioning. Goodness which is the outcome of

43The Education Section

values and tradition is imitative and is limited bythem, but goodness which is the mind freeing itselffrom its patterns, shows itself in behaviour andrelationship as right action.

Finally, what is intelligence? What is its relation-ship to knowledge and thought? Is intelligence thesubtle and skilled use of thought in analysis andconceptualisation? Is intelligence personal or is itthe movement of the unconditioned mind free ofidentification as ‘yours’ and ‘mine’? These are somequestions which Krishnamurti raises. Intelligencefor him, is beyond thought and knowledge andcannot therefore be possessed as mine or yours.The conditioned mind, as we have said earlier,constantly identifies itself with ideas, images andexperiences and projects the motion of a self, anindividual who thinks, acts, and perceives. To thisself, skills and capacities become possessions to beexploited and used to carve out a status, to gainpower, exert authority, or be preoccupied by selfexpression. Krishnamurti would suggest the deepestintelligence is the perception of disorder and theending of it. We have suggested that the conditionedmind cannot but create disorder in its action. Henceintelligence is the perception of the nature of theconditioned mind and its ending. Intelligence andthe movement of learning, in the sense we havetalked earlier, are therefore one and the same. Thisintelligence being impersonal, not identified withany pattern, can act and bring order to thought. Weneed only reflect that people with the highest ofskills and intellect can act destructively, to see thenecessity of a movement of intelligence that canbring order to thought. Man has tried again andagain to seek order through ideals, values andtraditions, only to have these become the source ofdivison. Order cannot be a static quality groundedin an ideal or a pattern. An order which is ‘outthere’ brings about the necessity to sustain itthrough effort and control. Krishnamurti points outthat the mind free of conditioning is free of divisionand therefore its action is intrinsically in order.

While Krishnimurti’s insights do not form abody of knowledge or ideals to be practiced, they

question and challenge our deeply held assump-tions about learning, the place of knowledge in our life, the nature of order, freedom, disciplineand other areas which necessarily form the veryfoundation of an educational programme. Thebeauty of these insights is that they are not to befollowed and imitated, but are questions that aneducator can explore in his life and in school, andmake it a creative and original movement.

Kabir Jaithirtha, November 1995

A Village School in India

Devindra Singh is Rabindra’s brother. Theyspent time together in India at the end of lastyear. Devindra kindly wrote this brief report onhis impressions of the village school operated byNaga. At the same time Rabindra and othersconducted a lengthy interview of Naga which wasrecorded. We hope to publish extracts from thatinterview in our next issue.

After having spoken to students from Brock-wood, Oak Grove and the various K schools inIndia, I am left with the feeling that the explorationinto right education as described by K is far fromover. These young people, all of whom I found to be fairly intelligent, could have come from anynumber of the new alternative schools springing upall over (note: this is the writer’s opinion).

Perhaps K’s idea of the possibility of a newgeneration of human beings is too radical and canonly be approximated. Perhaps not. Perhaps thefreedom of the non-mechanistic mind that Kalludes to will always elude me. And, perhaps not.One thing, though, is certain. I cannot unsee thethings I’ve seen or unfeel the things I’ve felt. Forme, there is no turning back, not even if I wantedto. My energy for continuing exploration into whatis represented by the teachings of K remainsundaunted by my past inability to fully grasp them.

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45The Education Section

Rightly or wrongly, education has come to play alarge role in the Krishnamurti world. There areindividuals attracted to the works of K through theirpersonal interest in education, some of whomagree with K that the process of education and thatof religion are intricately related. Such persons,both inside and outside the established K edu-cational environments, may also be undaunted bypast history, and, by virtue of their interest andpassion, continue looking to uncover new ways topossibly break through the predicament they findthemselves in with regard to education.

One such individual is V. Nagabusharam (Nagato his friends) with whom I spent some time on arecent trip to India. A former student of a K school,

Naga has started a small village school of his ownon the three acre parcel of land he owns with hisfamily in Thettu Village. I found his approach toschooling, if not novel, certainly different from thenorm. Here is an experiment in integratingschooling and living.

The school operates in the midst of family life.There are about thirty children of whom five or sixare residents, sleeping and eating with the family.The impression I had there was that of one largeextended family. Though the small hut where thechildren study their academic subjects is somedistance away from the main house, the childrenspend half-hour a day playing or doing chores as

This collage of the young children from a small rural school reflects my fascination with them. The fresh-ness and innocence of their faces amazed me. All come from simple and poor families. The school wasfounded by Nagabusharam, a former student of Rishi Valley, in the remote village called Tetthu near RishiValley (F. Grohe).

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they would in any family. I found it remarkable thatthey were happy to be there even when studying,either alone or together. They were self motivated.It was evident in their behavior that they sharedthat sense of freedom and security that youngchildren require.

I found myself wondering if this is all one cando -create an atmosphere where there is muchmental space and freedom -not limited to a class-

room- in which the natural enquiring spirit ofchildren would be allowed to operate. Certainly it is easier to do physically in a small school -but thatis merely building a foundation. Ultimately thespirit of any place will reflect what is going on inthe hearts and minds of those running it. And only the individuals involved know what that is. The challenge of education, as with every otheraspect of life, in the end comes right back toourselves.

Devindra Singh, March 1996

Thinking Without Thinkers:Reviewing Dialogue

The first paragraph of this examination ofdialogue reflects back to our first article and theimportance of haw we deal with children. Apartfrom that, although not overtly educational, itstands on its own.

It was not long after the first stirrings of reasonin my childhood that I became aware of thepervasive irrationality in human thinking, feelingand action. It was reflected in all kinds of incoher-ent responses and specially in the general inabilityto hold a sensible conversation. As soon as differ-ences of opinion emerged, there was bound to beconflict. Authority dominated the scene at almostevery level, in the family and in society at large, sothat questioning became a very hazardous venture.The religious and social sanctions were guaranteedby an impregnable hierarchy sanctified by tradition.This dogmatism created an overall social collusionto keep the whole thing going in spite of obviousinconsistencies and established errors. These hadto be ignored and submerged in the generalconspiracy of silence out of fear of retribution inthis and the other worlds. Violence, physical andverbal, open or hidden, was an everyday reality. Thewhole phenomenon, which had been handed downgeneration after generation, endangered the socialfabric, produced a state of incommunication and

led inevitably to a tragic view of life. Even a child ofseven could see that something was rotten in thestate of Denmark.

This state of affairs affected every sphere ofone’s life, whether at home, in church, in school oramong one’s friends. This drove each person evenfurther into the darkling recesses of a private world,of an individuality opposed to the collective andhungering for all that lost affection. This generalfragmentation was internalized and became aninward battle of reason and habit, of salvation andsin, of order and revolt, with its own repressivesystem and its oppressed. It didn’t take muchobservation to see that it was a phenomenonaffecting the whole of society, from the lowestechelons to the highest levels, and that it was notthe peculiarity of a particular people, nation or racebut of the whole of humanity. The expressionsmight vary, but the source and the results wereidentical. What in one place might follow the self-righteous dictates of extroverted pride, in otherlatitudes became the studied indifference ofnarcissistic tolerance. The solipsistic stance and theresulting alienation were the same. There invariablywas the thinker, wrapped up in some cherishedopinion or belief, in some identification, and unableto step out of its windowless bubble. So the questionarose as to whether it would be possible to talkthings over together without this backgroundpersonality, to dialogue, to think without thinkers.

Many of us have been interested in dialogue asa consequence of this state of isolation and as anatural extension of our concern with communi-cation. Lack of communication is tantamount tolack of relationship and in such a situationcooperation is very limited, when not altogetherimpossible. Communication means to makecommon, as in the transfer of information, but itcan also be seen as making in common, thusemphasizing its more creative aspect. Transfer ofinformation is relatively simple, but communi-cation involves much more than this. A fact can beeasily accepted by different people, but not so themeaning attached to it. So communication is notcomplete unless the meaning as well as theinformation is conveyed. We also sense that thesharing of data is rather a limited function ofspeech and that the latter has a more humanizingaspect. One can express emotions, share feelingsand all kinds of perceptions which are facts inthemselves, independently of external criteria offunctionality. The word conveys a meaning thatpoints to a reality (its significance) but which alsoindicates a purpose and therefore becomes anintegral part of that very reality and inseparablefrom it. Understanding the dimensions of the wordis really crucial if communication is to becomecommunion, i.e. a real holding of meaning incommon and the consequent sense of friendship.

The concern with communication was, as we allknow, of central importance to both K and DavidBohm. K spent most of his life speaking to audien-ces, small groups and individuals. The purpose ofspeaking was to bring people together in a commonperception of the truth. He proposed that peopletalk things over together like two friends, and soon. He used various terms to indicate the type ofcommunication he had in mind, resorting to thedictionary to clarify the etymological and currentmeanings of such terms as discussion, debate,dialectic, dialogue and deliberation. Discussionmeans to split or shake into two, which ends upsignifying investigation through argument ordebate. Debate comes from a word meaning tobattle, so it is equivalent to argumentative dispute.

Dialectic means the art of conversation, but itbecame the technique of critically examining thetruth of an opinion, eventually standing for thelogical progression of thought by means ofopposites to a synthesis and so on ad infinitum.Dialogue means conversation between two peopleor communication through words, specially in theform of question and answer. And deliberationcomes from the Latin for scale, so it means toweigh in the mind, consider carefully, specially withview to a decision ( a deliberate action is one doneon purpose). So debate, discussion and dialecticindicate a kind of confrontation, a battle ofpositions, a disquisition about different opinions.Dialogue and deliberation suggest a more holisticapproach to communication, one that does notrequire the defence of ideas or the winning ofarguments but the participation in a commonmeaning.

For K the purpose of this type of communi-cation, be it called discussion, dialogue or deliber-ation, was to expose ourselves to ourselves bytalking over together our many vital humanproblems in an impersonal manner, in a spirit offriendship and serious concern, without opinions,judgements, conclusions or emotionalism to findout the truth. The point was not to come up withan answer but to explore the question so deeplythat it yielded its own. He maintained that onlyfacts are communicable and to perceive the truthof our problems we must consider them not asprivate but as universal and without authority, sinceit is a question of finding out rather thanexplaining away. Talking things over togetherinvolved the willingness to expose ourselves usingwords as mirrors and an ability to listen. Hemaintained that if the process of question andanswer were sustained, it would lead to the endingof the thinkers/speakers and only the problemwould remain which was vital if the latter was toyield its implicit answer. In fact, the suggestion wasthat the thinker is the basic cause of our problems.The vanishing of the thinker in communication istherefore of the greatest significance, altering thequality of thinking itself by transforming it into a

47The Education Section

self-reflecting process, thus producing an inwardtransformation of far-reaching consequences.

The implementation of such communication ordialogue, as those who have tried it can testify,turns out to be difficult, so that more often thannot it becomes discussion, debate or dialectic. Thisdifficulty is due to a series of factors, such as lackof awareness of its dynamics and of the reactionswhich are affecting us in the process. Dialogue thustends to become a clashing of views instead of anunimpeded flow of meaning, a mechanical inter-ference instead of a creative movement. Bohmsuggested (KFT Bulletin No.8, Autumn 1970) thatwhat turns communication into a creative activity isthe perception of similarity and difference betweenwhat is meant and what is understood by theparticipants. This same process takes place inartistic creation between what the artist intendsand the final result, as well as in science betweentheory and the fact yielded in its testing. Thisperception is blocked because we are not suffi-ciently aware of our own contradictions. Ideas alsogive rise to feelings of pleasure or fear in us towhich we are not sensitive and which interfere withthe communication. So he suggested that tocommunicate one must be aware not only of thecontent of the communication but also of theseinward responses. This self-awareness opens theway for something new to take place.

Dr. Bohm eventually developed the notion ofdialogue into a proposal with a potential forchanging consciousness. Dialogue became a way ofexposing the hidden assumptions controlling ourthinking-feeling and behaviour. The main focus wasthe unfolding of the pervasive incoherence of thethought process, in which is to be found the causeof the endless crises affecting mankind. For himthought was “a collection of concepts, memoriesand reflexes coloured by personal needs, fears anddesires all of which are limited and distorted bv thetendencies of our lanquaqe, historv and culture”.(Bohn, Factor & Garret, “Dialogue: A Proposal”,1991) He indicated that thought is essentiallycollective and therefore can be addressed in a group

setting of sufficient dimensions to be representativeof the overall society and its subcultures. Theincoherence of thought is brought about by its lackof awareness of itself, its lack of proprioception.Thought does things and then fails to recognisethem as of its own doing. The point is not to worktowards any predetermined end but to create aspace in which this proprioception can take place.The proposal thus involved no specific purpose, nocontrolling authority or leadership, no limitationson subject matter, and the suspension of thought-feelings. This latter recommendation could easilybe confused with suppression but it means theexpression of thought-feelings to the extent thatallows them to be observed in oneself or to bereflected by others. As dialogue is sustained, itgenerates a shared content of consciousness whichbrings about a feeling of impersonal fellowship orkoinonia, from which further exploration intodeeper areas can take place.

At the heart of this consideration of dialoguelies the word. For K the word was not the thing.Words are mere signs and their significance de-pends on our perception of what they are pointingat. Identifying the word with the thing may causeus to lose sight of the thing. Then we can battleover words. The concern with facts as distinct fromideas is another way of expressing it. K saw wordsboth as a mirror that could reveal the truth ifproperly listened to and as a kind of slavery, thevery instrument of destructive conditioningresponsible for our confusion and lack of in-telligence and compassion. So words can play adecisive role in perpetuating conflict or bringingabout understanding and freedom.

A critical factor in understanding the uses anddangers of the word is the perception that itscontent is the past. The word signifies knowledge,a previous experience, whether individual orcollective, and this is its primary referent, not thething it represents. This is what is implied insaying that the word is not the thing. In this inbuiltstructure of the word lies its tremendous potentialfor confusion. This constitutes the intrinsic limi-

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49The Education Section

tation of the word and the need for proprioception,for a self-awareness of thought. I may have thenotion of a particular thing which proves useful inaction, like how to make a phonecall. But I mayalso harbour a prejudice against somebody ofanother creed, nationality, race or ideology andthat concept signifies an unbridgeable difference.The word creates its own reality, which is the past,and thus betrays and destroys the present,generating alienation and its untold misery andviolence. This word is the burden of tradition, oftime, the breaking up of the wholeness of life,which constitutes our basic individual andcollective insanity. The total identification of theword with its past content is the nature of thethinker. An awareness of the intrinsic limitation of

the word means the unfolding of the thinker. Thenthe word can become transparent and serve as amirror of that which is.

Dialogue, then, means to bring about this self-awareness of thought as the intrinsically limitedmovement of the past so there can be communi-cation, a shared content of consciousness, athinking without thinkers and its impersonalfellowship and creativity. Given the current state ofuniversal fragmentation, dialogue holds the potentialfor a much needed change in the way of ouralienating social consciousness and therefore for thecreation of a new culture.

Javier Gomez Rodriguez

Participants at the Saanen gathering on a hike at Kühtungel on the way to Geltenhütte, Saanen 1995

50

Two Project Reports

The following two articles are includedbecause they are interesting in their own right,but they also refer to two projects which havebeen featured in past editions of this supplement.

The Clearwater School

Clearwater Learning Centre will start 31 January1996 with two full-time educators, some parentalinput and, at the time of writing, five children. Itwill cater for children at both primary and post-primary levels and intends to maintain a very higheducator-pupil ratio.

Our impetus in starting the centre is ourdeepfelt discontent with conventional education.We feel it fails to address the individual needs ofchildren, as well as the fundamental problems ofliving – the immense problem of conflict at alllevels, of increasing violence, of fear and of thedevastation of the natural environment. With itsunbalanced emphasis on gaining qualifications andits focus on personal ambition, worldly success andthe competitive spirit, we feel it often plays adestructive part in children’s development. Clearly,children need to develop a high level ofcompetence in oral and written communication,mathematical calculation, scientific reasoning,technological skills and artistic expression.However, it is just as important that childrendevelop an understanding of themselves and oftheir relationships; we feel this is essential ifchildren are to grow up sanely, leading construc-tive, creative lives. In brief, we are concerned with:– Nurturing the child’s capacity to learn by

encouraging enquiry, observation and attention,both inwardly and outwardly, so that the child’smind is able to ask and explore fundamentalquestions

– Assisting children to direct their own lines ofenquiry, to assess their own understanding andwork, and to evolve a sense of responsibility

toward their own development and that ofothers

– Creating an atmosphere of care and affection,where every child receives the attentionnecessar,v to awaken their creativity, intelligence(not mere IQ), and unique capacities – and thespace to discover their true vocation in life

– Removing barriers to learning such as fear ofpunishment, desire for reward and competitivepressure – everything possible will be done tocreate a learning environment which is free ofall fear

– Freeing the child’s mind, as far as possible, ofthe burden of being compared, either with an-other child, or with an artificial set of educatio-nal standards – academic comprehension willbe monitored by direct observation, not by testsor gradings

– Emphasising understanding rather than themere acceptance of imparted knowledge and theexercise of memory – curricula will be continu-ally developed to respond to the individual needsand interests of each child

– Encouraging a truly global outlook, free frompersonal identification with the belief systems ofa particular group

– Developing a close relationship with nature anda concern for the future of the naturalenvironment

– Welcoming parental participation in dialogue,decision-making and day-to-day school activities

Both educators have prior teaching experience ata school with similar intentions overseas. Our deve-lopment has been influenced by the educationalwork of the late J. Krishnamurti. This does notimply any affiliation with other organisations, or theadoption of a particular system of education. AsKrishnamurti pointed out, such systems inevitablybecome barriers to a direct relationship between theteacher and the student.

Parents and those who share an interest inexploring this approach to education are invited tocontact the educators – Clive Elwell and SuseelaKumaravel.

Clive Elwell, February 1996

The London Course

The AG Educational Trust has launched its firstcourse at the Ethical Society in London. The class iswell attended and is being very well received. Theprimary aim is to expose the participants toKrishnamurti’s approach to philosophical inquiry ina way that is relevant to their lives. The format is asfollows; first the importance of asking fundamentalquestions is introduced. Secondly, students areencouraged to choose relevant questions andexplore these in relation to their own world-views.Sustained exploration is helped by the presentationof a variety of provocative material aimed atbringing out our shared conditioning. Often thismaterial is culled from different disciplines includ-ing philosophy, psychology, anthropology, sociology,and physics. Eventually some of the basicassumptions underlying the way we think aboutourselves and the world emerge. During thisprocess students begin to become more sensitive totheir own conditioning and how it affects their lives.

As we all know, so much of teaching is creatingthe right atmosphere. This involves a certainseriousness as well as a sense of playfulness. How-ever, it is important to establish a few class rules.The first and foremost is that as philosophers (i.e.individuals engaging in deep inquiry into funda-mental questions) we are concerned with keeping aquestion open. That means saying something like;“That’s just the way things are” must itself be opento question. A lot of time and effort is spent keepingthe windows of inquiry from slamming shut. Thedemand for certainty is forever poised ready torestrict serious exploration.

Clearwater Learning Centre18 Morris Street, AvonsideChristchurchNew ZealandTel + 64-3-381 5075/Fax + 64-3-33 7 2317

51The Education Section

This emphasis on openness also helps us tofocus on the process of investigation which – itmust be said – is very demanding for a teacher. Forexample, most students will detect if the teacher isstrongly identified with what he or she is presenting.If this is the case students tend to either feel thatthey cannot actually question such material (theteacher being in this way an implicit authority) orthey react against the protective emotions behindthe presentation. This reaction might take the formof loss of interest due to the hypocrisy the teacher isdisplaying (identification is inconsistent withopenness).

Philosophical inquiry demands the creation andmaintenance of a learning community in theclassroom. This means making explicit the inherentdifficulties in inquiry, such as identification, andencouraging students to work together with theteacher in learning about this process. In otherwords; be open about it, raise awareness in thisregard. As individuals share their views, however,divergent opinions inevitably emerge. Realisticallypeople will defend positions. Yet is it possible todefend oneself intelligently? This is a crucial point.Failure to approach this question with students canresult in the poisoning of the atmosphere.

The tendency for most people is to defendthemselves incoherently. That is, to consider anopposing point of view as a threat (another aspect ofidentification). An alternative to this is what DavidBohm referred to as always remaining open toevidence that our assumptions may be incorrect.Often this is not easy. However, such an approach issurely impossible if the teacher is not already in theprocess of “walking the talk”, as the NativeAmericans say. In other words, actively exploringthese insights in their own lives.

Offering educational courses to the generalpublic is a constant reminder that many peopleseem to be looking for a philosophical focus thatallows them to discover for themselves. The classcontinues...

Paul Herder, March 1996

An old Eucalypt treein Ojai, California,April 1996

This newsletter was written in collaboration with Nick Short and Jurgen Brandt, compiled andedited by Jurgen and printed by TYPOAtelier Gerhard Brandt in Frankfurt. Photographs were takenby me unless stated otherwise. The Education Section of the newsletter was compiled and edited byNick Short. The editor of The First Step requires to remain anonymous.

Whoever wants to reproduce extracts is welcome to do so, with the exception of reprinted lettersand copyrighted articles. Anyone may obtain additional copies of this or previous newsletters freeof charge by contacting me:

Secretariate Friedrich GroheChalet SolitudeCH-1838 RougemontSwitzerlandPhone: (41)-29-4 94 46Fax: (41)-29-4 8762

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