Freedom from the Known - Softcover

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060648082 ISBN 13: 9780060648084

Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco, 1975

Synopsis

Did you know that there is a connection between neuroscience and free will? While humans have the power to make conscious choices, they are heavily influenced by social media, YouTube, the news they watch and read, their surrounding community, the people they interact with on a daily basis, and even the places they shop.

Philosopher, spiritual figure, and author Jiddu Krishnamurti reminds us, “We look to someone to tell us what is right or wrong behavior, what is right or wrong thought, and in following this pattern our conduct and our thinking became mechanical, our responses automatic.”

The good news is you can choose all of the things that influence your freedom.

Krishnamurti’s Freedom from the Known will show you how to free yourself from the tyranny of the expected, so you can open the door to transform society and your relationships. You’ll discover the primary cause of disorders is the reality promised by someone else instead of being our own authority for our way of life.

If you want to challenge the way you look at the world, enhance your spiritual awareness, and open your mind and hearts to others Freedom from the Known is for you. After reading, you’ll gain a more meaningful perspective of life that will:

·       Enhance your existing and future relationships

·       Help you identify and overcome your fears

·       Better understand the totality of life

·       Enhance your communication skills

·       Help you increase your confidence and ability to self-love

Krishnamurti reminds us, “To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.”

About this title

About the Author

J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was a renowned spiritual teacher whose lectures and writings have inspired thousands. His works include On Mind and Thought, On Nature and the Environment, On Relationship, On Living and Dying, On Love and Lonliness, On Fear, and On Freedom.

From the Back Cover

Krishnamurti shows how people can free themselves radically and immediately from the tyranny of the expected, no matter what their age--opening the door to transforming society and their relationships.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

Man's Search-The Tortured Mind-the Traditional Approach-The Trap of Respectability-The Human Being and the Individual-The Battle of ExistenceThe Basic Nature of Man --Responsibility --TruthSelf --transformation --Dissipation of Energy--Freedom from Authority

Man has throughout the ages been seeking something beyond himself, beyond material welfare--something we call truth or God or reality, a timeless state --something that cannot be disturbed by circumstances, by thought or by human corruption.

Man has always asked the question: what is it all about? Has life any meaning. at all? He sees the enormous confusion of life, the brutalities, the revolts, the wars, the endless divisions of religion, ideology and nationality, and with a sense of deep abiding frustration he asks, what is one to do, what is this thing we call living, is there anything beyond it?

And not finding this nameless thing of a thousand names which he has always sought, he has cultivated faith-faith in a saviour or an ideal-and faith invariably breeds violence.

In this constant battle which we call living, we try to set a code of conduct according to the society in which we are brought up, whether it be a Communist society or a so-called free society; we accept a standard of behaviour as part of our tradition as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or whatever we happen to be. We look to someone to tell us what is right or wrong behaviour, what is right or wrong following this pattern our conduct and thought, and inour thinking become mechanical, our responses automatic. We can observe this very easily in ourselves.

For centuries we have been spoon-fed by our teachers, by our authorities, by our books) our saints. We say, 'Tellme all about it--what lies beyond the hills and the moun-tains and the earth?' and we are satisfied with their descrip-tions, which means that we live on words and our life isshallow and empty. We are second-hand people. We havelived on what we have been told, either guided by ourinclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept bycircumstances and environment. We are the result of allkinds of influences and there is nothing new in us, nothingthat we have discovered for ourselves; nothing original,pristine, clear.

Throughout theological history we have been assuredby religious leaders that if we perform certain rituals, repeat certain prayers or mantras, conform to certain patterns, suppress our desires, control our thoughts, sublimate our passions, limit our appetites and refrain from sexual indulgence, we shall, after sufficient torture of the mind and body, find something beyond this little life. And that is what millions of so-called religious people have done through the ages, either in isolation, going off into the desert or into the mountains or a cave or wandering from village to village with a begging bowl, or, in a group) joining a monastery, forcing their minds to conform to an established pattern. But a tortured mind, a broken mind, a mind which wants to escape from all turmoil, which has denied the outer world and been made dull through discipline and conformity--such a mind, however long it seeks, will find only according), to its own distortion.

So to discover whether there actually is or is not something beyond this anxious, guilty, fearful, competitive existence, it seems to me that one must have a completely different approach altogether. The traditional approach is from the periphery inwards, and through time, practice and renunciation, gradually to come upon that inner flower, that inner beauty and love-in fact to do everything to make oneself narrow, petty and shoddy; peel off little by little; take time; tomorrow will do, next life will do-and when at last one comes to the centre one finds there is nothing there, because one's mind has been made incapable, dull and insensitive.

Having observed this process, one asks oneself, is there not a different approach altogethcr--that is, is it not possiblc to explode from the centre?

The world accepts and follows the traditional approach. The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another; we mechanically follow somebody who will assure us a comfortable spiritual life. It is a most extraordinary thing that although most of us are opposed to political tyranny and dictatorship, we inwardly accept the authority, the tyranny, of another to twist our minds and our way of life. So if we completely reject, not intellectually but actually, all so-called spiritual authority, all ceremonies, rituals and dogmas, it means that we stand alone and are already in conflict with society; we cease to be respectable human beings. A respectable human being cannot possibly come near to that infinite, inmeasurable, reality.

You have now started by denying something absolutely false --the traditional approach-but if you deny it as a reaction you have created another pattern in which you will be trapped; if You tellyourself intellectually that this denial is a very good idea but do nothing about it, You cannot go any further. If you deny it, however) because you understand the stupidity and immaturity of it, if YOU reject it with tremendous intelligence, be-cause You are free and not frightened, you will create a great disturbance in yourself and around you but you will step out of the trap of respectability. Then you will find that you are no longer seeking. That is the first thing to learn-not to seek. When you seek you arc really only window-shopping.

The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher's or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself and that is why you must know yourself- Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco
• Publication date: 1975
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060648082
• ISBN 13: 9780060648084
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 124
• Editor: Mary Lutyens