Brief Descriptions of Jiddu Krishnamurti's Sense and the Sense of Other Mystics
John L. Waters
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John L. Waters
February 25, 2002
Copyright 2002 by John L. Waters. All Rights
Reserved
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The following quotations come from the book entitled
"Krishnamurti's Notebook" published by Harper & Row,
and having call number B5134.K76A341976b. This book
is 252 pages long and contains notes that Jiddu
Krishnamurti wrote as he was travelling, living in
different places, and giving talks. The reason for
collecting some of these short quotations and
presenting them here is to give the reader a quick
introduction to the Krishnamurti's mystical sense.(1)
June 18th, 1961
"In the evening it was there: suddenly it was there,
filling the room, a great sense of beauty, power and
gentleness. Others noticed it." (page 9)
June 20th, 1961
"In the car on the way to Ojai, again it began, the
pressure and the feeling of immense vastness." (page
9)
June 23rd, 1961
"Sitting in the dentist's chair, one was looking out
of the window, looking past the hedge, the TV antenna,
the telegraph pole, at the purple mountains. One was
looking not with eyes only but with one's whole head,
as though from the back of the head, with one's entire
being. It was an odd experience. There was no centre
from which observation was taking place. The colors
and the beauty and lines of the mountains were
intense." (page 12)
July 13th, 1961
"Last night, after the long and lovely drive through
mountainous country, on entering the room, that
strange sacred blessing was there. The other also
felt it. The other also felt the quiet, that
penetrating atmosphere. There is a feeling of great
beauty and love and of mature fullness." (page 23)
July 17th, 1961
"We were going up the path of a steep wooded side of a
mountain and presently sat on a bench. Suddenly, most
unexpectedly that sacred benediction came upon us, the
other felt it too, without our saying anything." (page
25)
July 19th, 1961
"It had been rather bad all the afternoon of yesterday
and it seems more painful. Towards the evening that a
sacredness came and filled the room and the other felt
it too." (page 26)
July 27th, 1961
"It was a beautiful drive through two different
valleys, up to a pass; the sweeping mountainous rocks,
fantastic shapes and curves, their solitude and
grandeur, and far away the green, sloping mountain,
made an impression on the brain that was still. As we
were driving, the strange intensity and the beauty of
these many days came more and more pressing upon one.
And the other felt it also." (page 33)
August 3rd, 1961
"It was a clear morning though soon clouds would be
gathering. As one looked out of the window, the
trees, the fields were very clear. A curious thing is
happening; there is a heightening of sensitivity.
Sensitivity, not only to beauty but also to all other
things. The blade of grass was astonishingly green;
that one blade of grass contained the whole spectrum
of colour; it was intense, dazzling and such a small
thing, so easy to destroy. Those trees were all of
life, their height and their depth; the lines of
those sweeping hills and the solitary trees were the
expression of all time and space; and the mountains
against the pale sky were beyond all the gods and man.
It was incredible to see, feel, all this by just
looking out of the window. One's eyes were
cleansed."(page 38,39)
August 9th, 1961
"Yesterday, walking amidst hills, meadows and streams,
among pleasant quietness and beauty one was again
aware of that strange and deeply moving innocence. It
was quietly, without any resistance, penetrating,
entering into every corner and twist of one's mind,
cleansing it of all thought and feeling. It left one
empty and complete. Suddenly all time had stopped.
Each one was aware of its passage." (pages 42 and 43)
August 11th, 1961
"Sitting in the car, beside a boisterous mountain
stream and in the middle of green, rich meadows and a
darkening sky, that incorruptible innocence was there,
whose austerity was beauty. The brain was utterly
quiet and it was touched by it."(page 44)
August 16, 1961
"This morning, it was very early, the dawn wouldn't
come for a couple of hours, on waking, with eyes that
have lost their sleep, one was aware of an
unfathomable cheerfulness; there was no cause to it,
no sentimentality or that emotional extravagance,
enthusiasm, behind it; it was clear, simple cheer,
uncontaminated and rich, untouched and pure. There
was no thought or reason behind it and neither could
one ever understand it for there was no cause to it.
This cheerfulness was pouring out of one's whole being
and the being was utterly empty. As a stream of water
gushes out from the side of a mountain, naturally and
under pressure, this cheer was pouring out in great
abundance, coming from nowhere and going nowhere, but
the heart and mind would never be the same again."
(page 49, 50)
October 8th, 1961
"In the afternoon yesterday, it began suddenly, in a
room overlooking a noisy street; the strength and the
beauty of the otherness was spreading from the room
outward over the traffic, past the gardens and beyond
the hills. It was there immense and impenetrable; it
was there in the afternoon, and just as one was
getting into bed it was there with furious intensity,
and benediction of great holiness." (page 136)
The reader may be tempted to attribute this perception
to a chronic mental or perceptual disorder. The fact
is that Jiddu Krishnamurti suffered from episodes of
pain. In a quote from the Foreword of "Krishnamurti's
Notebook" Mary Lutyens states:
In 1922, at the age of twenty-eight, Krishnamurti
underwent a spiritual experience that changed his life
and which was followed by years of acute and almost
continuous pain in his head and spine. The manuscript
shows that "the process", as he called this mysterious
pain, was still going on nearly forty years later,
though in a much milder form." (page 5)
In a brief report on his own experience of the
mystical sense taken from the book, "Nature, Man and
Woman," author Alan Watts writes:
"It was in just this way that late one afternoon my
own garden became suddenly transfigured-- for about
half an hour, just at the beginning of twilight. The
sky was in some way transparent, its blue quiet and
clear, but more inwardly luminous than ever at high
noon. The leaves of the trees and shrubs assumed
qualities of green that were incandescent, and their
clusterings were no longer shapeless daubs, but
arabesques of marvellous complexity and clarity. The
interlacing of branches against the sky suggested
filigree or tracery, not in the sense of
artificiality, but of distinctness and rhythm.
Flowers-- I remember especially the fuchsias-- were
suddenly the lightest carvings of ivory and coral."
(page 125)(2)
A quote from the book entitled "Life Without Death" by
Nils O. Jacobson, M.D.:
"As a child... I was very unhappy that I had been born
on this earth. I heard Father argue with neighbors
and friends that God does not exist. To lie in bed
listening, especially late at night, after alcohol had
had its effect and the discussions grew rather loud,
made my existence even worse. I must have been about
six years old, when one cold night I decided to make
an end to this unbearable existence. I crept out of
the house, dressed only in a nightshirt, and lay down
in the snow. The freezing cold was severe. In that
snowdrift I said out loud to myself, "I'm going to die
here tonight if I don't receive any proof that a God
exists." How well I remember those words. Then
something happened which changed my life up to this
present moment. Everything in that dark night become
illuminated. The stars grew bigger than usual. From
the stars and the planets I saw chains, and from these
stars and planets the chains extended down into the
earth too. All these chains ran on cogwheels and
behind it all there was a power, like a kind of
dynamo. There was also a sound, muted, as from a
great activity of machines. After this experience, I
felt that there were powers in the universe and I
called them God. After that, life on earth became
much happier. I felt connected with the universe. I
experienced many events which cannot be explained.
Even so, I taught myself to keep silent about it and
tell no one about my experiences, since they were only
received with scorn and I was told that I was only
deceiving myself with fantasies." (pages 271, 272)(3)
A quote from Barry Stevens taken from the book "Person
to Person" the Problem of Being Human":
"When I was young, and even when I was not quite so
young, there were so many experiences which I could
not communicate to anyone. One day when I was
nineteen, I was walking along a New York street in
early morning, feeling good. Not many people were
around. The sun was shining and a bright reflection
of it caught my eye. It came from a safety pin, lying
on the pavement. That safety pin lying on the
pavement in a huge city with millions of people and
towering buildings had an absurdity about it that made
me smile. This switched to seeing the safety pin as a
part of the world, as much as I was myself, and I felt
myself very strongly in accord with everything, in
touch with all there is, known and unknown. Then the
safety pin became a key, as thoughts, starting there,
went through my head more repidly than anything that I
can think of now, each thought leading to another,
like steps building higher and higher, until they
arrived at an explanation of the universe. It was all
so beautifully clear, and at the same time simple and
amazing. I was delighted with this universe in which
I lived." (page 115)(4)
References:
1. Krishnamurti, Jiddu "Krishnamurti's Notebook"
Harper & Row, New York City, 1976
2. Watts, Alan "Nature, Man, and Woman" Pantheon
Books Inc., New York City, 1958
3. Jacobson, Nils O., M.D. "Life Without Death?"
Dell Publishing Co. Inc., New York City, 1971
4. Rogers, Carl R., Stevens, Barry "Person to Person:
the Problem of Being Human", Real People Press,
Lafayette, California 1968
8:30PM Saturday, February 9, 2002
Revised 11:00AM Sunday, February 24, 2002
John L. Waters
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