This terrible desire to identify with a group

'In a small tribe or in a very large tribe there is a sense of being together, having the same language, the same superstitions, the same kind of political, religious system. And one feels safe, protected, happy, comforted. And for that safety, comfort, we are willing to kill others who have the same kind of desire to be safe, to feel protected, to belong to something. This terrible desire to identify with a group, with a flag, with a religious ritual and so on, gives us the feeling that we have roots, that we are not homeless wanderers' – Jiddu Krishnamurti diary entry 1983
'Most unfortunately our brains are so conditioned and limited by culture, tradition and education that our energies are imprisoned. We fall into comforting and accustomed grooves and so become psychologically ineffective. To counter this we expend our energies in material concerns and self-centred activities' - Krishnamurti talking about 'Brockwood today and in the future'* in 1983
'Man has built in himself images as a fence of security – religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man's thinking, his relationships, and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence' – from 'The Core of Krishnamurti's Teaching' written in 1980
'One has to be indifferent – to health, to loneliness, to what people say or do not say, indifferent to whether one succeeds or does not succeed, indifferent to authority. If you hear somebody shooting, making a lot of noise with a gun, you can very easily get used to it, and you turn a deaf ear; that is not indifference. Indifference comes into being when you listen to that noise with no resistance, go with that noise, ride on that noise infinitely. Then that noise does not affect you, does not pervert you' - Krishnamurti teaching in Bombay, 1962
'That is, man in his relationship with another has not been able to be changed. And 'society', which is an abstraction, is now being changed – not by man but by machines, not by any form of endeavour (political, religious, economic and so on), but it has been changed by a machine which man has invented. It is called the 'computer'' – Krishnamurti teaching in Bombay 1981

* Krishnamurti was referring to his vision of an adult study centre at Brockwood Park in Hampshire as an adjunct to the school that he had established there. All the photos were taken by me at the the Krishnamurti Centre which was designed by Keith Critchlow to reflect sacred geometry and was completed in 1987 a year after Krishnamurti died. There are minimal structured activities at the Centre and describing his vision Krishnamurti wrote that "Brockwood must have no [l]eader or guru, for the teachings themselves are the expression of that truth which serious people must find for themselves. Personal cult has no place in this. It is a place which must demand the awakening of the intelligence which comes with passion and love". My thanks go to the staff at the Brockwood Park who extended such a wonderfully warm welcome to us

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Comments

Lyle Sanford, RMT said…
Thanks so much for this post. So much from the 60's (which is when I first heard of him) hasn't lasted, or aged well if it did. These pics, along with your gloss of quotes, suggest some got it and are nurturing it on into the future.
5:42 pm
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