Krishnamurti - The Perfume of the Teachings: Working with J. Krishnamurti

The Perfume of the Teachings: Working with J. Krishnamurti

(J. Krishnamurti in dialogue with Trustees)

Copyright 1977/2011 Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd

Edited by Mary Cadogan and Ray McCoy

The Perfume of the

Teachings

Working with J. Krishnamurti

J. Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

Contents

The is at the end of the last meeting.

Introduction

In March 1977 Krishnamurti invited certain trustees from the various Krishnamurti Foundations to participate in small discussion meetings with him in Ojai, California.

Earlier, at a 1973 meeting at Brockwood Park in England, he had suggested that the future of the Foundations after his death was uncertain although he maintained that the schools [run by the Foundations] have to go on, definitely, because they may produce a different kind of human being.

In 1977 we had discussions with Krishnamurti three times a week from the third to the twenty-fourth of March at the head-quarters of the American Foundation and, as well as the trustees, one or two staff members of the KFA also attended.

Krishnamurti seemed to be fired with even greater and more dynamic energy than usual and, although these discussions were primarily concerned with the future of the Foundations, their scope and detail must surely have relevance to the way in which any enquiring group of people working together might relate to each other intelligently.

Krishnaji felt strongly that, as well as being responsible for organizing his talks and making these available in recorded and printed form, the Foundations should be of one mind, and able to convey the perfume of the teachings. He asks at the very beginning of the 1977 dialogues if there are people who have drunk at the fountain, and can carry on from there. Not merely quoting K but getting the spirit of it, the truth of it, the vitality of it, the energy of it.

At our first meetings, we seemed rather a disparate group; certainly we were very far from being of one mind! It was, however, remarkable how closely we came together as our meetings continued. Several of us who had been listening to, and working with, Krishnamurti for many years felt that these dialogues were truly revelatory and life-changing.

Krishnaji presented us with many challenges. Not the least of these was that we should be able, after his death, not only to convey the essence of the teachings but to give people who had never known Krishnamurti a sense of the quality of his life and work, and meditation. In his words ...if I had been in India when Buddha died, I would want to know what the Buddha was like. I would go to the people who listened to him. I would want to find out. I have read the books, but I want to touch that which you, who have known him for some years, have touched when he was alive. A big challenge indeed which demanded our understanding at a truly deep level. (Incidentally, Krishnaji later made it clear that in relating this question to the Buddha he was making absolutely no claim to be the Buddha.)

Throughout the dialogues Krishnamurti pointed out that we were dealing with more than the continuity of the Foundations. He had said in 1973 For me, it is a continual state of transformation... But we must see what happens with the Foundations. If something is operating in us, then something will happen, not the crystallization of the structure, but much more than that.

Reading these dialogues now, more than thirty years after they took place, the impact is still extremely fresh and strong. Krishnamurti died in 1986: the Foundations, schools and adult centres are very resilient today. Conflicts which beset the Foundations before his death appear not so much to have been resolved as transcended, and there is a real sense of our being, though far-flung, of one mind. It seems that these 1977 dialogues did open wide many doors for us.

Mary Cadogan

You Have Drunk at the Fountain

Krishnamurti: I thought all the Foundations should meet, to consider what is going to happen when K dies. At present, from what one has observed, K has been the centre of the work. K has held the different Foundations together, if I am not mistaken; and if K dies tomorrow, or in ten years time, what is going to happen? Will the Foundations break away from each other? That is one of the considerations we will discuss as we go along.

Ks teachings are a living thing, and the books, I am afraid, are not; no book is. When K dies, what is going to happen to the teachings? Are there people who have, if I may use the phrase, drunk at the fountain, and can carry on from there? Not merely quoting K but getting the spirit of it, the truth of it, the vitality of it, the energy of it. The books are all right, but they remain on the shelves. You pick them up occasionally, look at them, read them and forget them. I feel there must be amongst us some who have, if I may use the phrase again, drunk at the fountain, and for themselves see the truth and express it in their daily life. I think that is one of the major issues, as far as I am concerned, because for the last fifty-two years, one has talked a great deal about all these things, and I findI hope you will forgive me for saying thisthere is not one person who has seen that thing for himself and goes on with it. Please understand, I am not disappointed that there is no one so far; I am not looking for anybody to carry on, but I think we should consider all this.

It is a strange factI was told the other day in Indiathere were two disciples of the Buddha who really understood him; they were Sariputa and Mahanama. He considered those two enlightened ones too. But they died before the Buddha died! I dont know if you see the tragedy of it. Those left formed a group, and it gradually deteriorated. Perhaps I may live another ten years, or by accident may die tomorrow, but I feel very strongly about what is going to happen.

Various people have told me very often that when K dies the real thing will flower, because under the banyan tree nothing grows. You know that saying? I have been told that, and also that it will be for the future and not for the present, that centuries later this will be understood but not now. But I think all those are various forms of excuses, and have no validity in themselves.

What are we going to do? How is this going to be sustained, nourished, and kept goingwithout representing, without saying that we are the body and nobody else understands, and all the rest of the organizational calamity that comes about?

So I thought it would be a good idea if we all met to discuss these matters, because the Foundations, so far, have been responsible for all this. There have been people who said, Why are you the head of any organization like the Foundations? Why are you chairman of this? In India, they dont want my name mentioned as the chairman or anything of that kind, because, if I may represent them, they say, You should not be on any of these Foundations because your name is sacred.

So, there are all these problems, the publications, the schools. What is going to happen to the schools when K dies? Will these teachings be continued through these schools or just peter out, as teachings generally do? All these problems we have to consider. So, there it is.

I feel that all the Foundations are one body under the same umbrella; they are the same unit, though legally and financially separate. Perhaps some of the richer Foundations can help the poorer, but it is all one group, one body, not inwardly separate but one continuous thing that will go on. People have suggested, also, that when K dies, all these Foundations should be dissolved. I think that would be a pity because schools are involved, publications, and so on.