September 16th ~ Suppose you had never read a book, religious or psychological, and you had to find the meaning, the significance of life. How would you set about it? Suppose there were no Masters, no religious organizations, no Buddha, no Christ, and you had to begin from the beginning. How would you set about it? First, you would have to understand your process of thinking, would you not?–and not project yourself, your thoughts, into the future and create a God who pleases you; that would be too childish. So first you would have to understand the process of your thinking. That is the only way to discover anything new, is it not?
When we say that learning or knowledge is an impediment, a hindrance, we are not including technical knowledge–how to drive a car, how to run machinery–or the efficiency that such knowledge rings. We have in mind quite a different thing: that sense of creative happiness that no amount of knowledge or learning will bring. To be creative in the truest sense of that word is to be free of the past from moment to moment, because it is the past that is continually shadowing the present. Merely to cling to information, to the experiences of others, to what someone has said, however great, and try to approximate your action to that–all that is knowledge, is it not? But to discover anything new you must start on your own; you must start on a journey completely denuded, especially of knowledge, because it is very easy, through knowledge and belief, to have experiences; but these experiences are merely the products of self-projection and therefore utterly unreal, false.
October 22nd, 2019 ~ This is interesting. K differentiates technical knowledge–how to knowledge, from memory knowledge. He has said we need technical knowledge, but it always seemed we lean even on technical knowledge. He is saying that leaning on no amount of knowledge or learning can bring what creative happiness brings. It seems that we as a society are so attached to technical knowledge rather than only using it as a means to give us the ability to focus on our inner world. It is the memory of past and thinking of the future that get us into trouble. Steve Hagen talks about how we are born into this world with nothing to go on but our direct experience. Krishnamurti says we can “very easily, through knowledge and belief, have experiences, but these experiences are merely the products of self-projection and therefore utterly unreal, false.” Wow. Yes, we need technical know-how, in life and the business world, but to focus more on direct experience and a newness, that would be something truly revolutionary in the business world.