Page 121 - JOURNAL OF THE KRISHNAMURTI SCHOOLS

Why I Value Krishnamurti’s Teachings

depth, but to see ourselves as we really are at this moment. We
generally do not pay adequate attention to how our thoughts and
feelings affect our perceptions. We move away from careful obser-
vation of our ‘inner’ reality, moment by moment, and reinforce
our identity through how we analyze and appraise ‘outer’ reality.
Even though we may be looking at, listening to, or reading some-
one else, such as Krishnamurti or this article, everything is medi-
ated through our own minds. By remaining sensitively aware of
whatever is arising within us at this moment, we may see deeply
into the play of our conditioning and self-centredness. ‘Not under-
standing’ Krishnamurti, or even ‘deepening one’s understanding’
of him, are among the ways in which the thinking mind sustains
the self. Similarly, even ‘understanding’, or purporting to ‘expli-
cate Krishnamurti’s teachings’, as in this article, are other self-
creating and self-sustaining activities. So, too, is explicating our
own understanding in our own words. On seeing our predicament,
we mistakenly think that the conditioned self can become uncon-
ditioned through the right kind of lifestyle or knowledge. This
fuels our search through our readings, analyses, diets, exercises,
social actions, and our host of other self-, social-, and spiritual-
improvement regimens. We repeatedly fail to see the mechanisms
of conditioning in everything we think and do. Even if we realize
that lifestyle and knowledge won’t free us, we latch onto the idea
that a profound psychological insight will grant us freedom from
conditioning. After all, for those of us attached to Krishnamurti’s
words, isn’t that what he seems to be saying? This sets us on our
‘spiritual journey’ in search of the pivotal realization that will yield
the unconditioned mind.
Consider these words by Krishnamurti, “If you are at all serious,
the question whether it is possible to uncondition the mind must
be one of the most fundamental.” And he continues by saying, “If
you start out with a formula that one will never be unconditioned,

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