Page 153 - JOURNAL OF THE KRISHNAMURTI SCHOOLS

The Sweep of History … and Krishnamurti’s Challenge

way of thinking is behind the environmental crisis and most of
the troubles of the human race. Changing Consciousness: Exploring
the Hidden Source of the Social, Political and Environmental Crisis
Facing our World was published in 1991.
It was an extraordinary privilege to work with David. He had
a boundless intelligence and extraordinary mental energy, even if
physically he was becoming frail. Our collaboration came at a point
in my life when I’d travelled widely enough to witness the gathering
collapse of our life support systems. Nearly thirty years later it’s not
quite in free-fall, but we have very little time to arrest the decline.
The text in Changing Consciousness explores David’s ideas and
insights about the way thought operates. Readers are invited to join
in the enquiry and to go on with it, not only by themselves but also
with others who may be interested.
The pictures in the book present environmental problems
through the eyes of people at the sharp end of the debate. They
bring out a basic human response to help people in need and take
the immediate practical steps required to avert a cataclysm that
might engulf us all if our problems escalate around the world.
Are these two approaches at odds? Not to me, but there is a
tension that tends to divide people who share these concerns. I
wanted to bring this out in the book, and in the talks I give. If I’m
speaking to people campaigning to deal with the crisis in the envi-
ronment, some will say, “OK Mark, it’s all very well sitting around
exploring the process of thought—but the world is on fire! We need
to act—all hands to the pump”. Nods and whispers of agreement
all round.
The same talk to those interested in Krishnamurti’s approach
elicits the counterpoint position, “We need to understand the fun-
damental cause of our problems. If we don’t, we will extinguish one
fire only to start another”.
Each argument is correct—but incomplete. The world is on fire
and we need to act. We also need to go ‘upstream’ to the source of

135