Page 188 - JOURNAL OF THE KRISHNAMURTI SCHOOLS

the journal of the krishnamurti schools no.25

Nottebohm was doing research on neuronal replacement in bird
brains that was to lead to the later confirmation of ‘plasticity’
in our brains. The work of Nobel winning psychologist Daniel
Kahnemann on cognitive bias also complements in detail much of
what K says of perception.
The solitude needed for the greatest human exploits in religion,
philosophy, science, art and literature is nowadays side-lined in our
culture and seems even feared. Of course, none of these supportive
findings by science on the plasticity of the brain will ever replace
the ongoing inner and outer personal observing that K invites us
to do.
The need to look within with an energy matching or surpassing
the energy given to exploring the world outside us is something
K points to repeatedly. The alternative is entertainment, whether
provided by technology, social media or the rituals of religious
belief, all of which distract from serious personal inquiry into
what is happening in us here and now inwardly or outwardly. And
driven by the isolating pain of the separative self, many of us now
get attracted by nationalist fantasy—reviving epochs of past glory
that on scrutiny prove to be mirages themselves.
A powerful magnet for me in K’s teaching is its essentially plan-
etary nature. However much they struggle to go beyond them, the
traditional religions are constrained by their limited geographi-
cal and cultural origins. Yet, as K has pointed out, human beings,
wherever they are, act from thinking that is based on the inevitably
limited knowledge and experience of the past. Failing to see that
every problem is new, (and this demands openness to that), we
fall back on what we’ve done before. And at a time when climate
change threatens all of us, powerful voices are heard trumpeting
‘My Country First!’ when only unprecedented international coop-
eration will enable our planet to survive. K reminds us that the fail-
ure to see that we are all more alike than different, all variations on

170