Page 201 - JOURNAL OF THE KRISHNAMURTI SCHOOLS

The world crisis
The current state of the world is marked by a series of global chal-
lenges whose gravity turns them into veritable crises. These crises
are not due to natural phenomena but are the direct result of human
action. They are the outcome of our conflicted relationships with
nature, with things, with each other and with ideas. We are collec-
tively failing in our total responsibility for peace and cooperation
among human beings and for the welfare and protection of the
biosphere. The wave of destruction humanity has unleashed has
reached such proportions that scientists are talking about a new
age of extinctions which they’ve named the Anthropocene as it is
human beings who are causing it.
Our knowledge has given us power and that power has been
deployed at the service of self-interest. Our general materialist
outlook and our near-total disregard for the whole and wholeness
of life are ever being enhanced by our increasingly more sophisti-
cated technical prowess. The predominance of social tribalism and
psychological fragmentation continue to ensure that our human
condition is plagued by the universal blights of violence and sor-
row. These endemic core problems have ever stained the pages of
history, which is the story of humanity, the chequered record of
both our great achievements and of our inherited brutality. This
deeper crisis has been with us from the beginning and no amount
of scientific progress is going to resolve it, for it is the result of our
profound lack of self-knowledge.

The need for transformation of our
common consciousness

In this author’s perspective, Krishnamurti’s teachings offer one of
the broadest and deepest diagnosis of the human condition that
has ever come to light. In K’s own metaphor, they constitute a read-
ing of the book of humanity, which is our common consciousness.

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