Urgency of Change • The Krishnamurti Podcast

This episode is the second in the new season of the Krishnamurti podcast. Each episode, released each week, is based on a major theme of Krishnamurti’s teachings, such as freedom, self-knowledge, authority, beauty, death and meditation. Extracts from our extensive archives have been carefully selected to represent Krishnamurti’s different approaches over the years to each of these universal and timelessly relevant themes. This week’s podcast has three sections. The first extract (starting at 2:11) is from Krishnamurti’s first talk in Bombay 1966, titled To establish right relationship is to destroy the image. The second extract (starting at 39:44) is from the fourth talk in Ojai 1977, titled Observing without the image The final extract this week (starting at 50:46) is from the first talk in New York City 1974, titled In attention there is no image Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

This interview with Krishnamurti was first broadcast in 1981. Recorded at Brockwood Park in Hampshire, as part of The Levin Interview TV series, it serves as a good introduction to Krishnamurti’s work. Bernard Levin was one of Britain’s best-known journalists. Questions explored include: Why don't we realise the damage we are doing in the world? Is it wrong to seek happiness? What is action? What is right living? Can society be changed? How is man to be free? Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

This episode marks the first of a new season of the Krishnamurti podcast. The next 50 episodes, released each week, are based on major themes of Krishnamurti’s teachings, such as freedom, self-knowledge, authority, beauty, death and meditation. Extracts from our extensive archives have been carefully selected to represent Krishnamurti’s different approaches over the years to each of these universal and timelessly relevant themes.    This week’s theme is Listening. Upcoming themes are Images, Passion and Confusion.   This week’s podcast has four sections. This first extract (starting at 2:19) is from Krishnamurti’s first talk in Saanen 1962, titled 'The Act of Listening'.   The second part (starting at 35:04) is from the sixth talk in Saanen 1983, titled 'In Listening is a Miracle'.   The third part (starting at 44:50) is from the fourth talk in Ojai 1977, titled 'The Art of Listening'.   The final extract this week (starting at 50:34) is from the ninth talk in Saanen 1965, titled 'You are Listening to Yourself and not to the Speaker'.

Commentaries on Living is one of Krishnamurti’s most well-known and best loved books. In it, he recalls many of the private conversations with those who came to see him. With encouragement from Aldous Huxley these meetings were written down by Krishnamurti and published in 1956. Two further volumes were published in 1958 and 1960. Chapters included in this episode are titled Silence, Renunciation of Riches, Repetition and Sensation, The Radio and Music, Authority, Meditation, and Anger. Terence Stamp is an Oscar-nominated actor, known for his roles in The Limey, Superman, The Collector, Wall Street and many others. It was through working with Fellini that he met and became friends with Krishnamurti. Stamp includes his experiences with Krishnamurti in his recent memoir The Ocean Fell Into the Drop. Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

This conversation between Krishnamurti and Alain Naude was recorded in Malibu, California, in 1972. Subjects include: Is there any connection between the supernatural and religion? Is a religious life to lead a good life? A religious life is a life in which the self is not. We get caught in the so-called mysterious. But when the self is not, there is a greater, vaster mystery. Self-knowing is much more important than acquiring some kind of power. What place has meditation in religious life? Meditation is not control or a practice, it is not an effort to achieve an experience or to remain in a particular state of consciousness. If the self is, the religious life is not. Can one dissolve the self? Why are certain human beings entrenched in the myth of Jesus or Krishna? Attachment destroys freedom. Where there is freedom there is joy. It is that quality of mind that has this sense of joy and freedom that perceives. Meditation means freedom and joy to observe, without any attachment or partial perception. Alain Naude was Krishnamurti’s private secretary in the 1960s. He met Krishnamurti in 1963 whilst a music lecturer and concert pianist. He gave up his teaching and performing in 1964 to work with Krishnamurti. Fluent in several languages, he was very helpful at international gatherings and in attracting younger audiences to Krishnamurti’s talks, at a time of cultural change in the West. Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

This conversation between Krishnamurti and Ravi Ravindra was recorded in Ojai, California, in 1985. The inquiry includes: What do we mean by energy? The brain has tremendous energy. Is it possible for me to know what happens when I die, without inventing theories? Is all I have collected different from the ‘I’? The world is in disorder and 99% of people are disorderly. We rarely ask what death is. What does it mean to die? How do you find out? Ravi Ravindra was born in India and later moved to Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in physics and an M.A. in philosophy, and is professor of Comparative Religion at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. He met Krishnamurti in the 1960s and the two met formally and informally over the years. Among his many books, Two Birds on One Tree and Centred Self, focussing on his time with Krishnamurti. Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

Commentaries on Living is one of Krishnamurti’s most well-known and best loved books. In it, he recalls many of the private conversations with those who came to see him. With encouragement from Aldous Huxley these meetings were written down by Krishnamurti and published in 1956. Two further volumes were published in 1958 and 1960. Chapters included in this episode are titled ‘The Known and the Unknown’, ‘The Search for Truth’, ‘Sensitivity’, ‘The Individual and Society’, ‘The Self’, and ‘Belief’.   Terence Stamp is an Oscar-nominated actor, known for his roles in The Limey, Superman, The Collector, Wall Street and many others. It was through working with Fellini that he met and became friends with Krishnamurti. Stamp includes his experiences with Krishnamurti in his recent memoir The Ocean Fell Into the Drop.   Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

This interview with Krishnamurti was recorded for television in Ojai 1975, in the context of the foundation of The Oak Grove School. Questions asked include: You are working toward the realisation of a new school in the Ojai Valley. Why another school? Would you mind explaining the words: ‘whole’, ‘sane’ and ‘holy’? You say a school is a place where one learns both the importance of knowledge and its irrelevance. Can you explain ‘irrelevance’? I’d like to ask you about three more words: ‘thought’, ‘love’, ‘death’. You have travelled far and spoken often and have been heard by millions, and you have created several schools. Do you feel that you have made a dent, that you have communicated meaningfully with large numbers of people? Fred Hall was editor of Ojai Valley News and a radio pioneer. He was known for his interviews with famous musicians, bandleaders and singers of the 1930s, '40s and '50s. He lived Ojai for over 40 years and his newspaper often featured articles on Krishnamurti. Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

This second conversation between Krishnamurti and Pupul Jayakar from 1982 was recorded at Brockwood Park. They ask: Is it possible to keep the mind very young, and yet ancient? What is consciousness? Is it possible to completely end the whole content of my consciousness, of human consciousness, which has grown through millennia? Can the brain ever be free from its own bondage? Is it possible to look at life as a whole, without fragmentation? Pupul Jayakar, was a trustee of Krishnamurti Foundation India, and for decades was a friend of Krishnamurti’s. She helped publish many of his books in India, along with writing a biography which was published soon after his death. Her other books include The Earth Mother, The Buddha, and God is Not a Full-Stop. Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

This conversation between Krishnamurti and Pupul Jayakar was recorded at Brockwood Park in 1982. The inquiry includes: What is the source of all existence, all life, all action? What is the approach of a mind that wants to inquire into something that it doesn’t know, something that demands an extraordinary quality of deep subtlety, deep capacity of order? Why doesn’t one feel totally responsible for the wars, the brutality, the terrible things that are happening in the world? Human beings have created such disorder in themselves and therefore outwardly. How does one comprehend or be aware of the origin of disorder? What is the state of action that is born out of complete attention? Is it necessary to go through the process of watching one’s reactions and observing diligently one’s relationships? Any person who gives attention, who really says, 'I must find the source of life,' who is passionate about it, not just casual, will listen. They will listen: it is in the air. Pupul Jayakar, who died in 1997, was an Indian cultural activist and writer, best known for her work on the revival of traditional and village arts, handlooms and handicrafts. She was a close friend of prime minister Indira Gandhi, and was her cultural advisor and biographer. Having been to a school established by Annie Besant, Pupul became involved with Krishnamurti’s work in the 1940s, becoming a trustee of the Indian foundation. Find us online at kfoundation.org and on social media as Krishnamurti Foundation Trust