I read my first K book after the est-training where his name was mentioned at the very end (est founder was influenced by K). At the time I was studying computer science and philosophy. I had already studied plenty of Eastern philosophy, as well as world-religions. K helped greatly in putting in the right place all of that. He had a degree of clarity and energy and intelligence and freshness that I had never heard before. For a few chapters I could not grasp what he was saying, but once the terminology and the thinking became familiar, it opened a thousand doors. It was incredible. He was pointing out things that I felt I always knew but I didn't know that I knew them - things that seemed so common sense but widly ignored. At the end of the book, I thought, "who is this guy? now, I'm hungry for more.". Soon I found out that he will be talking in Ojai, which was about 2 hours from my house, near Santa Barbara.
I went to Ojai to see Krishnamurti. I would spend the night (and wake up early morning with the orchestra of a million birds) where the line would start so I was almost always the first person in line, and therefore had front-row center seat at almost every talk - right "at the feet of the master". I am joking (because that is the name of the first book he wrote when he was still a theosophist at age 14 or so). K was not a "master". He was a friend. It was like going to a concert after having listened and lived with the CD like a big fan. (In high school there was a guy who only listened to Grateful Dead, all the time, for weeks before they came for the concert). I could really understand K because I had read several books by then. He came on stage and as he usually does, he points out that this is not an entertainment, and that the speaker is not an authority and he is on the platform for convenience. That it is not as though he is talking and you are listening. It is a conversation between two friends. But if 3000 people talk out loud there is crises, so he talks, and we have this conversation quietly... That to take a journey far we must begin anear, and start with ourselves and what we are, and how that is exactly how the world is, so you are the world, and how there's always been wars on earth, never peace, and that is a reflection of our inner fragmentation. Fragmentation meaning being broken up inwardly - e.g. by conflicting desires, and the friction between what is and what should be. The macro is the micro. He'd go on and talk about many subjects such as beauty, nature of thought, love, time, sorrow, death (psychological aspect of these), etc. and towards the last talk he'd get into meditation - what it is not and what it is...
I also went to his talks in the following two years. I continued to always be among the first in line, and also, worked as a volunteer - e.g. in Parking. Half of the seating area was reserved for volunteers, so, I always sat in the front row, a couple of time, a couple of rows back. All in all I went to about 16 talks and Questions and Answers sessions.
After the first talk, I went up to him, and thanked him. He was so open - no barriers. We shook hands and looked in each others eyes as though we've been friends forever and have not met for a long time. He looked at you and smile as though he'd always known you. His eyes were pouring with love. He brought his other hand and shook my hand with 2 hands.
Several other times I went up after the talk and shook hands. One time I was just standing there in silence while he was departing after a talk. A lady gave him a flower. He turned around and gave it to me. A little red rose. I still have it!
Walking with him to the car, one felt his energy. He had so much energy - it was like walking next to an electric turban. It is hard to describe. He had this aura of very intense strong vibrating energy.
In the beginning of a talk, he'd often sit and just look around. Exchange a few smiles. He never used notes. Sometimes he didn't know what he'd talk about. Sometimes he'd ask: what would you like to talk about. Sometimes, he'd look around, in silence, and as though, he was perceiving where we're at, or picking it up from the air or something, because he'd end up talking exactly about the problem that we were thinking about - I can talk for myself. One time I had done something stupid and was feeling guilty and he talked about guilt. He could pick up on what was of interest to the audience. And sometimes he'd go on for a long time asking and wanting to know what we wanted to talk about. I felt he had a way of teaching the mind to be inquisitive about its own interests.
This may sound strange, but it felt like the whole universe was talking through him. You know, how, when a great guitar player gives a concert - all is one - the same way. It's hard to describe, but it was not a man sitting there talking, as separate, but all was connected - we could think of it as a channel perhaps - without boundaries. It seemed as though the birds and the breeze were also listening. During intense moments - when he said something very profound, the birds would sings louder, and breeze came. I was not hallucinating - I was healthy and awake - these were not illusions - perhaps coincidence - but it happened too often. This inter-relationship with "universe", or nature, was captured on one of the videos "on the nature of love". At one of the most profound moments, breeze came and picked up his commet-like front of hair.
During the talks, specially towards the end of the last talk, he was on fire. His energy and intensity was so strong as he would get into topics such as religion, meditation, and talk about the "otherness" the "immeasurable". After one of the talks ended the guy who was sitting next to me and I looked at each other and went: "woh"!
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Wrote this spontaneously today about the book THINK ON THESE THINGS (available on Amazon, etc. -- great read). The last paragraph has a rant but that chapter will come to a closure upon the publication of a very important document in the hopefully near future.
This book was the first I read of K -- it took some chapters before an explosion happens... by the end of the book I was thirsty for more found out he's speaking not too far from Orange, California... I was a teenager still... showed up before the birds started their morning choir outside the Oak Grove where people lined up to see him... those days the grove was still a grove, with lots of trees, not like the park it is today with so many trees dead from neglect. The experts say a bit more care would have gone a long way but...
Having read some books, his talk made more sense... like listening to an album before going to a concert (lol)...
Always showed up early... so always had premium seats -- often first row center. After the first talk walked up -- was shocked at lack of authority, lack of body guards, lack of any compulsion and arrogance and those nasty habits that you'd expect around a celebrity... and qualities he foresaw organizations, including his, get infected with, and warned about... but who were to listen?
Approaching him was easy... shaking hands... love pouring out of his eyes ... like two friends who had met after the longest time ... someone I know handed him a flower -- a red rose -- and he handed it to me; still have it....
The birds knew him and delighted at his delivering such wisdom just as humans and the trees did -- for generations they had listened to him -- 60 man years is many generation for sparrows. The breeze was listening and would lift up in intensity when he said something immense. It was all one movement.
Met him several times and was always amazed at the quality of energy. The strength of his presence and energy field. A 90 year old man who was anything but frail. But the person was not so important.
The man was very impressive but those who just focused on the man missed the message -- he warned about that. Too bad some of the people who are running some of his organizations have no clue about some of the very basics of his teachings otherwise they wouldn't engage in fabrication of falsehood and other cunning acts they have, perhaps in order to maintain their grip on power, money, land, control.
I’ve been put through hell by this pathetic organization and a few scum in it but I was not the only one and for some strange reason those other people ended up on my radar screen – we met /…. So this is a cumulative story.