Book Review: Freedom from the Known by Krishnamurti

I just got done reading this book. I wanted to share it with you because frankly I think it was one of the deepest, most challenging, and most open and honest reads I've ever experienced. It is only 124 pages, but the content makes it feel like it is 124,000 pages.

It is a philosophical book. For some that might mean it is particularly dry, but I find that if your attention is lost it is not because of a lack of interest, but more because of a lack of understanding. It truly forces you to question everything you know and the way you live.

Krishnamurti addresses everything in this book-religion, fears, relationships, humility, meditation, love, pleasure, pain, etc. In some ways he comes off as condescending and almost conceited, but the more I think about it, while this could very well be (he is human after all), it could also be because of a lack of understanding of the topic at hand on my part.

I confess that I often find myself pondering the meaning of life (a big question, I know) and what my purpose is. This often transitions into, "How can I live, truly live, appreciate, and savor every single moment that I experience, and further, what do I need to do to get everything out of this life that I desire?" This, basically, is what Krishnamurti seems to address. He gives us a challenge of awareness, which in his view, is the only way in which we can savor each moment and live each moment in a fresh, new way.

Within the first ten pages of the book, Krishnamurti is already telling us to let go of our inclination to be fed beliefs by others, to challenge our way of thinking, going as far as to criticize us over it:

"For centuries we have been spoon-fed by our teachers, by our authorities, by our books, our saints. We say, 'Tell me all about it--what lies beyond the hills and the mountains and the earth?' and we are satisfied with their descriptions, which means that we live on words and our life is shallow and empty. We are second-hand people. We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment. We are the result of all kinds of influences and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves; nothing original, pristine, clear."

He talks about what it means to be free of this authority. He describes it as "dying to everything of yesterday," which leaves your mind fresh and young.

Krishnamurti constantly asks you questions throughout the book. I think one of the most basic and the most important is when he asks if you are aware that you are conditioned. He uses this example:

"Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say, 'That is an oak tree,' or 'that is a banyan tree', the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the tree you have to put your hand on it and the word will not help you to touch it."

I thought this was a really important passage. How can we experience everything as if it were new? For instance, I look at a tree and say, "Oh that's a tree," ignoring every other element, whether it be its blossoms, trunk, or leaves. I'm not living to experience the tree. I'm not seeing the tree. I'm not cherishing the moment with the tree. This is because of my conditioning and knowledge.

Later on in the book, Krishnamurti talks about the topic of "me", and how we are ashamed to say that we are most concerned with ourselves. He says:

"Some of us would say that it is wrong to be primarily interested in ourselves. But what is wrong about it except that we seldom decently, honestly, admit it? If we do, we are rather ashamed of it. So there it is--one is fundamentally interested in oneself, and for various ideological or traditional reasons one thinks it is wrong. But what one thinks is irrelevant. Why introduce the factor of its being wrong? That is an idea, a concept. What is a fact is that one is fundamentally and lastingly interested in oneself.

"You may say that it is more satisfactory to help another than to think about yourself. What is the difference? It is still self concern. If it gives you greater satisfaction to help others, you are concerned about what will give you greater satisfaction."

I think this is really important. I hear it all of the time--people think it is rude or "self centered" to be so...well, self centered. Everyone is self-centered. First and foremost, we are concerned for our own well-being, status, power, health, etc. And as Krishnamurti suggests, why shouldn't we be? It's only natural. I'm not saying to become narcissistic. I'm saying that he's right-we should be willing to admit that we are concerned about our own selves first and foremost and there is nothing wrong with it.

Fear is another topic that is extremely deep in this book. In fact in his view, fear is the reason why we don't live this life with full awareness. He believes that we are afraid to see ourselves as we are, so we identify with other images, comparing ourselves, observing things and dismissing the things that are distasteful to us and accepting the things that aren't. In my opinion, this is the deepest part of the book.

So, in the end, how do we get over our conditioning? How do we go about getting over our fears? Meditation. He describes meditation as the following:

"Meditation demands an astonishingly alert mind, meditation is the understanding of the totality of life in which every form of fragmentation has ceased. Meditation is not control of thought, for when thought is controlled it breeds conflict in the mind, but when you understand the structure and origin of thought, which we have already been into, then thought will not interfere. That very understanding of the structure of thinking is its own discipline which is meditation.

"Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling."

I always felt that meditation was important, but I think the thing that was most profound about this was it brought me back to what meditation is really about. It's about awareness and observation, not controlling or repressing your thoughts, simply watching. It's a difficult task, believe it or not, but I sincerely do believe it's one that is necessary.

In the end I will say that this book was profound and left me with many questions about myself and those around me. I think in the least it set me on a path that could at least prove beneficial to my goal of experiencing the world around me for what it is and getting out of it what I desire.

I highly recommend this book.