| Krishnamurti's Notebook | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Jiddu Krishnamurti |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Philosophy, states of consciousness, autobiography |
| Publisher | Krishnamurti Publications of America |
| Publication date | 2003 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 387 pp (full text edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-1888004571 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1888004632 (paperback) |
| OCLC Number | 54040143 |
| LC Classification | B5134.K75 A35 2002 |
Krishnamurti's Notebook is a diary of Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986). He began keeping this handwritten journal in June 1961 in Los Angeles, and continued making entries for nine months, with the last one entered in Bombay, March 1962.[n 1] It was first published in book form in 1976 (see Original edition below).
Contents |
The work was expanded in a 2003 edition (the so-called Full Text Edition), following the discovery in the year 2000 of additional diary pages.[1][n 2]
The diary describes Krishnamurti's world from the inside; in particular his experience of a strange condition he called the process, and the manifestations (often accompanying the process, at other times independent of it) of a state he refers to as the otherness.[n 3] The journal ends as suddenly as it begins.
As one sat in the aeroplane amidst all the noise, smoking and loud talking, most unexpectedly, the sense of immensity and that extraordinary benediction which was felt at il L., that imminent feeling of sacredness, began to take place. The body was nervously tense because of the crowd, noise, etc. but in spite of all this, it was there. The pressure and the strain were intense and there was acute pain at the back of the head. There was only this state and there was no observer. The whole body was wholly in it and the feeling of sacredness was so intense that a groan escaped from the body and passengers were sitting in the next seats. It went on for several hours, late into the night. It was as though one was looking, not with eyes only but with a thousand centuries; it was altogether a strange occurrence. The brain was completely empty, all reaction had stopped; during all those hours, one was not aware of this emptiness but only in writing it is the thing known, but this knowledge is only descriptive and not real. That the brain could empty itself is an odd phenomenon. As the eyes were closed, the body, the brain seemed to plunge into unfathomable depths, into states of incredible sensitivity and beauty. The passenger in the next seat began to ask something and having replied, this intensity was there; there was no continuity but only being. And dawn was coming leisurely and the clear sky was filling with light. – As this is being written late in the day, with sleepless fatigue, that sacredness is there. The pressure and the strain too.—Entry of 9 July 1961[n 4]
Krishnamurti biographer Mary Lutyens wrote in the foreword to the original edition, "In this unique daily record we have what may be called the well-spring of Krishnamurti's teaching. The whole essence of his teaching is here, arising from its natural source."[n 5] Elsewhere, she observes, "apart from its content, it is an extraordinary manuscript, 323 pages without a single erasure."[2][n 6] She devoted a chapter to this book in the second volume of her biography of Krishnamurti, Krishnamurti: The Years of Fulfilment. In it she mentions objections raised against its publication by Krishnamurti associates who had read the manuscript and thought that it presented a picture of Krishnamurti at odds with his public pronouncements. She also provides Krishnamurti's responses to these objections.[3] M. Lutyens had revealed the existence of the process in Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening, the first volume of her biography of Krishnamurti published in 1975, a year before the Notebook.[4]
Roland Vernon, another of his biographers, mentions that prior attempts (by others) at revealing the existence of the process were suppressed by Krishnamurti, apparently in the belief [justified according to Vernon] that the "sensationalism of his early story would cloud the public's perception of his [then] current work".[5]
Shortly after publication of the Notebook in May 1976, Krishnamurti in an unusual move decided to write "for fun" his own review of it. This was partly reproduced in Krishnamurti: The Years of Fulfilment.[n 7]
The Library Journal stated in review, "[Krishnamurti's] insights are, as always, written in plain, nonsectarian language, and give perhaps the best picture we have today of the life of the spirit outside a strictly religious context."[6]
M. Lutyens wrote that the original publication "passed unnoticed by the press both in England and America",[n 8] yet the book did receive some contemporary publicity.[7] The work's stature has increased since: In its obituary of Krishnamurti, The Times (London), described it as "a remarkable mystical document",[8] while in 2006 the work was cited in a conference paper as "probably ... the most extensive documentation to date of a mystic’s inner thoughts, perceptions, and sensations".[9]
Following this diary's original publication, two other diaries of his were published in book form: Krishnamurti's Journal in 1982, and Krishnamurti to Himself in 1987.
The first edition was published simultaneously in the United Kingdom and the United States, in May 1976.