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Krishnamurti to Himself: His Last Journal

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Krishnamurti's last journal, spoken into a tape recorder at his home, Pine Cottage, in the Ojai Valley, brings the reader close to this renowned spiritual teacher. Dictated in the mornings, from his bed, undisturbed, Krishnamurti's observations are captured here in all their immediacy and candor, from personal reflections to poetic musings on nature and a serene meditation on death.

Reflecting the culmination of a life of spiritual exploration, these remarkable final teachings engage and enlighten.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

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About the author

J. Krishnamurti

1,336 books4,273 followers
Jiddu Krishnamurti was born on 11 May 1895 in Madanapalle, a small town in south India. He and his brother were adopted in their youth by Dr Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society. Dr Besant and others proclaimed that Krishnamurti was to be a world teacher whose coming the Theosophists had predicted. To prepare the world for this coming, a world-wide organization called the Order of the Star in the East was formed and the young Krishnamurti was made its head.

In 1929, however, Krishnamurti renounced the role that he was expected to play, dissolved the Order with its huge following, and returned all the money and property that had been donated for this work.

From then, for nearly sixty years until his death on 17 February 1986, he travelled throughout the world talking to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in humankind.

Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He did not expound any philosophy or religion, but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, of the individual's search for security and happiness, and the need for humankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow. He explained with great precision the subtle workings of the human mind, and pointed to the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality.

Krishnamurti belonged to no religious organization, sect or country, nor did he subscribe to any school of political or ideological thought. On the contrary, he maintained that these are the very factors that divide human beings and bring about conflict and war. He reminded his listeners again and again that we are all human beings first and not Hindus, Muslims or Christians, that we are like the rest of humanity and are not different from one another. He asked that we tread lightly on this earth without destroying ourselves or the environment. He communicated to his listeners a deep sense of respect for nature. His teachings transcend belief systems, nationalistic sentiment and sectarianism. At the same time, they give new meaning and direction to humankind's search for truth. His teaching, besides being relevant to the modern age, is timeless and universal.

Krishnamurti spoke not as a guru but as a friend, and his talks and discussions are based not on tradition-based knowledge but on his own insights into the human mind and his vision of the sacred, so he always communicates a sense of freshness and directness although the essence of his message remained unchanged over the years. When he addressed large audiences, people felt that Krishnamurti was talking to each of them personally, addressing his or her particular problem. In his private interviews, he was a compassionate teacher, listening attentively to the man or woman who came to him in sorrow, and encouraging them to heal themselves through their own understanding. Religious scholars found that his words threw new light on traditional concepts. Krishnamurti took on the challenge of modern scientists and psychologists and went with them step by step, discussed their theories and sometimes enabled them to discern the limitations of those theories. Krishnamurti left a large body of literature in the form of public talks, writings, discussions with teachers and students, with scientists and religious figures, conversations with individuals, television and radio interviews, and letters. Many of these have been published as books, and audio and video recordings.

This author also writes under: Jiddu Krishnamurti

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47 (21%)
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Profile Image for Gavin Whyte.
Author 8 books34 followers
March 5, 2015
OK, so my original review of this book wasn't a very good one. In fact, I wrote it when I had given up on the book at about 3/4 of the way through. I had lost patience with his constant putting down of humanity, calling it 'vulgar' time and time again. I felt like he was having a good old moan and I wasn't willing to invest any more time in it.

On the night I wrote the review I had a dream of Krishnamurti... honestly, I'm not making this up. He was sat at a desk in what appeared to be a classroom. Every time I try and think of what was said between us, all I remember is this:

Me: So you want me to read books that I don't agree with!?

A frustrated He: Yes! You HAVE to!!

Not surprisingly I woke up from the dream rather perplexed. After a few minutes of failing to remember more of what was said, I picked up the unfinished book and read it to the end.

I believe that we read what we read because there's something in the book for us; to help us; to guide us; to maybe move us onto the next step or help push forward an idea. This is illustrated beautifully when someone recommends a book to you and it contains the words you needed to hear at that exact moment in your life.

Well, good'old J. Krishnamurti obviously wanted me to finish his book because right at the very end, the very last entry he had made, was, for me, exactly that.

Thank you, J. Krishnamurti, for guiding me out of my ignorance.
Profile Image for Seon Ji (Dawn).
1,051 reviews275 followers
June 26, 2021
To my understanding, this book was transcribed from tape recorder. It is JK's last journal entry 2 years before he passed on.

There were parts where it seemed he was describing more than the scenery of where he was staying, speaking rhetorically, although sometimes I didn't see it.

It was beautiful how he made me feel like I was exploring and feeling nature as he did, with love and sacredness, but at other times, I felt a deep sorrow.

In some ways, I wish he was here now and in other times I am glad he is not. How sad he would be to see the increased destruction man has done.

I lowered 1 star due to the format of transcription only. Not content.
Profile Image for Mallee Stanley.
Author 1 book8 followers
May 18, 2018
Having read Krishnamurti over the decades, I found his last philosophical journey decidedly darker. He contrasts the beauty of nature against human being's reckless destruction of themselves, others and the planet because of our competitive and selfish nature. He calls us informed but inwardly primitive and while I felt depressed at these realizations, it is clear that Krishnamurt's words are truths when we see in the present day destruction going on in the world this year, this week, this minute.
Profile Image for Madan Meena.
18 reviews
November 23, 2019
Have been trying to grasp Krishanmurti for a long time, still, have far too go. Still, this book is pretty direct, I struggled with some of the endings in chapters as they seem rushed, complex, too deep without the detailed context
Profile Image for Ugur Ege.
15 reviews2 followers
May 28, 2016
It is increadible how Krishnamurti is clear with reality in this book and it sometimes so real , you can not run anywhere else. Totally recommended !
Also transactions between nature portrait and human reality help us see how Krishnamurti sees nature and how he is so serious about human reality.

Profile Image for Kin.
65 reviews44 followers
July 1, 2018
I generally find journal very difficult to read as it was not written for readers but more likely for the writer himself. You need to see the world from his eyes and that's not easy.
Having said that, I still enjoy J.K's point of view firstly because he noticed, cared and respected nature; secondly because he was not bounded by any frame of political or religious view.
Profile Image for Raul.
79 reviews52 followers
May 30, 2020
"[...] just watch without any reaction, give total attention to the ordinary things of life and there discover the possibility of ending time and thought." * "If there is no continuity what is there? There is nothing. One is afraid to be nothing. Nothing means not a thing - nothing put together by thought, nothing put together by memory, remembrances, nothing that you can put into words and then measure. There is most certainly, definitely, an area where the past doesn't cast a shadow, where time, the past or the future or the present, has no meaning. We have always tried to measure with words something that we don't know. What we do not know we try to understand and give it words and make it into a continuous noise. And so we clog our brain which is already clogged with past vents, experiences, knowledge. We think knowledge is psychologically of great importance, but it is not. You can't ascend through knowledge; there must be an end to knowledge for the new to be. New is a word for something which has never been before. And that area cannot be understood or grasped by words or symbols: it is there beyond all remembrances." * "Our lives are so short and during that short period there is nothing to learn about the whole field of the psyche, which is the movement of memory; we can only observe it. Observe without any movement of thought, observe without time, without past knowledge, without the observer who is the essence of the past. Just watch. Watch those clouds shaping and reshaping, watch the trees, the little birds. It is all part of life. When you watch attentively, with diligence, there is nothing to learn; there is only that vast space, silence and emptiness, which is all-consuming energy." * "Watching, learning: learning is time but watching has no time. Or when you listen, listen without any interpretation, without any reaction, listen without any bias. Listen to that thunder in the skies, the thunder rolling among the hills. One never listens completely, there is always interruption. Watching and listening are a great art - watching and listening without any reaction, without any sense of the listener or the see-er. By watching and listening we learn infinitely more than from any book. Books are necessary, but watching and listening sharpen your senses. For, after all, the brain is the centre of all the reactions, thoughts and remembrances. But if your senses are not highly awakened you cannot really watch and listen and learn, not only how to act but about learning, which is the very soil in which the seed of goodness can grow." * "Insight is like a flash of light. You see with absolute clarity, all the complications, the consequences, the intricacies. Then this very insight is action, complete. In that there are no regrets, no looking back, no sense of being weighed down, no discrimination. This is pure, clear insight - perception without any shadow of doubt." * "Life is an endless process of becoming and ending." * "There is no thinker apart from thought; thought has made the thinker, the experiencer, the analyser." * "Watching is tremendously alive, every moment a vacancy. Those little crabs and those seagulls and all those birds flying by are watching. They are watching for prey, for fish, watching for something to eat; they too are watching. Somebody passes close by you and wonders what you are watching. You are watching nothing, and in that nothingness everything is." * "When you so watch, you learn your own thinking, are aware of your own reactions and do not allow a single thought to escape you without understanding why it came, what was the cause of it. If you are watchful, never letting a thought go by, then the brain becomes very quiet. Then you watch in great silence and that silence has immense depth, a lasting incorruptible beauty." * "Propaganda can never tell the truth; truth can never be propagated."
200 reviews47 followers
February 18, 2018
Why did I even read this? The book starts out in the introduction telling us that this is a transcript of the author's musings into a tape recorder toward the end of his life. Supposedly he made these recordings when he woke up and was still in bed, but there is also some mention that some of the recordings fade in and out and have varying volume. That tells me that he was probably talking while going through his morning routine. What it comes down to is that this book is a compilation of an old man's ramblings and, as the title implies, an old man talking to himself. As incoherent as these ramblings are they still give an overall impression of the man's opinions if you consider them as a whole. I even found myself in agreement with him on a number of topics concerning environmental destruction and his opposition to violence. I almost gave the book an extra star for that, but when I considered that he had no real arguments to back up his opinions I decided that there was not really anything of value there and so I could not bring myself to give that extra star. Besides, he had a lot of opinions that I disagreed with too. The book is described as being spiritual too. That, by itself, made me approach it with some trepidation, but as I continued to read it did not seem that the spirituality was overblown or heavyhanded. I almost gave it an extra star for that too. However, the spirituality was still there and it did seem to contribute to the lack of value in the book. So in the end I could not bring myself to give an extra star for that either. If you want to know what an old man might say in the privacy of his home while talking to himself then you might like this book. Do not expect to come away with any insights or anything else of value though.
46 reviews
July 8, 2020
Interesting read on thoughts of an intellectual who contemplated same old persistent questions of the unknowns to the human mind.

JKs of recordings of his own thoughts in his twilight years mean, we get access to the clarity he reached through his living years.

This book is unique and special of all of JKs books, for couple of reasons: only book transcribed from his recording onto tape recorder by himself - giving uninterrupted flow of his thoughts; beautiful thoughts on death being last of his recorded thoughts make this special.

Here is a sample on what meaning of death to JK:

'To me it means that all I have been, all that I am, suddenly comes to an end....'

He goes in elaborate details around this in one of the recordings.

For instance he describes how power of memory can comfort or give pains.... and how fading of memory itself is like death.

He goes on describing death and living through his observations through his life making powerful reading.

'Death is part of our life, it's part of our existence - the dying and the living, and the living and the dying. They are inseparable.'

Interestingly he combines thoughts on time as a concept tied to living and dying, in the same recording

It's those details that matter to read a book.

It's one of those books to reach out to pick a random page to trigger bunch of thoughts while in solitude.
Profile Image for mahesh.
270 reviews26 followers
Read
May 29, 2025
Every time I read the work of Krishnamurthy, Everything seems alive and fresh. even the dead leaves from the small plants on my terrace. There is an extraordinary beauty in Krishnamurti that I long to live, despite knowing I fail repeatedly due to the fear of being no one.
From the beginning of his book till the end, there is a thougtful silence that devours me in its abundance.I wish ,I am free. I wish, I am not greedy. I wish, I am not ambitious. Despite reading his works for the last 6 to 8 years, trying to change myself but I ended up becoming a corrupt human who is filled with selfishness, fear, greed, superiority, etc...
Sometimes I wish I had never read his work. At least I will be in the comfort of my own illusion of superior intellect.
5 reviews
November 28, 2025
Bon llibre de Krishnamurti.

Bon coctel de moments de contemplació amb filosofia sobre la condició humana.
En molts moments la llegim parlant amb complicitat sobre la mort. No es estrany ja que poc després de fer les grabacions va morir feliçment.

Lectura recomenada si t'agrada jugar amb les idees i reflexionar sobre la consciencia i l'origen dels comportaments humans.
Profile Image for Risto Heikkinen.
12 reviews
November 3, 2017
Offers a glimpse into a beautiful and perhaps unique perception of Krishnamurti. Descriptive verbalizations, inquiries into life, and compassion seen especially in between the lines, makes it in my opinion a wonderful read that invokes a childlike awareness of the beauty of this planet.
Profile Image for Sury Vemagal.
66 reviews38 followers
December 4, 2019
As usual, J.Krishnamurti's books never fail to inspire you.
This last book by him, follows similar threads on the line of his famous Commentaries on Living.
Recommended for all interested in clear thinking.
Profile Image for Kata.
31 reviews12 followers
August 28, 2020
In love once again. Rarely poetic Krishnamurti <3 and beautiful, as always.
Profile Image for Ioanna.
69 reviews10 followers
July 10, 2021
"Μπορεί να μη θέλεις να γίνεις σαν κι αυτούς, αλλά η ζωή είναι πολύ απαιτητικό και σκληρό πράγμα, δε θα σ' αφήσει ήσυχο"
Profile Image for Erin McGarry.
189 reviews2 followers
December 18, 2023
“So one sees there is no becoming of the self, there is only the ending of selfishness, of anxiety, of pain and sorrow which are the content of the psyche, of the ‘me’.”
Profile Image for Μαρία.
215 reviews35 followers
September 4, 2014
"Αναρωτιέται κανείς ποιο νά' ναι άραγε το μέλλον της ανθρωπότητας,το μέλλον όλων αυτών των παιδιών που βλέπεις να φωνάζουν και να παίζουν με τα τόσο ευτυχισμένα,ευγενικά και όμορφα πρόσωπα-ποιο θα είναι το μέλλον τους;Το μέλλον είναι αυτό που είμαστε τώρα.Αυτό είναι ιστορικά έτσι εδώ και πολλές χιλιάδες χρόνια-η ζωή κι ο θάνατος και όλα τα βάσανα της ζωής μας.Δε φαίνεται να δίνουμε και πολλή σημασία στο μέλλον.Στην τηλεόραση υπάρχει ατέλειωτη διασκέδαση από το πρωί μέχρι αργά τη νύχτα,εκτός από ένα δυο κανάλια,που κι αυτά προσφέρουν πολύ λίγο και δεν είναι αρκετά σοβαρά.Τα παιδιά διασκεδάζουν.Όλες οι διαφημίσεις σού συντηρούν την αίσθηση ότι διασκεδάζεις.Κι αυτό συμβαίνει παντού σε όλο τον κόσμο.Ποιο θα είναι το μέλλον των παιδιών που μεγαλώνουν έτσι;Υπάρχει η διασκέδαση των σπορ-τριάντα με σαράντα χιλιάδες άνθρωποι κοιτάζουν μερικούς άλλους στο στίβο και φωνάζουν με βραχνιασμένες φωνές.Κι επίσης πας και βλέπεις κάποια λειτουργία σ' ένα μεγάλο καθεδρικό ναό,κάποια τελετή,που κι εκείνη είναι μια μορφή διασκέδασης μόνο που αυτό το ονομάζεις ιερό,θρησκευτικό,αλλά και πάλι είναι διασκέδαση-μια συναισθηματική,ρομαντική εμπειρία,ένα αίσθημα θρησκευτικότητας...Πρέπει λοιπόν να συλλογιστείς-αν έχεις έστω και λίγη επίγνωση για το τι σου συμβαίνει-με ποιο τρόπο αιχμαλωτίζουν το νου σου και διαμορφώνουν τη ζωή σου ο κόσμος της διασκέδασης....Όπως είπαμε προηγούμενως,το μέλλον σου είναι αυτό που είσαι τώρα.Αν δεν υπάρξει αλλαγή-όχι επιφανειακές προσαρμογές,επιφανειακές εφαρμογές οποιουδήποτε μοντέλου,πολιτικού,θρησκευτικού ή κοινωνικού,αλλά το είδος της αλλαγής που είναι πολύ πιο βαθύ,που απαιτεί την προσοχή σου,τη φροντίδα σου,τη στοργή σου-αν δεν υπάρξει θεμελιώδης αλλαγή τότε το μέλλον είναι αυτό ακριβώς που κάνουμε στο παρόν,κάθε μέρα της ζωής μας....
Όταν η βιομηχανία της διασκέδασης κυριαρχεί βαθμιαία στα πάντα,όπως γίνεται τώρα,όταν οι νέοι,οι φοιτητές,τα παιδιά,εξωθούνται στην απόλαυση,στα ναρκωτικά,στη φαντασίωση,σε ρομαντικό αισθησιασμό,τότε οι λέξεις συγκράτηση και απλότητα πετιώνται μακριά και δεν τις σκέφτεται κανείς πια...όταν έχετε μάθει να δραπετεύετε διαρκώς από τον εαυτό σας...Η κατανόηση της φύσης αυτού που είσαστε-χωρίς καμιά παραποίηση,χωρίς καμιά προκατάληψη,χωρίς καμιά αντίδραση σ΄αυτό που ανακαλύπτετε ότι είσαστε-είναι η αρχή της απλότητας...Είναι παράξενο που δε συνειδητοποιούμε ότι,όσο κι αν δραπετεύσουμε από τους εαυτούς μας,όσο μακριά κι αν περιπλανηθούμε εσκεμμένα,έντεχνα,συνειδητά ή ασυνείδητα,η ευχαρίστηση,ο πόνος,ο φόβος και όλα τα υπόλοιπα είναι πάντα εκεί και τελικά επικρατούν...Δε μπορείς να ξεφύγεις από τη βαθιά,αβυσσαλέα σύγχυση παρά μόνο αν της αφιερώσεις πραγματικά τη σκέψη σου,όχι μόνο τη σκέψη σου,αλλά κοιτώντας με προσοχή γεμάτη φροντίδα,παρατηρώντας με επιμέλεια όλη την κίνηση της σκέψης και του εαυτού."
Profile Image for Jake.
6 reviews
December 3, 2008
This book has very interesting perspective. Krishnamurti always seemed very positive and tried to help people learn how to live useful and happy lives. This book has a feeling of a man near the end of his life who has tried to do everything he can to make the world better, but almost seems as if all his work still couldn't bring our world back from the brink of disaster. While it is not exactly uplifting, it does have a very gritty reality to it.
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