J. Krishnamurti Versus U.G. Krishnamurti

Renowned mystic-philosopher Jiddu (or J.) Krishnamurti (1895-1986) had no use for gurus, religion, or even the term “spirituality.” His teachings of self-liberation could, perhaps, best be classified as “radical psychology.” I used to attend Krishnamurti groups in San Diego in the ’70s. I even traveled to Ojai, California, where Krishnamurti lived, to hear him speak. From my perspective at the time, no message could have been more liberating than his.

J. Krishnamurti’s message, in a nutshell, is: practice effortless, choiceless awareness from moment to moment. This will free you from your self-created bondage and enable you to awaken “real intelligence.” Although J. Krishnamurti occasionally alludes to a transcendent dimension, which he calls “the Highest,” he never refers to it as Spirit and doesn’t emphasize mystically uniting with it. Although in his journal, “Krishnamurti’s Notebook,” he describes mystical experiences he calls “the Benediction,” he doesn’t direct spiritual seekers to seek this Blessing; instead, his focus, as always, is on understanding and obviating psychological conflict.

U.G. Krishnamurti (1918-2007), no relation to J. Krishnamurti, was a follower of J. for a number of years, until parting ways with him. Wikipedia describes their relationship and parting as follows:     

“From 1947 to 1953, Krishnamurti regularly attended talks given by Jiddu Krishnamurti in Madras, India, eventually beginning a direct dialogue with him in 1953. U. G. Krishnamurti related that the two had almost daily discussions for a while, which he asserted were not providing satisfactory answers to his questions. Finally, their meetings came to a halt. He described part of the final discussion: "And then, towards the end, I insisted, ‘Come on, is there anything behind the abstractions you are throwing at me?’ And that chappie said, ‘You have no way of knowing it for yourself’. Finish – that was the end of our relationship, you see – ‘If I have no way of knowing it, you have no way of communicating it. What the hell are we doing? I've wasted seven years. Goodbye, I don't want to see you again’. Then I walked out.”

Whereas J. Krishnamurti was an iconoclast who reduced spirituality to psychology, U.G. Krishnamurti was an iconoclast who reduced it to biology. Although J. regularly experienced “the Benediction” apart from “Krishnamurti’s Notebook,” the energetic dimension of Awakening was a subject he avoided in his writings and talks.

In my discussions with the late renowned Advaita Vedanta guru Jean Klein (1912-1998), he made clear to me his taste for J., and his distaste for U.G. Below are my Amazon reviews of J’s “First and Last Freedom” (5 stars) and “Krishnamurti’s Notebook” (3 stars), and U.G.’s “The Mystique of Enlightenment” (4 stars).

A CLASSIC “MUST READ” MYSTICAL TEXT (My 5-star review of J’s “The First and Last Freedom.”]

I first encountered J Krishnamurti's books in the `70s; and I subsequently devoted myself to studying them. I was so enamored with this great mystic's teachings, I became involved with various Krishnamurti discussion groups, and even drove from San Diego to Ojai (around 250 miles) just to see him speak.

As a long-time aficionado of J. Krishnamurti (K), I consider "The First and Last Freedom" to be his best book, the one I recommend to my students. This text is a collection of brilliant, ground-breaking essays by K, and I consider it "must" reading for serious students of mysticism.

K's strength is his ability to reformulate mystical Dharma within a simple but elegant psychological framework. According to K, inner conflict and mental suffering stem from one thing: the avoidance of what is; and all effort, or seeking, is simply the avoidance of what is, Being. As K says, "to be [unqualifiedly] related is to be;" therefore, real intelligence, radical (or gone-to-the-root) understanding, is simply a matter of relationship, of remaining unobstructedly present to life. In other words, a Truth practitioner must, from moment to moment, enact the asana of effortless, choiceless awareness relative to what arises.

Direct, immediate awareness relative to existence = presence + oneness = unity-consciousness, and culminates in mystical relationship, divine communion, or as K puts it, "communion with the Highest."

K's weakness in "The First and Last Freedom" is his failure to address that which stems from "communion with the Highest:"-- the descent of Divine Power (the Holy Spirit, Hindu Shakti, or the Buddhist Sambhogakaya). In "Krishnamurti's Journal," K describes his experiences of what he calls the "the Benediction," the Descent of the Divine; but I do not find his exegesis of spiritual Energy to be particularly enlightening, especially when compared to the ones in some other Dharmas. K's teachings, although brilliant, have rightly been described as "incomplete," meaning essentially limited to the psychological.

Therefore, I strongly suggest that students of Krishnamurti, in order to get a fuller understanding of the spiritual en-Light-enment process, also devote themselves to studying the mystical traditions of Christian Hermeticism, Hindu Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism, Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen and Mahamudra, and Adi Da's Samraj's Daism.

THE DIARY OF A KUNDALINI-CHALLENGED MYSTIC [My 4-star review of J’s “Krishnamurti’s Notebook.”]

"Krishnamurti's Notebook" is a diary the great mystic J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) kept for a time while travelling. The focus of the diary, kept in 1961, is what he calls "the process," the experience of enlightening, but physically painful, mystical states he experienced on an almost daily basis. In addition to describing his mystical states, Krishnamurti also philosophizes, commentating on the same mystico-philosophical themes he does in all his books.

Krishnamurti (K), a lover of nature, usually describes his mystical states, which he terms "benedictions," in the context of, and sometimes almost coincident with, natural settings, which he also describes in detail. It's as if he were painting a beautiful picture and then seamlessly integrating a "benediction" with it.

If you're a Krishnamurti fan, or just someone who digs the juxtaposition of spirituality and nature, you'll probably love this book--but if you're someone like me, tired of K's endless repetition of virtually the same "psychologized" quasi-spiritual themes in every book, then you'll probably dismiss it as just recycled K in different packaging.

Given my similar history to K's--I suffer from a painful and constant Kundalini energy disorder akin to his and regularly experience "benedictions" just as powerful and enlightening as his--one would think that he'd be my spiritual cup of tea; but he isn't. I much prefer the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Adi Da, Kashmir Shaivism, Dzogchen, and Christian Hermeticism to his. And I prefer these teachings because they offer much more "verticality" and fullness than K's "flat," one-dimensional, "psychologized" drones.

The first Krishnamurti book I read--"First and Last Freedom" -- remains, by far, the best one I've read (and I've read a number of them). I gave this great book, one of K's earliest, five stars in my Amazon.com review. Unfortunately, none of K's books I've read after "First and Last Freedom" really floats my boat--but that's not to say "Krishnamurti's Notebook" won't float yours. 

THE STORY OF A SNAKE-BIT SEEKER [My 4-star review of U.G’s “The Mystique of Enlightenment.”]

The late U.G. Krishnamurti was the ultimate "spiritual" iconoclast. But perhaps "spiritual" is the wrong term to use when describing U.G, because U.G, in his teachings, reduced spirituality to a biological energetic phenomenon. U.G., who, putatively, gave up all seeking for anything whatsoever, and lived in what he called a "declutched" state, a state wherein one no longer grasps after thought-forms, insisted that spiritual en-Light-enment is a myth, a non-reality rather than the realization of the Real that mystics claim it is.

About twenty years ago, I attended a three-day Jean Klein spiritual retreat at the Mt. Madonna Center in Santa Cruz, California. Jean Klein (1912-1998), a renowned Advaita Vedanta guru, was a very tranquil and composed fellow, but when, in a group Satsang, I broached the subject of U.G., likening some of my symptoms from Kundalini awakening to what U.G. had experienced, Klein almost exploded, and without mincing words, he heatedly described U.G. as "pathological." Thereafter, Klein seemed cool and aloof toward me. Apparently, just by mentioning U.G., I had managed to push some very deep buttons in the guru, who, incidentally, was a friend of J. Krishnamurti, who also vociferously denounced U.G.

I read "The Mystique of Enlightenment" about thirty years ago, and I could really relate to it because, like U. G., I suffered from, and continue to suffer from, a Kundalini disorder. It's as if my body is overamped from intense Shakti--and the more deeply and fully I "declutch," the more powerful is the Spirit-current coursing through me. But after years of endless self-emptying and detaching from thought-forms, I realized that letting go, in and by itself, is not the Way of Truth, the Way to the Real. I realized that it is just one aspect of an integral en-Light-enment, or Divine Yoga, practice. And now, though I have not cut the Heart-knot, I regularly abide in blissful Heart-felt at-one-ment with the Energy that used to just psycho-physically oppress and overwhelm me.

An integral en-Light-enment, or Divine Yoga, practice, which I detail in my book "Electrical Christianity," is about consciously plugging into and receiving and uniting with the Spirit-current. It is akin to Ohm's Law. An integral yogi must generate maximal conscious force ("voltage," or whole-bodily presence + oneness, or communion, or relationship), then utterly self-empty (or "declutch"), which is akin to (Ohm's, or resistance, reduction); then he must consciously receive and unite with the down-poured Spirit-Energy, or Divine Force.

In my estimation, U.G. did not go all the way to full en-Light-enment, or Self-realization. Unlike Ramana Maharshi or Adi Da, he did not awaken as the Heart, the true Self (or Buddha-nature). His practice was one-dimensional; and though he seemingly totally let go, he was guilty of the Great Refusal--the failure to consciously, or yogically, unite with and be Blessed/Blissed, or en-Light-ened, by Divine Light-energy, the Shakti, or Sambhogakaya, or Spirit. The great Christian mystic Meister Eckhart beautifully summarized spiritual life: "I penetrate God, and God penetrates me." Divine yoga is simply uniting the "vine" of one's soul (or consciousness) with universal Spirit (or Energy) and being en-Light-ened by its Blessing/Blissing-current.

In summary, I recommend this book, because it is an interesting read about an apophatic (or "negative") yogi who practiced "poverty" (self-surrender), but not "obedience" (communion, or conscious at-one-ment); and hence his life, though imbued with (lower) Kundalini, was less than Divine, because he lacked the "purity" (Clear Light Energy) that stems from union with the (higher) Kundalini--Mother Shakti, or the Holy Spirit.