Ok. I have often wondered whether there could be a ‘safe space’ (not the political kind of ‘safe space’ people talk about elsewhere, although it should also be a safe space for all), by which I mean an open, liberal space, for people to share anything they like about Krishnamurti: questions, clarifications, observations, epiphanies, complaints, doubts, gripes, etc. In short, a place for K nerds but not for K police, not for people who “know”, and not for people who just want to troll, throw mud or be cynical.
If anyone has seen the film Dead Poet’s Society one will know that it is about a group of students at a strict boarding school who decide to meet sometimes outside the school grounds, usually at night, so that they can read and discuss poetry together. By doing this they risk the ire of the professors and teachers, the parents and authorities - but they do so because for them poetry is about life, not about obeying rules or living in accordance with other people’s expectations.
Similarly, this thread is for people who find value in K’s teachings, but who reject authority, refuse to be policed by people who think they “know”, and who just want to kick back and talk about K stuff in as leisurely or serious a way as they feel like doing.
This is not a space for parents or teachers - though people can share anything they wish. It is not a space for people to say things like “what you are doing is dangerous, you shouldn’t be talking like that”, or “K said you shouldn’t do this that or the other”. People are free to be intellectual or non-intellectual, mystical or down-to-earth, sentimental or rigorous, affectionate or sly. Some in-house policing may be necessary if people do not respect the spirit of the thread, but otherwise we ask the police to keep their distance.
Similarly, this is not a space for critics or naysayers, for people who have no interest in K but just want to lob some mud, to troll, to say “how boring, I feel sleepy reading these comments”, or “K was completely deluded, a fraud, a charlatan”, etc. Such people can set up their own threads and follow the beat of their own drum.
So this thread is for the young at heart. It can be irreverent and cheerful, but also existential and bleak. There are amazing things going on around us, new discoveries about space, new cultural phenomena that challenges and changes our thinking, new music, new generations with their own questions. And yet climate change is real, people are violent, the voting publics around the world are largely misinformed, nature is being decimated - the world is heading in increasingly nihilistic directions. What K said is relevant to all these things - or is it? (that’s what we can talk about here).
So K’s teachings are like a landscape rather than a single geographic feature: it contains mountains and hills, valleys and rivers, woodland and pasture - it is both the whole of it and each distinct part of the landscape. We are free to touch on any aspect of this.
We can also be tangential - K talked about computers, we can talk about computers (within sensible limits); K talked about genetic engineering, we can talk about genetic engineering (within reasonable limits). K also talked about love, relationship, sex, friendship, nature, beauty. If people want to share their observations of nature, their awareness of the natural world, they are free to do so. The limits are merely set by how relevant any tangents are to what K talked about - which K nerds will be aware of - so we only need to use our common sense (to repeat, trolls or naysayers are not welcome here, so please stay away if you identify with being a troll).
Carpe diem!
