Mary Zimbalist’s Memoirs are likely to dispel any illusions one has of Krishnamurti. K told her to write a book about what it was like to live with a man from Madanapalle. They lived together 20 years. She was his benefactress—Krishnamurti was a kept man, but had been all his life. Mary’s Memoirs may disappoint some, leaving inference contrary to what K perceived of himself or criticism that K didn’t meet their expectations. He wasn’t perfect. K was a unique phenomenon, a whirlwind global speaker drawing thousands up until a month before he died at age 90. What was it that appealed to the sold-out audiences at Carnegie Hall? Is it our need to think, feel, and behave differently in this world today? K instilled a sense of responsibility when he said, “You are the of world.” He touched our hearts and redefined the parameters of love, intelligence, insight, time and action. He conveyed new lines of thinking, undoubtedly activating changes in neural pathways of our brains. He has influenced this world in ways we may never fully understand or appreciate. The foundations, books, videos, archives and schools, orchestrated with Mary Zimbalist’s financial help, are his legacy. His teachings have infiltrated social, emotional learning (SEL) curriculums used in American public schools today (Positive Action, Choose Love, DBT for Schools). Krishnamurti influenced therapists working with individuals and other global teachers like Eckhardt Tolle and Deepak Chopra with audiences in the millions. K left his mark on humanity doing what compelled him, speaking to the masses.
Whether K was way ahead of us or we choose to believe he was, it doesn’t matter if we “get” that he was telling us that all we’re getting is our own peculiar version of what actually is, and we need to see this mental illness for what it actually is.
Inquiry, we are getting “our own particular version of what actually is” seems to be factual. Yet if we are going to live compatibly with the world around us, there needs to be some general agreement on “what actually is”, otherwise the world at-large can designate that individual to be mentally or socially ill.
When someone says to you that Trump never lies, it is abundantly clear that the other is profoundly deluded, mentally ill, and that you don’t dare engage them on their terms, so that all you can do is find whatever compatibility there may be and relate to them from there.
But that doesn’t address their mental illness and the urgent need for this illness to be eradicated if we are to survive as a species. But do we understand it by observing it in others, or must we see it operating in ourselves?