Ingram Smith was renouned for provocative radio programs on the air at ABC. Often he ended his program with a power audio clip of Krishnamurti speaking on a topical, current subject. Now Ingram Smith has come out with his memoirs and they too are punctuated with the powerful works of his mentor, J. Krishnamurti. This new title is a rewrite of Smith's earlier book TRUTH IS A PATHLESS LAND, with much more provocative writings about the authors own experiments with truth and his own consciousness. The book is dense with insightful information on Krishnamurti and the impact the great teacher had on Smith's lie and work. This is an important book for students of consciousness and those intrigued by Krishnamurti's life and work.

This is perhaps the most accessible collection of Krishnamurti's teachings and insights, which isn't to say he's an obscurantist, or that the content is easy. Unlike the scores of self-appointed gurus and self-help peddlers pandering to lazy and impatient seekers, Krishnamurti offers direct, often uncomfortable, but ultimately liberating insights into the hows and whys of the human mind, and what lies beyond it.

Personally I've read this book dozens of times and always see a little more clearly and deeply with each re-reading. Folks who are repelled by both traditional religion and New Age trash, yet hunger for deeper questions and answers, may draw tremendous wisdom from this book.

This is just a phenomenal book. I read this book before going into freshman year in high school and even though it didn't quite sink in and I still had much to learn the book had a profound affect on me. I recently read the book again about 6 years later and I have to thank Krishnamurti for putting me back on the path we were all born to walk. I have bought 3 copies of this book so far and I'm about to buy 2 more...for now at least. What he describes may not seem like an easy way to live life but for myself at least there is no other way. If you say you love your children or say you have any sincere love you will probably agree with me. If you have no love in your life you should definetaly give the book a try. Unless you want to wait for me to lend you the book I would recommend that you order a few copies today. A great tool to let you be the beautiful flowers we all are.

With so many books, tapes, videos, pamphlets & whatnots out there, people might wonder where to begin with Krishnamurti. This title is an excellent introduction. Krishnamurti is very simple & direct, but unless you've read a good number of his works, you might be confused because he has many unique definitions of words and also breaks down the mind & thought into many layers & categories. This collection of talks were given to students, so the philosophy is very simple. Points that are given emphasis here are regarding people doing what they truly love as opposed to what they think they should do, the need to question belief of any kind & breaking free from one's conditioning. Krishnamurti stayed away from classifying himself & his teachings, but he's an existentialist and this & his other works should intrest people into that branch of philosophy and thinking. He's a worthy blood-brother to Nietzsche. Get this. Read it. You'll dig it.

And not only that, the most 'thought provoking' and definately one of Krishnamurti's top five most important books!
If you into the real shallow waters of philosophy maybe you ought to take a pass, as they don't talk about angels and warm fuzzy feelings. But if you want the REAL nitty gritty, this book is a MUST!!!

The intensity and underlying significance of whats discussed by JK and Dr Bohm enquires very deeply into the whole of human life on this planet and provides an insight to our thinking and our conditioning.A definate buy for people who have some backgroud of krishnamurti's philiospy as this book is the closest to what could be written or expressed about that which cannot be captured by thought.

Having read many books by Krishnmaurti and 'Wholeness and the Implicate Order' by Bohm, I was still not prepared for the deep insight explosion this wonderful book caused in myself. I recommend wholeheartitly for the Krishnamurti reader who finds him or herself pouring over similar and reoccuring themes in Krishnamurti books and not quite grasping the subject matter. This book owes a lot to the penetrating dissection by Bohm of Krishnamurti's dialogue. As I read along I found myself questioning what Krishnamurti was talking about and wishing I could have it clarified, only to have Bohm ask the question I was asking myself, and consequently, answering the question. How wonderful. Although Krishnamurti has been in dialogue with many sharp minds nothing that I have read comes close to the genius of Bohm at uncovering in plain language these difficult discussions. This book is fantastic. Excuse my expression but the book is truly 'mindblowing'. All this is obtained through what is easily percieved as the non-egotistical approach of two humble and caring people. 6 stars!

J Krishnamurti's Commentaries on Living are a living testament to the beauty as well as the complexity of life. The peace of the mind which wrote these is almost tangible.

When the source is pure, every drop (as every sentence in this book) leads one to purity.

But approach Krishnamurti with trepidation, as it is too easy to battle verbally with oneself and others after having listened to him with a haughty seriousness.

All he can do is to make you question your own self. That is the beginning. After that, you are on your own, and therefore, free.

Nobody can teach you, but you can get taught by everything.

This is a remarkable book. It is actually three books in 88 chapters. Each chapter starts with an absolutely magic description of people in nature. That is the first book. The second book consists of people telling about their problems and comments of Krishnamurti. These comments are very fresh, original and give new insights. They evoke the reaction "why did I never looked at it that way". The third book, the third part in every chapter describes his view of life. This is very difficult to understand. I am not sure I am able or should voice an opinion on this part because it so unique. There are no reference points. It is not a philosophy, it is not a religion, and it is not a spiritual path. From time to time you get the feeling, "I understand", the next moment it is again a mirage. When we look at a beautiful landscape, we can be totally absorbed by the experience of looking. We are not thinking or analyzing. Krishnamurti's idea is that that is the way we should live all the time. He refers to that as "experiencing". As soon as we start thinking or want to achieve something, we will forever be unhappy. Buddha teaches that through concentration and meditation it is possible, by "taming" the mind one can arrive at "experiencing". Krishnamurti totally rejects the need for experience, training and effort. The idea of living without thinking is for me not imaginable. One thing I do not like is that Krishnamurti rejects the wisdom of everybody. Logically, he also totally rejects the idea that people should ever consider becoming his followers or disciples. The risk I see with the book is that people read it as a smorgasbord. Pick up ideas that correspond to those they already have and reject the inconvenient ones. All in all for people with genuine spiritual interests it is a gold mine.

When I first got this book I had absolutely no idea who the man Krishnamurti was or what his life was like. I was simply intrigued by the title of the book. After reading the first two commentaries I began to realize that this wouldn't be like anything I've ever read before. I was reading it through the haze of my own conditioning and I would have dropped the book right there, as nothing was making sense. But something made me want to just read on - I don't know if it is the sheer lyrical beauty of the descriptions in his book or the lure of something that is really true. Whatever the reason, I just could not keep my hands off it after I went on.

It can really be a tumultous experience to suddenly realize that the basis of everything that you have believed in and taken support or refuge in is all false. But once you are over that, you then start looking at life very differently. You just stop running with the mad crowd and you stand aside and ask yourself "What have I been doing with my life so far?" Thats the kind of effect that this book had on me and I cannot imagine that a serious reader will go through this book without wanting to change his life after that.

An excellent investigation of thought by Krishnamurti and Bohm. The style is one of question and answer, first the illuminating insights of Krishnamurti followed by the in depth questioning of Bohm. At times one gets lost in the concepts Krishnamurti uses to expand on his views but in the nick of time Bohm clarifies the issue with his well known brand of questioning. It is indeed rare to find such a book which so deeply investigates the subtlety of thought, its construction of the `self' and its uses and abuses so to speak. As typical of Krishnamurti and Bohm this book is important and lacks any kind of fantasy component or unecessary terms. Perfect for psychologists, scienists and laymen.

According to Troxell and Snyder Krishnamurti is leading philosophers away from reliance on abstract thought to greater concern for a direct awareness of ourselves in the world....and together with David Bohm in these further dialogs, the result is of extraordinary importance, which is affecting all thinking areas.

This is a remarkable and strange story, told by a person close to Krishnamurti. A young man is taken from his family in India (seemingly at random) and trained to be a "world teacher" of Theosophy. After several years of traveling around the world, having fun with his friends, meditating, and developing doubts, he has an intense and torturous mystical experience. He comes to the conclusion that the only salvation is that we find within ourselves, and strikes out on his own.

I can see why the Dalai Lama likes Krishnamurti. His own autobiography tells a story that is similiar in many respects -- a lonely young god-king who finds himself, but also shows an attractively human side along the way. (In the D. L.'s case, he tinkered with watches rather than cars.)

The author knew Krishnamurti when both were young, and she was in love with him. She's evidently still in love, yet manages to tell Krishnamurti's story in an honest manner, including faults and errors as well as a bit of hero-worship. While I sympathized with him and found him an attractive human being in some ways, I can't say I came away admiring K quite as much as the author clearly does. As a youth, he seemed to me (being bourgois at heart) like a lonely and mixed up young man who needed a real job and a real family more than anything. After a long, slow build-up, K's mystic experience is described in painful detail. Like Mohammed gurus like Muktananda and Sai Baba, it was a painful and bizarre experience that even the principles thought might involve evil spirits. But then the story takes an unexpected twist. Rather than launching jihad, or founding an ashram with himself as God, K sets out to teach the world that God -- or "life" -- is no more (or not much more) his monopoly than that of anyone else.

Given Occam's razor, where should we slice? The author gives little reason to assume that K's grand pronouncements at this stage are true. She points out, for example, that after his experience, he was still capable of accusing her, falsely, of having an affair with a married man. Nor do the "un-dogmas" given in this book, at least, strike me as extraordinarily deep. Truth is "unconditioned" and "pathless," organized creeds are "crystalized" and "dead." "There is neither good nor evil. Good is that of which you are afraid; evil is that of which you are not afraid." These are cliches in some circles, and strike me as the kind of sophism that is just iconoclastic enough to seem profound to mild intellectual rebels. One can only be called bold for questioning one's own dogmas, not those of someone else.

Many of K's ideas given here appear to me to have been influenced by the Dharmapada and Zen Buddhism. People couldn't live with such an individual self-help form of Buddhism 2600 years ago. The author seems to show (see what happens to the other characters in the book) that they can't live with it today, either. (Even if self-salvation "works" -- or is the highest goal -- which I doubt, especially the latter.) Tell myself, "I am one of the strong ones. I can save myself." Or is that my pride speaking? Which means, I am most lost of all? K himself seemed to entertain similar doubts, at least early on. His mystic experience may have assured him, while I, frankly, was left wondering why.

This book is mainly the story of K's early life, not his teachings, however. It is a well-told and touching story. It gives an inside view of the Theosophy society, and portrays the main characters with sympathy and, most the time, kindness. (Sometimes to the point of naivitee.)

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

The first of two books about the man groomed for messiahship by those who took him for the reincarnated World Teacher, the man who later dissolved the Order of the Star, gave back the wealth he'd been given, and told the world it was all bunk: "Truth is a pathless land..."

I've been reading several of Krishnamurti's books before reading this biography of his early years, through age 38, and definitely consider this must reading for anyone who has been studying his philosophy. Here in the earlier stages of his life, one can see the elements that shaped the man and his philosophy.

Mary Luytens, the author of this biography, was a close friend of his and she refers to herself in the third person several times through the book. Her mother was active in the Theosophical Society directed by Mrs. Besant during J. Krishnamurti's childhood and young adult years.

As the eighth son born to a family of the Brahmin caste in India, he was automatically given the name of Krishnamurti. A horoscope was immediately cast for him by an Indian astrologer, and needless to say, it predicted that he would be a singularly important spiritual influence.

This is a fascinating account of those early years, and of how the Theosophical Society gained control of his upbringing, and cast him in the role of the great world spiritual leader whose advent the society predicted. The author details events of this period and the reader will see how Krishnamurti, although under the tutelage of this group, developed an independent spirit and an independent philosophy, and eventually stepped out of the role created for him.

The emphasis throughout the book is on the biographical events and not on the eventual philosophy. For this reason, I feel that the person familiar with the philosophy will get more from this book than will one who hasn't read this man's writings.

I believe anyone who is spiritually attuned will gain a tremendous insight through this book.

Money-making through the sales of this book seems to be the main aim of the author - excusable, actually, as a number of others have done so too with books on J. Krishnamurti: Krohnen is in exalted company, actually! He exploits his accidental association with a man of great charisma and wisdom for self-enrichment. A rather unweildy collection of used jokes - and many jokes that Krishnamurti made were picked up by K himself from others - laced with a few menus do not a good book make! And being K's cook for 10 years does not necessarily confer on anyone the right to portray K's character in however sketchy a manner! The book does not provide any insight into either K or the author and since there is still a commercial value - fast diminishing, I admit - on anything related to K and his life, Michael Krohnen has struck while the wok is hot! I belive the menus aren't very inspiring either! It is lucky for Krohnen that Krishnamurti was rather bored by food and never felt hungry! If he did Krohnen would have had short shrift! No doubt he has a lot to be thankful for in his association with Krishnamurti!
The Indian cook - whom I know personally - who used to cook for Krishnamurti while K travelled all over India, and who was also with him and not only cooked for him but also looked after him in every way when K was living in solitude, would have been able to write a much better book had he been more literate! As it is, Krohnen should have just confined himself to his cooking skills (!) but as they don't amount to very much he has ventured, unsuccessfully, into territory where he is clearly very much out of depth!
What next? A book by Krishnamurti's barber about K's futile attempts to cover his bald head with the few strands of hair that remained?

Krishnamurti is the most important mystic of the twentieth century, and a clear, unvarnished account of personal interactions with him is always revealing and welcome. This is another one.

This is a wonderful book--I really enjoyed it. For those of us who never had a chance to meet K or hear him speak in person, this book is a real gem. It is full of jokes that K liked to tell and some stories he told. The author gives the reader a real sense of what it was like to interact with Krishnamurti on a casual, daily basis. This book includes some menus. No detail was too insignificant for me; therefore I couldn't put this book down. The author, Michael Kroehnen, was the cook in CA for the last 10 years of Krishnamurti'l life.

Peter Michel's book is short but distinctive. As the back cover says, it draws on material not previously looked at by other authors. Importantly, Michel gives his own fresh impression on the facts of K's life, drawn from primary sources, interviews, and books that many people may not be aware existed. Michel criticizes K for his dismissal of religious groups such as the TS and Christianity. This is probably the weakest part of the book, in my view. Michel is unable to conceed perhaps that K might have made such harsh criticisms for a reason. Why assume that K is extraordinary on the one hand yet dismiss those parts of his teaching he doesn't like? His insistence on the importance of K's esoteric past rather missed the point of what K stood for and spoke about. All in all, I suggest everyone with an interest in Krishnamurti read this book. It is not nearly the best book written about K, by a long shot, but it is a necessary and important addition to the biographies on Krishnamurti.

Not a particulary deep book for the genre, nor does it break any new ground, but a good enough presentation of K's life and thought for those who haven't been previously introduced to it, or a nice addition to a collection.

As complex a character as Jiddu Krishnamurti has been, the author was able to introduce me to a man whom I can relate to. I learned new facts about his life and his teachings. I recommend this book for people that have not heard about Krishnamurti before as well as for people who want to study more about him.

This is a tiny, tiny (89 pp.) book is far too brief to dojustice even remotely to a thinker like Jaddu Krishnamurti. The sizeof the book is only 3.5" x 5.0" and the longest excerpt from any of his talks or writings (the book is composed solely of such snippets from his other work) are very short -- 2 pages at the most -- and they fail to give an adequate understanding of the breadth and deepness of Krishnamurti's mature philosophy, one that in my opinion, is one of the most important streams of contemporary thought, and one which surely deserves more than such a tiny volume is able to convey. It's cheap, but not worth the price. Get one of his larger and more complete books if you are interesting in finding out what this brilliant and very genuine man had to say. Any less than that would be doing injustice to the integrity of his work.

Despite what the spiritually ignorant and a few who ought to know better say, the recent "controversies" created over K. in no way detract from his works, which contain simply the most inspired--if you make the effort to understand them--psychological/spiritual message of the previous century. To greatly oversimplify, Krishnamurti was a modern zen master without describing himself as such and wihtout any of the baloney that inevitably gathered around that particluar non-school. If this message, the one underlying all religious experience, was understood no other would be needed, not in this area of human understanding. This collection is his description of the state of knowing that cannot be sought; nor does he ever drift into the error of saying it can be taught or imitated. Only suggested.

This book is short,true. But I think that for beginners, it's a good book. Of course, it doesn't rank with "The awakening of intelligence" or other books by K., but it's good for people that don't want to go too deep into the subject and just want to learn more about K. In addition, the small format is practical so you can carry it and read it during the day, at moments when you feel most "ready".

This simple little book is a transcript of a series of conversations the author had with an aged Krisnamurti in his last years. K. is expressing his central teachings in very simple terms here. I like this one. It's worth tracking down a copy.

This book will probably not facinate those new to Krishnamurti, or who only have a casual interest in his work. But for the rest of us who have read a great deal on K and who want to find out about his actual personality, this book gives us a rare insight. K was rarely ever 'interviewed', at least in the way normal interviews go. The author has created a relaxed environment for K to speak, and K's easy going but wise nature is revealed. K often speaks personally in the book, and also his philosophy is revealed. K's philosophy is completely awe-inspiring in this book; either K is a rare, super-insightful mood, or Prasat has illuminated K's words in his own writing, or both. I suggest both.