Human history, it seems, has never before witnessed a crisis of the complexity, magnitude, and catastrophic sweep that is being experienced today by mankind and the planet we live on. Its impact is visible in every sphere of our life and is marked by an erosion of values, the collapse of faiths, traditions and ideologies, the breakdown of relationships, and the savage destruction of the earth.
Despite the achievements of our age—the information revolution, the rapid growth of scientific knowledge with its technological skills, and so on—no one can deny that solutions to even the most basic problems such as hunger and insecurity, war, exploitation, and injustice remain remote. What is more, the rapid networking of the world’s societies has ensured that the crisis is brought to every doorstep—yours and mine—without choice, without option.
Nearly a century ago, Krishnamurti saw all this coming. Witness to the dramatic events of the 20th century and endowed with a capacity for acute observation and profound insight, he gave the most brilliant expression to the causes that brought on, and continue to fuel, the global crisis.
Crisis is in You
You must understand the whole of life, not just one part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, why you must sing, dance and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.
The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end – you don’t achieve, you don’t come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.
—Krishnamurti, The First and Last Freedom | Purchase
One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.
