Hylozoics on Krishnamurti and the Law of Development

1 4 KRISHNAMURTI AND THE LAW OF DEVELOPMENT 4.1 The Nature, Meaning, and Goal of Existence 1

The basic facts of the world view are the prerequisites of the life view. Without a correct conception of reality we are in no position to judge the meaning and goal of life and to find the right way to attain that goal. 2

The cosmos is made up of a series of interpenetrating worlds of different degrees of density. Starting from the physical or the lowest world, the ever higher worlds consist of a series of ever higher kinds of matter with ever higher kinds of consciousness corresponding to them. 3

The monads, or individual selves, are involved in a series of material envelopes, one envelope for each world. By identifying itself with its respective envelopes and having its experiences in them the self eventually acquires knowledge of each world in succession. 4

After the potential consciousness of the monad has been aroused to active consciousness, the monad develops this consciousness from the mineral kingdom up by experiencing, in kingdom after kingdom, reality in the different worlds, having to discover the laws of life by itself, acquiring insight, understanding, and ability to apply the laws unerringly. 5

The activation of consciousness implies the identification of consciousness with matter and all its relations. By identification, consciousness gains knowledge of the corresponding realities. Having gained knowledge of a certain kind of matter, consciousness liberates itself from identification with it to identify itself with the next higher kind. 6

Consciousness development is a slow process. In the mineral, vegetable, and animal king- doms, the individual uses generally seven eons in each before he has learnt everything he can learn and acquired all the qualities and abilities characteristic of that kingdom. 7

Human consciousness development can be divided into main stages and levels. These are principally determined by the age of the causal envelope, the time the individual has spent in the human kingdom, the number of incarnations he has experienced. The pace of development can in addition depend on the various ways in which individual character has experiences and the thoroughness with which experiences are worked up. The paths on which we arrive at a common conception are individual. The definitive perception is the same, however. Each pupil in each grade learns in his own way. But all of them pass the same examination as to reality to move up to the next higher grade. The universals in the particulars are the common and essential things and make common knowledge and understanding possible. 8

Separateness exists only in the lower worlds, which therefore also are the worlds of illusions and fictions, of deceptions and irremediable misunderstandings. In higher worlds there is but unity. If we want to reach higher, we must put off our individual isolation and seek our little group. That group will then seek a greater collective, that one in its turn an even greater one until, in the worlds of the third selves, we join the planetary collective. 4.2 The Stages of Human Development 1

The stages of human development are five in number: the stages of barbarism, civilization, culture, humanity, and ideality. Each stage can be said to consist of a series of levels of development. 2

At the stage of barbarism, the individual identifies himself with, and activates, lower emotional consciousness (48:4-7). 3

The stage of civilization brings with it the activation of lower mental consciousness (47:6,7), and also the intellectualization of emotional barbarous consciousness. At these two lowest stages, the individual uses thousands of incarnations. Subsequently the pace of evolution increases at each stage of development.2 4

The stage of culture implies the activation of the higher emotionality (48:2,3); the stage of humanity, of the higher mentality (47:4,5) along with the intellectualization of the cultural emotionality (48:2,3). 5

The stage of ideality, marking the transition to the kingdom of superman, brings with it the activation of the consciousness of the causal envelope (47:2,3) enabling the individual to have those powerful experiences, the causal intuitions. 6

It is not difficult to note what human beings at the various stages of development desire from life. They desire all that is within the reach of their perception. And they go on desiring it until they have thoroughly learnt what it is and no longer need those experiences. Then they are grateful to be spared having more of them. 7

At the two lower stages of development, egoism and self-assertion are necessary incentives for consciousness activation. 8

Physical needs dominate the barbarian. His consciousness development appears in the fact that the objective perception effected by his physical sense is sharpened to the utmost. The subjective processing, effected by his reason, of the experiences of his sense is still restricted to the simplest inference or analogy. 9

The civilizational individual is dominated by emotional illusions with the affects, com- plexes, etc. pertaining to them. Reason develops by restless reflection into a capacity for principle thinking. 10

At the stage of culture altruism begins to supersede egoism. This marks the beginning of the individual’s real development. The silent witness (the individual’s causal being), hitherto passive, begins to be activated and can develop its attraction, demonstrating in the individual as ever stronger trust in his unknown superconscious. At the stage of culture, which can also be called the stage of the mystic, the individual learns by concentration to keep his attention at everything strengthening his trust in life. Perhaps the most typical mantra pertaining to this is “best as it was, is, will be”. Finally the individual learns, like the Spartan and the fakir, indifference to physical pain, and like the stoic, unconcern about all the shifts of life and people’s behaviour. In so doing he learns how to control, and set himself free from depend- ence of, everything that had held him captive in physical life. The stage of culture is crowned with an incarnation as a saint. In many strenuous lives the man has sought to become a saint according to conventional concepts: cordial, sympathetic towards all and everyone. In one incarnation all his good sowing is brought together with his long yearning for a “glorious” reaping, so that he will be able to realize that which to his understanding has appeared as the highest ideal: the ideal of the emotional saint. 11

The mental consciousnesses of the stage of humanity still remain to be acquired, however.

They are of two kinds: perspective thinking (47:5) and system thinking (47:4). We can have an intimation of what this means, although only incompletely of course, by studying

Nietzsche and Goethe. The former went around, so to speak, his study subject in work upon work, scrutinizing it from many angles. Goethe saw everything from that synthesis of unity which surveys it all. When the individual has conquered these two consciousnesses, he can start to contact the causal intuition methodically. Thanks to mentality, it becomes possible for the individual to set himself free from emotional illusions. 4.3 Analysis Preliminary to the Examination of Krishnamurti’s Teaching 1

Before a more detailed examination of Krishnamurti’s teaching is made, an analysis of certain basic principles and factors that are particularly relevant to his attitude is probably necessary. This analysis will clarify: the inevitability of authority, the purpose and importance of society, the necessity of ideals, the meaning of liberation, the validity of the laws of development and self-realization.3 4.4 The Inevitability of Authority 1

By ourselves we know very little of reality and life. Philosophers and scientists have not yet been able to agree on a common world view, let alone a life view. 2

Man depends on authority in all respects. What would we know of mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, physiology, psychology, etc., without authority? Whenever we use an encyclopedia we consult an authority. Without the knowledge to be found in literature, the greatest genius would know little more than a Dayak on a deserted island.

Without renewed contact with the cultural heritage, everything there is in our subconscious would remain latent. Goethe says rightly: “We see only that which we already know.” It may be added: and we understand only that which we have already assimilated. He also says: “Whatever you inherited from your fathers you must acquire it to own it.” And what we have inherited is authoritative. 3

We all depend on authorities in all respects until we have ourselves acquired the requisite knowledge. We shall always depend on authorities. All beings in higher worlds do, if they want to know more than what is within the field of their experience. Everything super- conscious is largely inaccessible. We shall become free from authority when we have explored the reality of all the worlds of the cosmos. 4

Rudolf Steiner insisted that we should acquire clairvoyance, etheric and emotional objective consciousness, in order to explore those higher worlds. Even if this were as simple as it sounds, we would benefit but little from it. Etheric vision breeds maya, emotional vision produces illusions. The original meaning of “maya” was the notion that the physical world was all that existed, with the crass attitude resulting from it. Illusions and fictions are the sum of all the assumptions of ignorance in the emotional world. We take those material forms for permanent realities and fancy that they are something else than products of human imagination. 5

The possibility of right perception exists in the gross physical world and in the causal world only. The intuitions of the causal ideas afford us right subjective conception of all the worlds of man, but not of still higher worlds. 6

Our dependence on authority does not imply that we must be blind believers in authority.

We consult everyone who knows more than we do. We accept everything said as a hypothesis. We are in a position to select the authority who appears the most reliable one, the hypothesis that seems the most probable one to us. 7

We accept as a working hypothesis the esoteric mental system we have been given for nothing by supermen. It agrees with our own latent insight and understanding. It makes up a non-contradictory system of thought, meeting the highest scientific demands. It explains previously inexplicable realities in the simplest and most rational manner. 8

We receive from the supermen only such fundamental facts as mankind cannot possibly ascertain and as are necessary to a correct total conception of existence. All the other things said are mere symbols, parables, analogies, correspondences. We receive nothing that could be turned into dogmas. It is part of mankind’s intellectual education that there must always be room for doubt. That is the only way in which dogmatism and blind parrotry can be counter- acted and individual judgement and self-determination can be developed. We must stop asking “who said that?” If we do not realize that what is said is correct, then we are wise to consider it for the time being with a share of healthy skepticism. 9

Even the agents of the black lodge mostly speak the truth. That is their strength. On certain crucial points, however, they insidiously apply misleading intimations. Or they put known facts and ideas into wrong contexts. The fictions of the mental world are mostly facts put into wrong places. 10

The need of authority is equally legitimate in the sphere of life view. Without the knowledge of life and its laws we have received from Buddha and Christos and other messengers from higher worlds, we would grope in the dark. That is best seen in the people4 who reject those authorities. They drown in streams of mutually contradicting idiologies. Still they have not succeeded even in constructing a rational civil legal system that would prevent unnecessary friction in the community and between nations. Most people in our times are more disoriented in a life sense than their forebears ever were on this planet. 11

Besides, a system free of friction would be authoritative, too. 4.5 The Purpose and Importance of Society 1

Societies, including churches and sects, are of priceless importance. An isolated individual is like a tree stripped of its bark; it dries up. 2

Societies are meeting-places for like-minded people at the same stage of development, with the same needs of community and sense of solidarity. Societies afford opportunities to cultivate unity in its faint beginning. The path to unity goes through larger and larger collectives.

Whatever our level, we can always expect to find people who share our views once we have found the right society. By exchanging experiences with them we enlarge our horizon. 3

The group signifies to each of its members immensely more than we can surmise. If we cultivate group community, share the goal and striving of the group, refrain from all criticism of group members, then we achieve results that outweigh a hundredfold what we can attain if each individual works for himself. 4

Of course societies may hamper the development of the individual. They do so if absurdi- ties are preached, if fanaticism and enforced thinking rule, if it is asserted for instance that a certain doctrine belonging at a certain stage of development is the one and final truth. 5

Societies are authorities to those who need authority. And for them it is a real blessing that they find such a society, receive the support and the help they need until they have grown out of the level of their society. 6

Anything, even a society, may harm the individual. If that is the case, however, it only shows that the individual has joined the wrong society. 7

Having joined the right society the individual develops faster than if he had remained isolated. 8

The implication is not that everybody should belong to some society. In a certain incarnation the individual may need to reach clarity about himself in undisturbed calm. 9

The Buddha energetically emphasized, and many others after him, that societies cannot in any way claim exclusive rights to the truth. 4.6 The Necessity of Ideals 1

Everything that attracts us upwards is an ideal. Everything we have realized has been an ideal. Everything we strive after is an ideal, even if we are unaware of it. Ideals are necessary for all who want to reach higher. Without ideals no realization. 2

The importance of ideals appears even in the animal kingdom. Master and mistress are the ideals of our mute friends, and its longing after community with them becomes a factor of decisive importance to the animal’s possibility of acquiring a causal envelope of its own. 3

It is in the nature of the ideal that it has not been realized. If we rejected all ideals that could not be realized in one incarnation, then we would not reach higher kingdoms. 4

Ideals force their own realization, if they are attainable, are within the reach of under- standing and strained capacity. 5

Wrong ideals are too high, are turned into mere sayings and good resolutions, exhaust their energy in emotional ecstasies, mental extravagances, imaginative constructions about impossible great achievements. Such ideals only increase the individual’s self-importance, self-deception, and responsibility in life. 6

Depriving a man of his ideals is destroying the energy that makes him strive and persevere despite everything.5 4.7 Identification and Liberation 1

The process of development undergone by the monad consciousness consists in a con- tinuous identification with the matter and consciousness aspects of individual things in the different worlds. This identification makes up the consciousness content of the monad. 2

Identification means impression, and impression worked up is turned into experience. In life upon life, the monad consciousness identifies itself with similar things and relations in the different worlds, until it has eventually come to know them and can control them for its own part. 3

The individual’s ability of identification with physical, emotional, and mental realities (or, expressed differently, with the various layers of consciousness in the different worlds, or, if you so prefer, with the perception of the pertaining vibrations) indicates his level of development. 4

Liberation from identification means identification with something else. The monad consciousness must have some content. 5

If consciousness remains on a lower level than its actual one, this means that it refrains from liberation from the pertaining conditions. Also the law of reaping may effect attachment to what is lower. Only then will attachment become a hindrance. Before then it was a necessity. 6

We call the subjective consciousness content of the emotional world illusions and their correspondences in the mental world, fictions. 7

Most people talk about liberation from illusion when they change one illusion for another.

The final liberation from emotionality requires mental consciousness to have become stronger than emotional consciousness. It is to be noted that only the next higher kind of consciousness can control the next lower kind. Thus causal consciousness cannot overcome emotionality.

The mystic learns how to control the lower emotionality by the higher emotionality. 4.8 The Law of Development 1

The law of development has already been touched upon by way of introduction in con- nection with the discussion of the stages of development. The universality of this law is clearly seen in the fact that all life can be classified into natural kingdoms and subdivisions within them, all according to the levels of consciousness attained (the ability to perceive and produce vibrations in ever higher kinds of matter). 2

The whole of existence can be said to make up one gigantic process of development in accordance with eternal, imperturbable laws of nature and laws of life. The absolute purpose of existence is to enable all beings to acquire the highest cosmic omniscience. The entire cosmos has been brought into existence to enable the monads (the primordial atoms making up the cosmos) to develop, from unconsciousness, ignorance, and impotence, ever more intensive and extensive consciousness in ever higher worlds in order finally to attain the total cosmic consciousness of community. 3

All are made to undergo all the processes of life necessary to this. We are all given as many opportunities as we need to get to know reality and life in all worlds through impressions and experiences worked up. 4

The law of development shows us the path all must wander to attain the final goal. It shows that life provides all opportunities for the most rapid, most expedient, most successful mode of development. 5

All life makes up a unity. There is only one consciousness, the cosmic total consciousness in which every monad has an unlosable share. You could also say that each monad contributes with its little consciousness to the universal consciousness just as the drop in the sea con- tributes to the expansion of the ocean. Another way of putting it is to say that consciousness is by nature unity and that isolation cannot possibly exist. We can fully grasp and understand what this means only when we have attained the next higher natural kingdom, that of the6 superman, from where we have received all the knowledge of existence that makes up our esoteric mental system. Then we realize that all consciousness is common to all and that life affords to everyone the opportunity to develop this consciousness of community. 4.9 The Law of Self-Realization 1

If the law of development shows us what life does for us, then the law of self-realization shows us what we must do in order to develop. We must want to live, to have experiences, and to learn from them. Anyone who does not want to do so, must remain on his level of development until it becomes too monotonous to him. 2

In each incarnation the individual must begin from the mineral kingdom and work himself up anew to the level he previously attained subsequently to continue his interrupted develop- ment. Nobody can pass over a level he has not conquered before. Each level implies necessary experiences. Everything the individual has acquired in lower natural kingdoms and during his thousands of incarnations as a human being exists in his subconscious as latent dispositions of understanding and ability. Of course the normal individual can revive only an infinitesimal fraction of all this in a certain incarnation. Not until we can study, in the causal world, our past incarnations as human beings shall we be able to grasp the immensity of the work that life has expended on us much of which would have been unnecessary if we had worked at our experiences methodically and sought to adapt to the laws of life in an expedient manner. 3

However, this requires insight into the meaning of existence and the goal of life. Those who have attained the higher levels of the stage of civilization and so have gained the ability of thinking by principles, could very well be taught to comprehend the esoteric mental system so as to realize its superiority. But they have not yet seen through the fictitiousness of their philosophical and scientific constructions, have not yet realized that all other paths than the path of unity must lead them to dead ends. 4

The world teachers and other supermen who have reached the higher consciousness of higher worlds and so possess the true knowledge of reality have demonstrated to us how we can methodically conquer the higher emotional consciousness, the higher mental conscious- ness, causal consciousness in order to enter essential (46) unity in the most rapid way and so enter the kingdom of superman. 5

They have told us that even without the esoteric knowledge we develop rapidly if we follow, according to our understanding and ability, their simple instructions for a rational life.

But they have not promised us any short cut to the kingdom of god. 6

The esoteric knowledge sets us free from old speculation and superstition, affords us a sovereign philosophy, superior to any other conceivable one, grants us trust in life and trust in self, whatever we need to think, feel, speak, and act expediently. But it may become a hindrance to our personal development if it makes us waste our time on needless speculation and so miss opportunities of a richer life given us by precious moments. 4.10 Examination of Krishnamurti’s Teaching 1

A few of the factors that are the most important to the individual’s consciousness develop- ment have just been presented. The inevitability of authority, the importance of society, the necessity of ideals, the condition of liberation, the existence of the laws of development and self-realization have been demonstrated. 2

What are Krishnamurti’s views on these things? As we shall see, he rejects them all. That is the negative feature of his teaching, and it dominates. 3

The positive feature of it consists of esoterisms familiar to all who have studied the esoteric knowledge and who because of that are able to correctly interpret the distorted and misunderstood statements of the world teacher. They may be passed over in this connection.

But these esoterisms make up the indisputable part of Krishnamurti’s teaching, the part that7 seduces the ignorant and the part that makes experts hesitate to criticize it, if it were not for the disorientation that Krishnamurti has caused in so many respects, so that a clarification of his standpoint has been made inevitable. 4

Krishnamurti rejects all authority. He says that “everyone must find the truth within himself”. “Within himself” means either in the individual’s subconscious or in his super- conscious. As being subconscious, knowledge is latent and originally authoritative. As being superconscious, it is inspiration and then authoritative as well. We have received all truths as free gifts ever since the stage of barbarism. Truth appears to be individual, since we are on different levels of development, have had different experiences, have worked at experiences in different ways in different contexts of life. Nevertheless all real truths are collective on the level to which they belong. Krishnamurti energetically asserts that all authority is a hindrance.

In saying so he overlooks the fact that it was through his upbringing and education that he received for nothing all the esoterisms he teaches. They constitute his own dependence on authority. He has been able to realize the justification for precisely these esoterisms, but not other ones, and this is certainly an indication of self-reliance and self-determination but also of lack of understanding of truths belonging to higher stages of development. Moreover, he apparently does not realize that he makes himself an authority to those whom he tries to convince. 5

Krishnamurti also considers societies not only superfluous but even harmful. No esoterician contests that he is right in saying, “not by belonging to an organization, a society, or a church can a man gain liberation.” A society, however, whose general attitude to life approximately corresponds to that of the individual himself and a society in which he may feel at home among kindred spirits, a society that affords him opportunities of cultivating the spirit of community and that makes it easier for him to attain higher levels is of great value to his self-realization. 6

Of course there are such incarnations in the long life of the individual as make him sense the need of standing alone. This need is particularly strong at the stage of the mystic. And it may certainly be a mistake to remain in a society you have outgrown, at least if it has a restraining influence. But it is an ever bigger mistake to deny himself opportunities of cultivating the sense of unity, if he feels the need of community. Being one with a group and, where groups are concerned, their being one with ever greater collectives is the best way of effecting the final entry into the world of unity. (Nobody comes alone. We all bring our own.) 7

Krishnamurti wants to do away with ideals. Thus he says that “ideals are nothing but escape from reality” and that “ideals of brotherhood have demonstrated their impotence, since there are hatred and wars”. 8

Both statements, typical of the stage of the mystic, are, as being isolated and thus not put into their right contexts, positively erroneous and misleading. 9

Simply because ideals are preached injudiciously, because different ideals belong to differ- ent stages of development, because ideals pursued at the stage of culture are inconceivable at the stage of barbarism and seem removed from reality at the stage of civilization, all ideals must be rejected. Our unresponsiveness to ideals that are above our ability to understand and to realize does not in any way demonstrate the impotence of ideals in a general sense. 10

Krishnamurti speaks much about freedom, of liberation. He does not make it clear, how- ever, that in respect of consciousness the entire process of development consists in continuous identification and that liberation only means new identification. The liberation of conscious- ness from all content would be tantamount to unconsciousness. 11

He says that “if we set desire free, it is possible for life to function freely”. A desire set free is no desire. After emotional consciousness has been set free from any content, the only conceivable functions remaining (in no case free, however) are the mental or the physical ones.8 12

He goes on to say that “when desire has been set free from illusions, we reach the absolute”. This statement is particularly typical of the mystic. The absolute is either the entire material cosmos or total universal consciousness. In either case, such power having been achieved its immense effects on our little planet should be in some way detectable. 13

In another statement he says that “if we set ourselves free from desire, we are filled with wisdom and love”. True, we can contact essentiality (46) in moments of ecstasy and share in its bliss, but we do not therefore know what essential wisdom and love (agape of the gnosticians) actually is. We shall understand that only when we live in the essential world (world 46) as supermen. An inspiration from that world affords only a faint perception of its reality. 14

The same thought he expresses thus: “Only give yourself up to what is within you, and you will have right insight, wisdom, and love.” We understand from what has already been said how divorced from reality this talk is. We surely must do something ourselves to conquer the superconscious. 15

Krishnamurti contests development. He expressly says that “life cannot be divided into stages of development”. In so doing he demonstrates an amazing ignorance of what is essential in existence, because it is all one process of development of consciousness. Every atom is to pass through all the natural kingdoms from the mineral kingdom all the way up to the highest divine kingdom. In the case of man alone, there is an immense development during thousands of incarnations from the newly causalized individual, who has just made his entry into the human kingdom, to the genius who prepares his exit – to say nothing of a

Buddha or a Christos. Besides, even Krishnamurti talks about a path to be walked, which is but another word for development. Being a typical mystic he brushes all laws of life aside, although he must be well acquainted with the Hindu teaching on dharma, for instance, which also contains instructions for different stages, brilliantly analysed by Annie Besant in her little masterpiece, Dharma – perhaps the most perfect of her works. The mystic looks upon every- thing that he cannot use for his absorption into the absolute, everything that might neutralize his one-pointed purposefulness, as detrimental and cumbersome. Nothing must distract his attention from the one essential striving. That attitude is, to be sure, necessary as a preparation for initiation 16

Krishnamurti hands out the same recipe to everyone, not understanding that only those who have reached the stage of culture and have been granted an incarnation of the same good reaping as his own can follow his instructions and do as he does. He makes the same mistake as they do who think that there is one universal remedy for all kinds of disease, one teaching suitable for all people at all stages of development, one right method for all people on all levels. 17

However, a mystic can talk only to mystics, and be understood right only by mystics. It is meaningless to speak to the unprepared of the truths that belong at the stage of the mystic. To embark on the path of the mystic with success, the individual must have acquired the faculty of principle thinking (47:6) 18

Man’s life view appears in his conscious or unconscious spontaneous application of the laws of life. According to the law of self-realization, the individual must seek by himself, must be able to find, among existing life views, the truths he can understand, can apply, and thus needs. This, which is real to us in a life sense, we must by ourselves learn to apply expediently. 19

The answer that Krishnamurti gives to this is: “our search for the real is only a search for new illusions”. It is certainly true that at the emotional stage we take illusions for realities and at the mental stage, often fictions for realities. But this is the necessary way in which we come to know reality. It is by making mistakes that we eventually comprehend and understand. We acquire no life experience, attain no higher level, by refusing to learn.9 20 “Character” is the name we give to the collection of qualities we have acquired in past lives. Our character indicates how far we have walked the path of self-realization, and makes itself felt in our spontaneous behaviour. Krishnamurti says of this: “Character is just a hindrance, a limitation.” 21

The mystic is in such a hurry to attain the absolute that he does not find the time to acquire any qualities and does not consider himself in need of any. 22

It is true that one-sided concentration on the acquisition of qualities may intensify our egocentricity. But any necessary activity may harm us if we go about it in a wrong way. Often we must take inevitable drawbacks to gain greater advantages. Besides, character building consists in a constant exchange of lower qualities for higher ones. In that respect, too, life is continuous identification and liberation. However, Krishnamurti’s statement on character demonstrates that he is quite unable to function as a spiritual adviser, to understand and meet people on their individually different levels. The doctrines preached at the stage of the mystic lead, if accepted by civilizational individuals, either to failure resulting in skepticism or, even worse, to self-deception that often proves incurable. The same is true of every teaching that is too much above the individual. 23

Krishnamurti says: “If you follow a method, you will never understand the truth.” 24

Method is a way of achieving a certain result, possibly attaining a higher level, more rapidly. Krishnamurti, too, has his method, although he does not see it. (To find the right method you must already have found the truth.) The method tells us that we must learn how to realize the truth if we are to fully understand it. Most methods prove unsuccessful because they have not been adapted to the individual (an adaptation that only a 46-self can make) or because they are above the individual’s capacity for understanding and application. 25

Many of Krishnamurti’s statements show that he has let himself be hypnotized by that esoterism according to which the individual can rapidly be transformed and attain the goal he is striving for. Like most life truths this, too, has been given a too general formulation and is misleading by design (to be made incomprehensible to the immature). 26

Certainly we can rapidly change. The Buddha could in his last incarnation cover the path from the mineral kingdom to the manifestal divine kingdom. He could because he had already acquired all the prerequisites and had them latently in his subconscious. But if anyone takes this as meaning that he can just skip a lot of levels of development that he has not previously mastered, then he makes a serious error in life. Each level implies necessary experiences for a wider understanding of life; each stage sees the development of necessary qualities and abilities as constituents of the twelve essential ones. A Hercules is required to develop and demonstrate them all in one and the same incarnation. 27

We understand, however, that Krishnamurti’s seemingly easy and comfortable fast track to perfection must appear tempting to many people. Small wonder if ignorance and incapacity are on the lookout for the promised saviour from all toil and trouble, saluting with joy the one convincing them that there is a simple and fast way of reaching higher kingdoms in higher worlds. 28

Before the individual has reached the stage of culture, or the stage of the mystic, he can accept any one of the comfortable doctrines of salvation: “Only believe (in god, the church, the priest) and you will be saved. Only be good and you will go to heaven. Only trust in god and he will do everything for you.” 29

At the stage of the mystic, or the stage of culture, the individual has gained trust in life and trust in self, is convinced that it all is well arranged and is guiding him to a perfect goal, that he only needs to trust his unconscious and then life will do all the rest. 30

Only at the higher mental stage does the individual sense the need of the perfect and therefore esoteric mental system with the knowledge of the laws of life and their expedient application. Then he will receive that system as a free gift.10 31

Finally one more quotation of Krishnamurti. He says: “truth is not attached to a person”.

On the contrary, it is always attached to a person. All knowledge is a gift from above, is revelation, not least through inspiration. Such revelation is always mediated through a certain person. How could we have advanced at all in our view of life if the Buddha, Christos, and others had not revealed the laws of the higher life? 32

Every human being represents the truth on his level. This is the true basis of tolerance.

We meet all where they stand. We realize that they must conceive of life in their own ways.

We need not fear becoming dependent on a certain person. When we have learnt whatever one may give us, then his authority drops by itself. 33

Krishnamurti had the opportunity of growing up in the finest spiritual environment.

Everything was arranged for him. All paths were smoothed. He just had to receive the abundance that was poured over him in all respects. His teachers were two exceptionally capable spiritual educators, Annie Besant and Leadbeater. He was given access to the fore- most treasures of world literature. Having received such education you are in no need of more authorities in that incarnation but will get along from then on. 34

His followers are in a different position, however. He advises them to plunge headlong into the sea of consciousness to swim across the ocean of infinitude. It must result in death by drowning, which admittedly might be a valuable experience for their next incarnation. 35

Krishnamurti’s teaching has had a misleading effect, generally speaking. He has per- suaded those who need true authority to reject it, those who need the support of a society to revert to the stage of the recluse, those who need ideals to renounce them, those who need identification with higher knowledge to disdain it. Even if in a certain life we do not see the value of knowledge, yet it will be of great importance when we shall have it as remembrance in a future incarnation. 36

It seems as if Krishnamurti’s teachers overrated his capacity. They subjected him to spiritual overtraining, and the consequences were deplorable. They tried to force knowledge on him that he could not understand. The result was a reaction against all those undigested things as useless burdens. 37

Krishnamurti did not succeed in becoming an instrument for the world teacher: the goal of his entire training. When this became clear to him, he lost his faith in everything he had been taught but had never understood. He reverted to the traditional yogic notion of absorption into nirvana. 38

Krishnamurti did not realize the need for mental development, acquisition of conscious- ness in the higher mental world. This demonstrates that he did not attain the higher mental stage, let alone the causal stage. This makes it clear that he has not passed the third planetary initiation. Nor had Paul the apostle when he wrote his epistles, which explains a lot of things. 39

We shall never be free from authority. Whatever our level of development, there will always be someone on a higher level than ours. It is not sufficient for us to do what we believe to be right. It must be about doing what is right. A mistake as to the Law is a mistake whether we know it or not. 40

Krishnamurti has remained a Hindu. To him, the self-realization of the yogis (their state of liberation from outer circumstances as well as feelings and thoughts) is the highest achievable goal. The yogis believe this to be the same as absorption into nirvana (45:1-7), when in fact it is becoming lost in superconscious emotionality (48:1,2). They have realized the ideal of the saint, the ideal of the stage of the mystic, and they believe this to be the meaning and goal of life, having no idea of the fact that there is a whole series of ever higher kinds of consciousness. 41

Those who have attained the stage of humanity and arrived at understanding of the esoteric mental system know incomparably more than what they are able to realize as human beings. Thus they are no saints, and you must be a saint to be an authority to those at theemotional stage and to those at the stage of the mystic in particular. Since theosophists are no saints, Krishnamurti deemed yogis superior to them in respect of knowledge as well. The esoterician does not, since he knows that the incarnation as a saint is the conclusion of emotional development. 42

Krishnamurti applies his tabula rasa outlook to everything. Such a procedure leads nowhere. People must have basic facts to start from, otherwise their brains will run idle. They must have ideals, for action is determined by the strongest motive. If you have no ideals, then you have no efficient motive either. Also, Krishnamurti’s followers appear helplessly dis- oriented in a life sense. 43

After the second initiation the individual is faced with the choice of serving the white lodge or the black lodge, the choice of serving evolution or involution. Those who serve evolution enter the Hierarchy via the third initiation. Those who serve involution take the

Dionysos initiation and join the black lodge. It seems as if Krishnamurti had chosen the

Dionysos initiation. He denies reincarnation and the immortality of the soul as well as all knowledge of higher worlds but that of the lower worlds, the worlds of man.

The above text constitutes the essay Krishnamurti and the Law of Development by Henry

T. Laurency.

The essay is part of the book Knowledge of Life Five by Henry T. Laurency, published in

Swedish in 1995. Translation by Lars Adelskogh.

Copyright © 2015 by the Henry T. Laurency Publishing Foundation.