Brief Descriptions

of Jiddu Krishnamurti's Sense

and the Sense of Other Mystics



John L. Waters



February 25, 2002



© Copyright 2002 by John L. Waters. All Rights

Reserved



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The following quotations come from the book entitled

"Krishnamurti's Notebook" published by Harper & Row,

and having  call number B5134.K76A341976b.  This book

is 252 pages long and contains notes that Jiddu

Krishnamurti wrote as he was travelling,  living in

different places, and giving talks.  The reason for

collecting some of these short quotations and

presenting them here is to give the  reader a quick

introduction to the Krishnamurti's mystical sense.(1)



June 18th, 1961

"In the evening it was there: suddenly it was there,

filling the room, a great sense of beauty, power and

gentleness.  Others noticed it." (page 9)



June 20th, 1961

"In the car on the way to Ojai, again it began, the

pressure and the feeling of immense vastness." (page

9)



June 23rd, 1961

"Sitting in the dentist's chair, one was looking out

of the window, looking past the hedge, the TV antenna,

the telegraph pole, at the purple mountains.  One was

looking not with eyes only but with one's whole head,

as though from the back of the head, with one's entire

being.  It was an odd experience.  There was no centre

from which observation was taking place.  The colors

and the beauty and lines of the mountains were

intense." (page 12)



July 13th, 1961

"Last night, after the long and lovely drive through

mountainous country, on entering the room, that

strange sacred blessing was there.  The other also

felt it.  The other also felt the quiet, that

penetrating atmosphere.  There is a feeling of great

beauty and love and of mature fullness." (page 23)



July 17th, 1961

"We were going up the path of a steep wooded side of a

mountain and presently sat on a bench.  Suddenly, most

unexpectedly that sacred benediction came upon us, the

other felt it too, without our saying anything." (page

25)



July 19th, 1961

"It had been rather bad all the afternoon of yesterday

and it seems more painful.  Towards the evening that a

sacredness came and filled the room and the other felt

it too." (page 26)



July 27th, 1961

"It was a beautiful drive through two different

valleys, up to a pass; the sweeping mountainous rocks,

fantastic shapes and curves, their solitude and

grandeur, and far away the green, sloping mountain,

made an impression on the brain that was still.  As we

were driving, the strange intensity and the beauty of

these many days came more and more pressing upon one. 

And the other felt it also." (page 33)



August 3rd, 1961

"It was a clear morning though soon clouds would be

gathering.  As one looked out of the window, the

trees, the fields were very clear.  A curious thing is

happening; there is a heightening of sensitivity. 

Sensitivity, not only to beauty but also to all other

things.  The blade of grass was astonishingly green;

that one blade of grass contained the whole spectrum

of colour; it was intense, dazzling and such a small

thing, so easy to destroy.  Those trees were all of

life, their height and their depth;  the lines of

those sweeping hills and the solitary trees were the

expression of all time and space; and the mountains

against the pale sky were beyond all the gods and man.

 It was incredible to see, feel, all this by just

looking out of the window.  One's eyes were

cleansed."(page 38,39)



August 9th, 1961

"Yesterday, walking amidst hills, meadows and streams,

among pleasant quietness and beauty one was again

aware of that strange and deeply moving innocence.  It

was quietly, without any resistance, penetrating,

entering into every corner and twist of one's mind,

cleansing it of all thought and feeling.  It left one

empty and complete.  Suddenly all time had stopped. 

Each one was aware of its passage." (pages 42 and 43)



August 11th, 1961

"Sitting in the car, beside a boisterous mountain

stream and in the middle of green, rich meadows and a

darkening sky, that incorruptible innocence was there,

whose austerity was beauty.  The brain was utterly

quiet and it was touched by it."(page 44)



August 16, 1961

"This morning, it was very early, the dawn wouldn't

come for a couple of hours, on waking, with eyes that

have lost their sleep, one was aware of an

unfathomable cheerfulness; there was no cause to it,

no sentimentality or that emotional extravagance,

enthusiasm, behind it; it was clear, simple cheer,

uncontaminated and rich, untouched and pure.  There

was no thought or reason behind it and neither could

one ever understand it for there was no cause to it. 

This cheerfulness was pouring out of one's whole being

and the being was utterly empty.  As a stream of water

gushes out from the side of a mountain, naturally and

under pressure, this cheer was pouring out in great

abundance, coming from nowhere and going nowhere, but

the heart and mind would never be the same again."

(page 49, 50)



October 8th, 1961

"In the afternoon yesterday, it began suddenly, in a

room overlooking a noisy street; the strength and the

beauty of the otherness was spreading from the room

outward over the traffic, past the gardens and beyond

the hills.  It was there immense and impenetrable; it

was there in the afternoon, and just as one was

getting into bed it was there with furious intensity,

and benediction of great holiness." (page 136)



The reader may be tempted to attribute this perception

to a chronic mental or perceptual disorder.  The fact

is that Jiddu Krishnamurti suffered from episodes of

pain.  In a quote from the Foreword of "Krishnamurti's

Notebook" Mary Lutyens states:



In 1922, at the age of twenty-eight, Krishnamurti

underwent a spiritual experience that changed his life

and which was followed by years of acute and almost

continuous pain in his head and spine.  The manuscript

shows that "the process", as he called this mysterious

pain, was still going on nearly forty years later,

though in a much milder form." (page 5)



In a brief report on his own experience of the

mystical sense  taken from the book, "Nature, Man and

Woman," author Alan Watts writes:



"It was in just this way that late one afternoon my

own garden became suddenly transfigured-- for about

half an hour, just at the beginning of twilight.  The

sky was in some way transparent, its blue quiet and

clear, but more inwardly luminous than ever at high

noon.  The leaves of the trees and shrubs assumed

qualities of green that were incandescent, and their

clusterings were no longer shapeless daubs, but

arabesques of marvellous complexity and clarity.  The

interlacing of branches against the sky suggested

filigree or tracery, not in the sense of

artificiality, but of distinctness and rhythm. 

Flowers-- I remember especially the fuchsias-- were

suddenly the lightest carvings of ivory and coral."

(page 125)(2)



A quote from the book entitled "Life Without Death" by

Nils O. Jacobson, M.D.:



"As a child... I was very unhappy that I had been born

on this earth.  I heard Father argue with neighbors

and friends that God does not exist.  To lie in bed

listening, especially late at night, after alcohol had

had its effect and the discussions grew rather loud,

made my existence even worse.  I must have been about

six years old, when one cold night I decided to make

an end to this unbearable existence.  I crept out of

the house, dressed only in a nightshirt, and lay down

in the snow.  The freezing cold was severe.  In that

snowdrift I said out loud to myself, "I'm going to die

here tonight if I don't receive any proof that a God

exists."  How well I remember those words.  Then

something happened which changed my life up to this

present moment.  Everything in that dark night become

illuminated.  The stars grew bigger than usual.  From

the stars and the planets I saw chains, and from these

stars and planets the chains extended down into the

earth too.  All these chains ran on cogwheels and

behind it all there was a power, like a kind of

dynamo.  There was also a sound, muted, as from a

great activity of machines.  After this experience, I

felt that there were powers in the universe and I

called them God.  After that, life on earth became

much happier.  I felt connected with the universe.  I

experienced many events which cannot be explained. 

Even so, I taught myself to keep silent about it and

tell no one about my experiences, since they were only

received with scorn and I was told that I was only

deceiving myself with fantasies." (pages 271, 272)(3)



A quote from Barry Stevens taken from the book "Person

to Person" the Problem of Being Human":



"When I was young, and even when I was not quite so

young, there were so many experiences which I could

not communicate to anyone.  One day when I was

nineteen, I was walking along a New York street in

early morning, feeling good.  Not many people were

around.  The sun was shining and a bright reflection

of it caught my eye.  It came from a safety pin, lying

on the pavement.  That safety pin lying on the

pavement in a huge city with millions of people and

towering buildings had an absurdity about it that made

me smile.  This switched to seeing the safety pin as a

part of the world, as much as I was myself, and I felt

myself very strongly in accord with everything, in

touch with all there is, known and unknown.  Then the

safety pin became a key, as thoughts, starting there,

went through my head more repidly than anything that I

can think of now, each thought leading to another,

like steps building higher and higher, until they

arrived at an explanation of the universe.  It was all

so beautifully clear, and at the same time simple and

amazing.  I was delighted with this universe in which

I lived." (page 115)(4)





References:





1.  Krishnamurti, Jiddu "Krishnamurti's Notebook"

Harper & Row, New York City, 1976



2.  Watts, Alan "Nature, Man, and Woman" Pantheon

Books Inc., New York City, 1958



3.  Jacobson, Nils O., M.D. "Life Without Death?" 

Dell Publishing Co. Inc., New York City, 1971



4.  Rogers, Carl R., Stevens, Barry "Person to Person:

the Problem of Being Human", Real People Press,

Lafayette, California 1968



8:30PM Saturday, February 9, 2002



Revised 11:00AM Sunday, February 24, 2002



John L. Waters





The information on this page represents that of John Waters and not 

necessarily that of Humboldt State University. John Waters takes full 

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