Truth is a Pathless Land
The Order of the Star in the East was founded in 1911 to proclaim the coming of the World Teacher. J Krishnamurti, the anticipated and pronounced World Teacher, was made Head of the Order. On August 3, 1929, the opening day of the annual Star Camp at Ommen, Holland, Krishnamurti dissolved the Order before 3000 members. This is an excerpt from his speech declaring this dissolution:
“Organizations cannot make you free. No man from outside can make you free; nor can organized worship, nor the immolation of yourselves for a cause, make you free; nor can forming yourselves into an organization, nor throwing yourselves into works, make you free. You use a typewriter to write letters, but you do not put it on an altar and worship it. But that is what you are doing when organizations become your chief concern.
“‘How many members are there in it?’ That is the first question I am asked by all newspaper reporters. ‘How many followers have you? By their number we shall judge whether what you say is true or false.’ I do not know how many there are. I am not concerned with that. As I said, if there were even one man who had been set free, that were enough.
“Again, you have the idea that only certain people hold the key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one holds it. No one has the authority to hold that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of Eternity.
“So you will see how absurd is the whole structure that you have built, looking for external help, depending on others for your comfort, for your happiness, for your strength. These can only be found within yourselves.
“You are accustomed to being told how far you have advanced, what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself can tell you if you are beautiful or ugly within? Who but yourself can tell you if you are incorruptible? You are not serious in these things.
“But those who really desire to understand, who are looking to find that which is eternal, without beginning and without an end, will walk together with a greater intensity, will be a danger to everything that is unessential, to unrealities, to shadows. And they will concentrate, they will become the flame, because they understand. Such a body we must create, and that is my purpose. Because of that real understanding there will be true friendship. Because of that true friendship–which you do not seem to know–there will be real cooperation on the part of each one. And this not because of authority, not because of salvation, not because of immolation for a cause, but because you really understand, and hence are capable of living in the eternal. This is a greater thing than all pleasure, than all sacrifice.
“So these are some of the reasons why, after careful consideration for two years, I have made this decision. It is not from a momentary impulse. I have not been persuaded to it by anyone. I am not persuaded in such things. For two years I have been thinking about this, slowly, carefully, patiently, and I have now decided to disband the Order, as I happen to be its Head. You can form other organizations and expect someone else. With that I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free.”
***
Presence is a complete and objective sensitivity to life. It’s aliveness is undeniable. The aliveness is so pulsating that one could say he/she aches from the profound aliveness that is offered up by the truth. It cannot be compared to anything else because there is nothing else like it. It is indeed a pathless, nameless land where, if we uncover it, leaves us breathless with the purest love.
The words Mr Krishnamurti spoke here are so encouraging! “That key is your own self, and in the development and the purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of Eternity.”
I have noticed lately, that as I continue exposing the villain in my life, this acquired and sleeping nature, a sense of serenity is replacing it. And this is right in the face of all of my misgivings and failures… Something completely different than that hardened and sad nature does exist, and it is incorruptible, and totally available to one who asks.
Even if only for a moment, the witnessing of the false and unholy nature ~as illuminated by the True Light itself~ is just the impetus I need to move on.