Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

Rating:
Summary: The best purchase you'll ever make.
Review: After I discovered Krishnamurti a few months ago, a friend of mine was surprised. "I thought you hated mysticism," he said. "No, I hate nonsense. It's just that so many mystics are full of nonsense," I answered. I don't know if K is a mystic or not, but I do know that he has no use for nonsense. Krishnamurti's work ranks among - and possibly surpasses - the most profound material I've yet encountered. This comes from someone whose heroes have included the likes of Plato, Dostoevsky, Goethe, Nietzsche, and Beethoven. One of the most interesting paradoxes about K is that, though his philosophy minimizes the intellect, one rarely encounters such a powerful mind. I'm so glad to have discovered K while still relatively young. I can't imagine going a lifetime without meeting him.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult to read but Impossible to stay away from.
Review: I have been reading this book for almost 7 years many times over. It has been one of the most difficult books I have read. But why don't I just stop reading? Because I can't.

K challenges every bit of our thinking about the truth. After quite a while, I realised why he does not provide answers but just swirls our heads around with questions. He keeps telling us what one is NOT instead of what one IS. He is trying to help us know the "unknowable". He is trying to help us conceive the "inconceivable". He is trying to make us understand why any attempt at organizing the truth only produces an effect to the contrary. How would one explain that in words? I could never do that. But K does that brilliantly. It just takes some effort on the reader's part to follow his words and give them their due moment.

This was my first of a few Krishnamurti books... and I cherish it. What one gains from the book depends on where the reader is on the path of understanding. My experience with this book has proven that the book (it's effect on me) evolves as I evolve. I can only guess what his words will bring me when I read it 10 years from now.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the Faint of Heart
Review: It may be difficult for religious types to swallow. This book is focused at pulling your head out of those holes and looking directly at the sun. Krishnamurti has a tendancy to use words in a manner that can be difficult to understand. He repeats himself quite often. He never answers the questions he is asked (not the way one wants them to be answered anyway). A briliant man with the power to bring minds into another dimension. Don't believe anything he says. Just listen and understand what he says.

Rating:
Summary: A Spiritual Pearl
Review: One of the gratest spiritual book. This is a life changing book and you will start observing with every aspect of life with new angle after reading this book. It covers the spiritual journey of K from 1929 to 1985. One will find it difficult to give off the concepts of nationalism and religion from their lives,particularly in such a hostile environment where social and religious conflicts are present in almost every continent,but if those barriers are overcome,world will certainly be a better place to live.
Very insightful and thought provoking book.

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Summary: Krishnamurti does not answer.
Review: Reading krishnamurti's work, one gets the impression that he does not answer any questions directly.
Instead, he draws you out into the open and ask you to look within yourself, ask you to "see" the situation clearly and keep guiding you back to the situation by asking/guiding you with probing questions.

Krishnamurti does not answer your life's problem for you. There is no authority, no rules and no laws. He simply shows you the way to see into your own nature, just simple observation. Can you observe without a centre ? without ego/thoughts ? No one can explain his words more clearly then himself. I felt very fortunate to be able to experience his insights straight from the source.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary!
Review: Simple message: Trust no-one, Find out for yourself.

Three hundred pages of swirling around this message, with seeming contradictions piling up everywhere--which is understandable, of course, since trying to get the point above across to people is self-contradictory.

I got to hand it to him: he had one of the best minds of the century, and he genuinely, honestly Tried to help people--but the message he had to give was too big for any language to contain, and so he Failed.

Or maybe not. Don't trust me. See for yourself ;)

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary!
Review: This book is an exceptional book for people for are in search for an authentic self. Krishnamurti never directly provides answers for vital questions in life because he understands that answers to vital questions are never meaningful when they come from the outside. He knows that for our answers to be meaningful they must come from within. He understands that his job is to guide us so that we approach the problem in a way that leads to our own answers from within. Although not all of us are ready, I think we all have much to learn from thinkers like him. If you are ready, this book will be wonderful for you. If you are not, you will find it meaningless. Although you find it meaningless now, keep it on your shelf and read it five or ten years later and see if it makes sense then. If you'd like a book using a more concrete approach to this topic, I strongly suggest "The Ever-transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It is a fabulous book that explains how many Western and Eastern theories relate to essential matters of the heart.

Rating:
Summary: Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti
Review: This is one of those books that comes along once in a lifetime, Krishnamurti put's his words so pleasently. Anyone who says he does not answer the question's he is asked, simply is not thinking hard enough. Many amazing thoughts on all of life's questions, and make complete sense.
5 out of 5

Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading for those in search of truth
Review: This presentation of Krishnamurti is the most complete to date. It contains four parts that are entitled:Early Works, Insights into Everyday Life, Life's Questions, and You are the World. The most important insight that the reader will gain is... a person does not have to become a member of any religious sect in order to gain peace of mind. J.K. asks us why we have certain fears, why are some of us so depended upon others for fulfillment?The insights presented within the book are not "teachings" in the sense of providing a system for the reader to follow. Instead, Krishnamurti asks us to question tradition and certain forms of dogmatism. I think the best analogy that could be used in describing this book would be to compare it to a mirror in which a person has to take a good hard look at his or her life, thoughts, fears, traditions, and habits. The reader is directed to look for the truth within, through observation, without any rigorous vows or monastic practices. Essential reading indeed.

Rating:
Summary: An inexhaustible teaching
Review: You could read this book once a day for the rest of your life and still find something new in it every time. Krishnmurti was one of the clearest teachers to come along in centuries and the teachings he left behind are important not only in there ability to strip away all the superficiality of our lives, but also in the direct approach he takes into the depths of every aspect of life. Stripping away every defense until the reader is left with only his or herself: what then?