Notes

Here is perhaps the most straightforward, no-nonsense book yet written about that truth which many ‘spiritual seekers’ are seeking — what most gurus call ‘enlightenment’, and what U. G. Krishnamurti calls the ‘natural state’. UG maintains, in this selection from his conversations, that ‘so-called enlightenment’ is a purely biological phenomenon, that only when we are completely free of culture, conditioning, religious thinking and intellect, can the body, with its own ‘extraordinary intelligence’, free the human being to be in the natural state. UG has been living in this state since the experience he calls the ‘calamity’ happened to him in Switzerland on his 49th birthday. He has since become widely known, both in Europe and in India, as one who speaks with authority on the subject. UG's ‘talks’ are informal and take place wherever he happens to be. He is no relation to J. Krishnamurti, the famous spiritual leader, whose teachings he once admired, and now considers ‘archaic hogwash’. He is probably the most controversial of all the experts in such matters, gurus or non-gurus. He has been called ‘outrageous’, ‘infuriating’, and a ‘prophet of anti-wisdom’.

The Mystique of Enlightenment is a new, unique, invaluable roadside companion for all those on the ‘path’ or thinking of setting out on it. It tells the inside story of a man who knows the ‘holy business’ from the ground up, and who reveals in a frank and direct manner how he became ‘free’ not because of, but despite, a lifetime of spiritual practice.

Alice Furlaud

(Edited by Rodney Arms, James Brodsky, et al.; published by Dinesh Vaghela, Goa, 1982)

~

How should we lead our lives? The pages that follow raise this question. But if we are honest with ourselves, this question includes another: will we have lives to lead? For the first time since life began one-half billion years ago, one species on our planet can exterminate all other species.

The danger of nuclear war is a spiritual crisis for humankind. It is the logical culmination of 500 years of Western civilizations, founded on a separation of man from nature and of mind from body. Progress since the Renaissance has given us great gifts — scientific, economic, democratic — at a poisonous price.

It is said that to survive, we will need a higher level of consciousness, a global awareness, a planetary citizenship, a respect for the Earth, an end to war. But we do not know how to achieve this.

What is the relevance of these thoughts to the manuscript that follows, the story of one man's transformation?

As a psychiatrist I have come to believe that growth in all areas of human endeavor follow universal laws, regardless of whether it is biological, scientific, artistic, political, psychological or spiritual. First, growth is often discontinuous, need not take place only by small, incremental steps, and can occur in great sudden leaps of political revolution, artistic creation, scientific paradigmatic shifts, jumps in biological evolution, and psychological and spiritual transformation. Second, this transformation is agony. It occurs when all seems lost, when we despair. Scientists and artists report that their great discoveries may occur when they have given up. True growth requires not only change but meta change, a radical change in our entire framework of being. We do not give up our old ways until they are exhausted; we do not go through pain unless we feel we have no choice; we cannot find the truly new, the deepest sources of our energy and creativity, until the old is thoroughly blocked. So the age-old myths and religions of our species tell us. We must die to be born.

Perhaps the threat of human extinction will be the stress to produce the transformation we need.

Many who read the following pages will find them either crazy or irrelevant. But if we are truly honest with ourselves, who today can really say what is really relevant and what is not? Is this the story of a single man, who through either accident or a lifetime of exploration achieved a different state? Or is it indeed a path?

The great physicist Niels Bohr once said, speaking of a new idea advanced by his equally great colleague Werner Heisenberg — “It's not crazy enough to be true.” Is it possible that this man, living on one of three continents where civilization began 5000 years ago, may have stumbled upon an answer? Is this the raindrop we need to fall, sparkling from the sky, to quench our burning nuclear rage, so that the earth may grow green in peace once more? Let he who would say no, consider, “In a dark time,” the poet Roetke said, “the eye begins to see.”

In a crazy time, how will the truth appear?

Kenneth Porter, M.D. New York City, 1984. Assistant Clinical Prof. of Psychiatry, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons; Chairman of Psychiatric Task Force, Physicians for Social Responsibility, NYC chapter.

(Coleman Publishing, first American edition, 1984)