PrevNextTop85-05-26Letter from Jim - Krishnamurti

5-26-85
(or there-abouts)

Dear Jon,

I received and enjoyed your letter.

Regarding your program, I entered it and called it nvowels.c. I executed it with the command line:

nvowels why try, my fly?
It said the total number of vowels was 0. I think something's wrong. That's the trouble with you theoretic mathematicians turned programmers - you try to simplify the world with sweeping generalities. I understand, you are out of practice. When is 'y' a vowel anyway?

I can't help but to give you this quote by John Steinbeck:

My own journey started long before I left, and was over before I returned. I know exactly where and when it was over. Near Abingdan, in the dogleg of Virginia, at 4:00 of a windy afternoon, without warning or good-by or kiss my foot, my journey went away and left me stranded far from home. I tried to call it back, to catch it up - a foolish and hopeless matter, because it was definitely and permanently over and finished. The road became an endless stone ribbon, the hills obstructions, the trees green blurs, the people simply moving figures with heads but no faces. All the food along the way tasted like soup, even the soup.
I thought of that passage when you said “those two weeks after school may be tough ones.” We are time-binders, and when we become goal oriented we lose the preciousness of the present. I hope you can retain your focus - nothing's happening in America that wasn't happening before you left. Your openness and watchfulness was reflected in those photographs you sent me. You see things the rest of the world passes by. The picture of the three Mexican girls is superb, one of the best photographs I have seen. Composition, content, - exquisite; you must have got lucky.

[[These girls were in Cairo, Egypt.]]

Well, I will be looking forward to seeing you on the 27th. We can ride the Tijuana Trolley into San Diego. I probably won't get to my parents until 9:00 on thursday (26th) evening. Their number is 1 (619) 753-2964. I'll let them know you'll be calling. I'm sorry I couldn't arrange to have a little more time off, but Mr. Manager is busier now than he wants to be.

I know I'm not the only one eagerly awaiting your return; your parents, family, Karen and Norman are too. I will be visiting Karen and Norman next weekend. We might go to Point Reyes.

Two weeks have passed now since my visit to Ojai, California to hear Krishnamurti speak. I was there for only two days, but what a beautiful experience! Krishnamurti is a powerful thinker, a small man, with a humility that makes him lovable. Having read a couple of his books, I was familiar with what he had to say and his style of delivery, but the environment, the context and the added dimensionality given by the senses made it a more moving experience. His audience likes to tease him. Krishnamurti will often interrupt himself and ask of the audience,

Are you following the speaker? Are you thinking?, or are you bored? Tell me, the speaker wants to know.
A person in one corner yelled out “Bored”, another “Boring”, and another responded “Listening” while another said “Thinking over here”! Krishnamurti laughed and then continued - urging everyone to not accept what he says but to try to think along with him. Krishnamurti refers to himself as “the speaker”. The reason for using the third person is not to avoid responsibility, but to remove detach the ego from his thoughts - to detach his ideas from any personality so as to not persuade or propagandize. But once, in telling an anecdote, he slipped up and said “I”. His students in the front let him know and he chuckled a laugh that revealed a love this man has for people. Krishnamurti is an intense man who has thought (perhaps too much) very deeply and clearly about many topics. He is now 90 years old and has spent most of his life trying to get people to think for themselves, to free themselves from suffering by not accepting authority of any kind, by not releasing responsibility to any person, religion, or ideology. He has spoken all around the world, to religious people, to scientists, to the United Nations, and he has done this for many years - like for 70 years or more! And yet, the disorder, the chaos, the suffering has only gotten worse. The frustration he must feel leaked out in a statement he made while talking about time and thinking. He was intensely saying how important it iwas to see the truth in this, not to just accept it or toss it aside but to feel its truth... and then he started laughing almost uncontrollably. For just an instant, he must have heard himself for the 4 millionth time, and he couldn't help but laugh. He regained composure and said, “No, it's not funny...” and I think he may have felt a tinge of embarassment. He talked about disorder:
“Disorder arises from our pursuit of an ideology that we create out of confusion. Beliefs create division, and where there is division, there must be conflict and disorder.”
He spoke about the familiar experience of having a pleasant sensation and then mind grabs the experience and wants to own it.
“Oh what a beautiful lawn, ... I wish I had it in my backyard.” “What a nice woman ... I wish she were my wife” etc. etc. He asked “Is it possible to still the mind so that we can have just the sensation without the desire? Can we be free from desire? It is important for you to go into this! Or don't you want to be free?”
He goes on to talk about the relationship between desire and self interest and how these have to give rise to cruelty and exploitation. Perhaps Krishnamurti is a free man, but whether he is or not, he certainly inspires me. I disagree with his saying that a teacher can offer nothing to a pupil. There is one gift that can be given to another - that is inspiration.

Well, I could go on for hours; I just wanted to get something on paper so as to not forget.

Woops, had to go on to another sheet. But, before I close, I wish to offer you a suggestion for your last 2 weeks after your class is over. Befriend a Mexican señorita. Introduce yourself with some of your newly learned language. Your deficiencies with the language will be an attraction - a revealed vulnerability that will capture the interest if not the heart of a gentle soul. Besides, you may acquire some lewd, licentious, lustful tales that will hold the attention of one George Mathers.

¡Ojalá que se mejore, pronto!

Adios para ahora,
Jaime

PrevNextTop85-05-26Letter from Jim - Krishnamurti