Exploration into Insight (Gollancz 1991 Edition)

By Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895 - 1986).

190 Pages | Softcover | First published in Great Britain in 1979. This is the 1991 Edition. There is also a 2001 edition available here. | Softcover | Victor Gollancz Ltd., London | ISBN: 057505154x.

Exploration into Insight is a series of dialogues that Krishnamurti held in India over many decades with friends and serious enquirers. Among them were Achyut Patwardhan, Pupul Jayakar, Maurice Friedman and others, who had gathered around him since the forties. The dialogues cover a wide range of subjects. The concern in these dialogues is the freedom of the mind from the bondages of memory and time, a mutation in consciousness and the arising of insight that gives deep roots of steadiness to the mind. The processes of self-knowing are investigated with rare vigour and intensity. There is in these dialogues a relentless questioning, probing, a 'listening' and a 'seeing'. The way in which these dialogues unfold is unique in itself. They are not questions and answers or even just an exhange of opinion. They form a new genre of communication typical of Krishnamurti - that of a deep listening, a tentative beginning and an exploration that leads to fresh perceptions. For those interested in delving into the processes of self-understanding, this is an extraordinary book.

From Chapter 'How Deep Can One Travel?' (p. 37 & 38):

" Krishnamurti: I live a very, very superficial life and I want to found out for myself if there is any depth which is not measurable and I see thought cannot reach it because thought is a measure, thought is time, thought is the response of the past; therefore thought cannot possibly touch it. Then, what will bring this about? If thought cannot touch it and that is the only instrument man has, then, what is he to do? Thought, in its movement, in its function, has created this world which is superficial in which I live, of which I am. That is obvious. Now, is it possible for the mind without the usage of thought, to touch something which is fathomless? Not just some moments in my sleep of when I am walking by myself, but to live there. My mind says the depth must be discovered, to let the mind be of the quality of that - I must be aware of that strange fathomless depth of something which is unnamed. "