Beginnings Of Learning

Foreword - Part 1 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Quotations from part 1 - Part 2 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Quotations from part 2 THE BEGINNINGS OF LEARNING FOREWORD At Brockwood Park in Hampshire, England there is an Educational Centre for boys and girls aged from thirteen to nineteen. Krishnamurti lives there when he is in England. The first part of this book gives some of the talks and discussions which take place twice a week in an informal way between Krishnamurti, students and staff. There are also schools in India founded by Krishnamurti and visited annually by him, particularly Rajghat at Benares, and Rishi Valley in the Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh. Many of the conversations with parents and teachers in the second part of this book took place in India. Apart from Brockwood, others were in the United States where Krishnamurti has spoken in recent years at the University of California at Berkeley and at Santa Cruz, and at Brandeis and Stanford Universities, as well as individually with educationalist and students. A school for young children is shortly to be opened in the Ojai Valley in California. BEGINNINGS OF LEARNING PART I CHAPTER 1 SCHOOL DIALOGUE BROCKWOOD PARK 22ND MAY 1973 Krishnamurti: Most people work either to avoid punishment or to gain something in the way of possessions, money, fame and so on. So most people work under great pressure. Here at Brockwood there is not that extreme pressure, or any kind of pressure put upon you. Therefore there is a tendency, if I may point out, to slacken, to let go, to become rather empty and lose that vitality that youth generally has - that feeling of urgency, the flame of doing something. All that gradually disappears and you are left here to be responsible to yourself, which is rather difficult. Most of us want somebody to lean on, somebody to encourage us, somebody to say, "You are doing very well, carry on!" And to push us a little when we are slack, drive us when we are indifferent, when we are sleepy, shake us to keep awake so that somebody gradually becomes the authority. Haven't you noticed this? There is no authority here, therefore you are left to yourself and it is very difficult to keep oneself at the highest point of energy, drive, intelligence and affection and not just go off into a kind of daydream, uselessly wasting time. Brockwood is supposed to give you - and I hope it does - the terrain, the environment, the atmosphere in which this self-generating energy can go on. How is all this to be created? Who is going to do it? Questioner: Everyone here. Krishnamurti: What does that mean? Questioner: Self-responsibility. Krishnamurti: When you use a word be very careful that you know what it means. Do you know what that word "responsibility" means? - not what you think it should mean, but what it means according to the dictionary. We must first understand the meaning of that word. Here is your English teacher, ask her. Questioner: Doesn't it mean the ability to respond? Krishnamurti: That's right, isn't it? - the capacity to respond. Questioner: We often use the word "answerable; we say,"I am answerable for such and such." Krishnamurti: If I am inefficient I can't answer, respond properly. So responsibility means to respond adequately to the job or to the environment or to the incidents around me. I must respond to my highest capacity: that is what the word "responsible" means. See what a lot is involved in that one word. So who is going to be responsible to bring about the right soil here, the right environment, the right atmosphere, so that you are totally awake, generating the energy for yourself? Questioner: Each one of us. Krishnamurti: Can you do this, Gre