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Foreword by Mary Zimbalist 1st Public Talk In the Present Is the Whole of Time 2nd Public Talk To Live With Death - Longer, Unedited Versions 1st Public Talk 2nd Public Talk WASHINGTON D.C. TALKS 1985 FOREWORD BY MARY ZIMBALIST In spite of his many years of giving public talks in the United States, Krishnamurti had not spoken in Washington, D.C. When he agreed to do so in April 1985, it was in a sense to a new audience, one to which in the compression of only two talks he wished to convey as much of his teaching as possible. On both days the hall was filled with a varied, seriouslyinterested audience and as Krishnamurti spoke there seemed an intangible response, a quality in which the listeners joined in his communication. Krishnamurti felt it and although there were to be other talks before his death ten months later, on those two days in April 1985, at the age of ninety, Krishnamurti spoke from the summit of his life and teaching. M.Z. WASHINGTON D.C. TALKS 1985 1ST PUBLIC TALK 20TH APRIL 1985 This is not a lecture on any particular subject according to certain disciplines, scientific or philosophical. Lectures are meant to inform on a particular subject or instruct, but we are not going to do that. So this is not a lecture, nor is it a form of entertainment. In this country especially, one is greatly accustomed to being entertained, amused. Rather in these talks, this afternoon and tomorrow morning, we are going to talk together about the whole of our existence from the moment we are born until we die. In that period of time, whether it be fifty years, ninety years or a hundred years, we go through all kinds of problems and difficulties. We have economic, social, religious problems; problems of personal relationship, problems of individual fulfilment, wanting to find one's roots in some place or other; and we have innumerable psychological wounds, fears, pleasures, sensations. There is a great deal of fear in all human beings, a great deal of anxiety, uncertainty, and a pursuit of pleasure, and also all human beings on this beautiful earth suffer a great deal of pain, loneliness. We are going to talk about all that together. And about what place religion has in modern life. We are also going to talk over together the question of death; and what is a religious mind and what is meditation; is there anything that is beyond thought and is there anything sacred in life, or is everything matter so that we lead a materialistic life? So, as we said, this is not a lecture. This is a conversation between you and the speaker a conversation in which there is no implication of conversion, making propaganda that would be too terrible or introducing new theories, ideas and exotic nonsense. We are going to, if you will kindly, talk over together our problems as two friends. Though we don't know each other, we are going to talk, discuss, have a conversation which is much more important than being lectured at or being told what to do, what to believe, what to have faith in, and so on. On the contrary, we are going to observe dispassionately, impersonally, not anchored to any particular problem or theory, what mankind has done to the world and what we have done to each other. We are going to take a very long, complex journey together, for it is your responsibility, as well as that of the speaker, that we walk together, investigate together, look together at the world we have created. The society in which we live is put together by man. Each one of us has contributed to it. And if you are willing, and apparently you must be willing because you are here and I am here, we will take this long complex journey. Life is very complex. We like to look at complexity and get more and more complex. We never look at anything simply with our brains, with our hearts, with our whole being. So let us take the journey together. The speaker is putting i