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A review by kurtiskozel
Think on These Things by J. Krishnamurti
2.0
I won't pretend to know everything Krishnamurti said, but I don't think that was the point anyway.
This book is a tidy compilation of treatises on a variety of subjects, with great proportion dedicated to society and constraints. Fundamentally, the author values individuality: revolt, rebellion, thinking for yourself, being free, unchained, disciplined to the self, etc... In this, I find great resonance.
However, the author clearly has his own chains, but he fails to see them. In his own way, he has rebelled so hard that he has fallen onto the other path. He rejects all social conventions, in a way, but his own rigidity to certain ideas makes his conclusions dubious (even if his methods are laudable).
This book may be helpful to very many, so long as you apply the author's teachings to his book.
I can't rate this higher because I think too many people would read this and think that this applies to them in a way that it doesn't, because it doesn't. The context in which it was said, and the things Krishnamurti fought against are very different than the modern, albeit very similar as well. For one, many of the words he uses have a very different context in America or even the English language generally. Religion, for example, is confused with spirituality and faith; knowledge and intelligence very confused with wisdom and understanding. Beyond semantics, there is a clear undertone of the book that really embraces that which he claims to be against.
This is all to say, that I find this a fascinating character study and useful in gaining a different perspective, but I fear others might take it to literally, and I find the author's own issues to be a little off-putting and, quite frankly, boring at times.
This book is a tidy compilation of treatises on a variety of subjects, with great proportion dedicated to society and constraints. Fundamentally, the author values individuality: revolt, rebellion, thinking for yourself, being free, unchained, disciplined to the self, etc... In this, I find great resonance.
However, the author clearly has his own chains, but he fails to see them. In his own way, he has rebelled so hard that he has fallen onto the other path. He rejects all social conventions, in a way, but his own rigidity to certain ideas makes his conclusions dubious (even if his methods are laudable).
This book may be helpful to very many, so long as you apply the author's teachings to his book.
I can't rate this higher because I think too many people would read this and think that this applies to them in a way that it doesn't, because it doesn't. The context in which it was said, and the things Krishnamurti fought against are very different than the modern, albeit very similar as well. For one, many of the words he uses have a very different context in America or even the English language generally. Religion, for example, is confused with spirituality and faith; knowledge and intelligence very confused with wisdom and understanding. Beyond semantics, there is a clear undertone of the book that really embraces that which he claims to be against.
This is all to say, that I find this a fascinating character study and useful in gaining a different perspective, but I fear others might take it to literally, and I find the author's own issues to be a little off-putting and, quite frankly, boring at times.