Krishnamurti's Notebook

is a diary of 20th-century Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti . Written during , it is best known for its first hand accounts of persistent, unusual physical experiences and states of consciousness, but also for poetic and penetrating descriptions of nature. It has been called "a remarkable mystical document" in press reports, while an authorized Krishnamurti biographer described it as containing "the whole essence" of his philosophy. Reputedly it was not intended for publication; the manuscript also became entangled in copyright and custody disputes. The work one of few books Krishnamurti wrote himself was eventually published in 1976 over objections of Krishnamurti associates. An expanded edition with additional material was published in 2003; it includes previously unpublished diary entries from 1962.

About the work

Krishnamurti's first entry in this handwritten journal, quoted above in its entirety, is dated with the location given as New York City. He continued writing entries, often daily, for the next nine months while at various locales in the US, the UK, Switzerland, France, Italy and India. There are about in total, almost all of them between one and two print pages in length; the last entry, written in transit from Bombay (Mumbai) to Rome, is dated . The published work is considered one of the few books that Krishnamurti actually wrote himself; the majority of his other books consist of edited or verbatim transcripts of talks, discussions and dictations, or are curated collections of material from the same

The diary portrays Krishnamurti's world from the inside; according to a commentator it provides "a panorama of the landscape of Krishnamurti's daily consciousness. In particular, the diary describes Krishnamurti's experience of a nearly lifelong, often acutely painful condition he called , and manifestations of a state he refers to as a state that often, but not always, appeared concurrently with . As is the case with other Krishnamurti prose, the entries often include his impressions of nature, individuals and society, the descriptions of which have a "poetic quality" according to

The journal begins (and ends) without preamble; shortly before he started writing it, Krishnamurti reputedly experienced a recurrence of during May and in London, witnessed by associates. In the time period covered by the diary, similar events were witnessed by other associates while Krishnamurti was in Switzerland in the summer of 1961; the diary and the events or states described, again reputedly perceived by others, continued upon his arrival to India in late autumn of the same year. Throughout this period Krishnamurti continued with his regular schedule of public talks and

The work was minimally edited for clarity and spelling by authorized Krishnamurti biographer Mary Lutyens, who provided the Foreword for the original edition (published 1976). In it she states, this unique daily record we have what may be called the well-spring of Krishnamurti's teaching. The whole essence of his teaching is here, arising from its natural source. She adds elsewhere, "apart from its content, it is an extraordinary manuscript, without a single erasure. Lutyens devoted a chapter to this book in the second volume of her biography of Krishnamurti, ''The Years of Fulfillment'' (published 1983). In it she mentions objections raised against the diary's publication by Krishnamurti associates who had read the manuscript and thought it presented a picture of Krishnamurti at odds with his public pronouncements; his responses to these objections are

Lutyens had revealed the existence of in ''The Years of Awakening'', the first volume of her biography of Krishnamurti (published 1975). This physical condition which Krishnamurti and those around him did not consider as medical in nature and experiences similar to , had reputedly originally appeared in 1922. At the time Krishnamurti was associated with the Theosophical Society and the related World Teacher Project. The existence and history of these experiences had remained unknown outside of the Theosophical Society leadership and Krishnamurti's circle of close associates and

Roland Vernon, another of his biographers, states that previous attempts (by others) at revealing details from his past, including these reputed experiences, were suppressed by Krishnamurti. According to Vernon, Krishnamurti "believed, with good reason, that the sensationalism of his early story would cloud the public's perception of his current work". However Krishnamurti often hinted at -like states in later talks and discussions; he was more expansive on the subject with close associates, also stating that the experience of continued as he was nearing

Around the time of the diary's original publication more than fourteen years after the final entry Krishnamurti stated, "I did not write it for I have attempted to put into words the actual pain and sensation which goes with the heightened

Publication history

The manuscript was entangled in personal and legal disputes between Krishnamurti and Krishnamurti's erstwhile editor and business manager. An agreement that cleared the way for eventual publication was reached in 1974, and the first edition appeared in via longtime Krishnamurti publishers Gollancz in the United Kingdom and Harper & Row in the United States .

The front and back covers of both impressions feature the same set of contemporary photographs of Krishnamurti. After the foreword by Lutyens there is a table of contents labeled "Itinerary", listing the places the diary was kept. Copyright was held by the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust (KFT), a UK-based organization. A paperback edition was first published in the US by Harper's Perennial Library imprint in

Following the discovery in the of thirty-two additional diary pages, the work was republished in 2003 as the expanded "Full Text Edition" by Krishnamurti Publications, the official publisher and distributor of Krishnamurti's works. This edition appends the unpublished entries, numbering , as they are dated (in 1962) immediately following the previously-published ones. There are also facsimiles of original diary pages and another, edition-specific foreword; the updated "Itinerary" precedes both forewords. The edition features a photograph similar to the original edition's on the front cover (Krishnamurti alone in a nature setting); a 1935 portrait of his by Edward Weston is on the back cover. This edition's copyright was again registered to the KFT. It was followed by in

The work was first published in digital media in 2008 as a Kindle e-book release of the full text edition . By 2010 print versions had several reprints, with the expanded edition offered in and dialects; around the same time, the work was made freely available as an electronic document through , the official Jiddu Krishnamurti online

The full text edition was published by Blackstone Audio in 2017 as an unabridged audiobook read by Anthony Wren. It was released as a downloadable audio file ; a CD audio version of the audiobook, published by Made for Success, was released in the US in via

Original edition

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Select editions

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Reception

The ''Library Journal'' stated in review, insights are, as always, written in plain, nonsectarian language, and give perhaps the best picture we have today of the life of the spirit outside a strictly religious context. ''Publishers Weekly'' called the work a "luminous diary" and characterized Krishnamurti's teaching as "austere, in a sense

''Kirkus Reviews'' described it as approachable, more intimate than Krishnamurti's didactic writings, this will to all readers with a feeling for the mystery of existence"; however London's ''Observer'' thought it better suited to those already familiar with Krishnamurti's life and

Krishnamurti was interviewed about the work by Gerald Priestland for the BBC Radio 4 program ''Chapter and Verse'', which reviewed books of a religious or spiritual nature; the short interview and book review was broadcast on the evening of

''The Guardian'' (London) carried a sympathetic report about the book in the article was not exclusively focused on the ''Notebook'', also describing Krishnamurti's life and

The reputed inner experiences as described in the diary and in Lutyens' biography aroused the interest of Krishnamurti's audiences. After their publication he was questioned by his listeners on the subject; he was generally dismissive of the importance of -related events, stating that all discussion of mystical experiences was trivial, and although he continued alluding to -like states, he again avoided any

The book continued to attract attention and favorable mentions in the following decades. In its obituary of Krishnamurti, ''The Times'' (London), described it as "a remarkable mystical document", while in 2006 the work was cited in a conference paper as the most extensive documentation to date of a mystic's inner thoughts, perceptions, and

Other diaries

Following this diary's original publication, two other diaries of his were published in book form: '' Krishnamurti's Journal'' in 1982 and ''Krishnamurti to Himself'' in

See also

* Jiddu Krishnamurti bibliography

Notes

. is that .

Krishnamurti was aware of ''The Guardian'' article, which an associate termed "undistinguished", and decided to review the book himself; he then dictated a review, "laughing as he went along" ( Preamble to ); the review was partly reproduced in Lutyens' ''The Years of Fulfilment'' .

A snapshot of the JKO document's pages was archived from a "legacy" version of in See .

. Positive review of the .

.

. Positive review of the .

; Lutyens is referring to the manuscript published as the original edition ; , Krishnamurti's personal secretary and close associate, quoting from her 1974 notes states in her memoir that the manuscript comprised 363 pages (. ); Krishnamurti manuscripts and other original works are part of the official Krishnamurti Archives, set up by the Krishnamurti foundations .

. consistently involved headaches of varying severity. Spinal discomfort, starting at the base of the spine, was more frequent in the early occurrences, which included additional elements and symptoms. The whole experience was reputedly often accompanied by heightened (in a few cases, seemingly extreme) sensitivity to the environment and to external stimuli.

. D. Rajagopal had copyright for Krishnamurti's works (), and was in possession of the manuscript until the 1974 agreement.

. "One or two were averse to its publication. They feared it would dishearten K's followers. He maintains that human beings can transform themselves radically, not in time, not by evolution, but by immediate perception, whereas the ''Notebook'' shows that Krishnamurti is not an ordinary man transformed but a unique being existing in a different dimension from ordinary His reply was, 'We do not all have to be Edisons to turn on the electric light.' Later he was to say to a journalist in Rome, who suggested that he had been born as he was and that therefore others could not attain to his state of consciousness, 'Christopher Columbus went to America in a sailing ship; we can go by jet (); Krishnamurti also used the Columbus metaphor in answer to audience questions about his reputed inner experiences as related in Lutyens' ''The Years of Awakening'' (. Official transcript , ).

. Neutral mini-review of the .

; ; . is alternately called by Krishnamurti , , etc. ; . "The benediction literally discloses reality, in the sense of making manifest that which is closed off and hidden from the partial and limited awareness that human beings accept as normal"; . ascribes to this quality a sense of overwhelming power, something impenetrable, vast, innocent, and untouchable"; prior to starting the diary Krishnamurti referred to this state in notes that were eventually included in the second volume of his '' Commentaries on Living'' book series ().

; ; Krishnamurti allowed information about and other details of his life to become public knowledge through Lutyens' biography, which included extensive descriptions of the first such occurrences .

. Positive brief review of the .

. Official transcript: "In your ''Notebook'' sir, you make mention of a process"; . (Official transcript ); ; . (Official transcript ).

. The previously unpublished diary entries of the expanded edition were dated to

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Several extracts from unrelated "Krishnamurti notebooks" had been published prior to the 1974 agreement, according to a detailed Krishnamurti bibliography ; similarly unrelated, the '' Commentaries on Living'' book series (19561960) is subtitled "From the notebooks of J. Krishnamurti" ; extracts from another "Krishnamurti’s notebook" were published around the time of the agreement .

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. Some witnesses were initially alarmed by the events. An associate who was present in London wrote to Krishnamurti's thenbusiness manager asking for guidance, and another in Switzerland contemporaneously described the witnessed events in her diary; . Impressions of an Indian associate regarding diary entries and reputed related incidents at Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh.

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{{Jiddu Krishnamurti

1976 non-fiction books
Books by Jiddu Krishnamurti
Diaries
Harper & Row books
Philosophy books
Victor Gollancz Ltd books