Krishnamurti Study Group, October 7, 2017

Krishnamurti Study Group
October 7, 2017

Four people gathered on Saturday afternoon in the main house at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin to study Q & A section # 16 in J. Krishnamurti’s book The First and Last Freedom. The chapter was entitled “On the belief in God” and it opens with a question put to Krishnamurti: “Belief in God has been a powerful incentive to better living. Why do you deny God? Why do you not try to revive man’s faith in the ideal of God?” K begins by saying that he is not denying God – it would be foolish to do so – but he questions the value of belief. “Neither the believer nor the non-believer will find God; because reality is the unknown, and your belief or non-belief in the unknown is merely a self-projection and therefore not real.” In the next paragraph he states that “what leads to a better life is intelligence, and there cannot be intelligence if there is belief…”
Our reading of the chapter was interspersed with a silent period to start and then group discussion of the material in the text, which stimulated a good deal of authentic inquiry and sharing of questions, insights, and experiences relevant to the subject of belief but also including explorations of self-awareness, observation, duality and nonduality, meditation and spiritual practice. There was a depth of investigating that made the session keen and enjoyable, and apparently of value to the participants.