The First and Last Freedom Paperback – March 26, 1975

JK was a mystery. His life story was dramatic and his teaching controversial - so many people found his talks transforming and yet many also were disillusioned. I myself, who was too young, foolish and too far away to see the man when he was alive, have been puzzled by the fact that supposedly no one who studies his talks was deeply transformed, sadly admitted by JK himself.But how could we measure his merit as a teacher by that fact alone? Twenty years after he died, everytime I read his words, the man came alive, sharp, passionate, uncompromising and compassionate.He came to the earth pure and clean, and he learned the mess of the human psyche in order to teach; he was a deeply religious and poetic man, evident from his few talks after his realisation and before he disbanded the Order, but in order to talk to a wider audience, "his beloved" was reduced to "the nameless" or "that immensity" in his later talks, with only a very slight touch at the end of talk; he didn't study any religious traditons, not even the Bhagavad Gita, and his talks were all his own, which perhaps explains why many people found his talks hard to grasp, because they can't be put into any familiar systems which we have learned before.How can we judge him or measure him? He reached and touched more people than anyone else in modern times; his talked "from the ground up", from this drab of life everyone lives instead of exclusively to long time spiritual seekers; and his words are the best guards against superstition, which goes hand in hand with spirituality.I salute you, Sir !

Why do so many people still look to Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism etc for wisdom and truth? How sad it would be if in 2000 years noting new has come along that is as true as those things. And because of the impact of time, translation, censorship and the rest, the old texts are more or less meaningless to a person today, other than to become the object of their fetishising and idolising.I don’t know if there is such a thing as ultimate truth, god, awakening, but looking only at what I do know, this book is full of marvellous writing that can help one to look in new ways and at new things.Krishnamurti doesn’t give us something new to believe in, but asks again and again, in modern intelligible English, to look into ourselves.Whatever is possible for a spiritual teacher to impart, and I’m not sure it is all that much, this book offers as much as any book can.

Krishnamurti's work belongs on the shelf of everyone's library (Kindle) in the "most important books" section.Huxley's foreword is remarkable enough, then Mr. K takes you on a journey through the philosophical, spiritual and moral tangle we know as "life" on a beautifully designed path.The first section deals with key aspects of the human condition and interaction the second section is as you might expect: a question is asked and Krishna answers...38 topics (sex, love time, God, lonliness, etc.).It is the most thought provoking work I have read. I do not immediately agree with much of what he puts forward, but you cannot escape thinking long and hard on the essential elements...some ironic, confusing, contradictory, revolutionary, idealistic...but all getting back to the essential... what is...the real truth...and what action is right action.Some will get it, many, unfortunately, will not.An invaluable experience. A book I keep by my bedside. It has a lot of markers and marginal notes.As a constant reference book, I do not recommend it for Kindles, but I most highly recommend it for someone who would like to end or reduce the level of suffering and to be liberated and own, live and enjoy the First and Last Freedom....that is what it is.

This book helped to trigger a mutation in life. It is utterly relevant. What he said on p. 81 is what occured what continues to occur, and what can occur for any human being who is sincere in this:"When you see the whole process, the cunning, extraordinary inventions, the intelligence of the self, how it covers itself up through identification, through virtue, through experience, through belief, through knowledge; when you see that the mind is moving in a circle, in a cage of its own making, what happens? When you are aware of it, fully cognizant of it, then are you not extraordinarily quiet - not through compulsion, not through any reward, not through any fear? When you recognize that every movement of the mind is merely a form of strengthening the self, when you observe it, see it, when you are completely aware of it in action, when you come to that point - not ideologically, verbally, not through projected experiencing, but when you are actually in that state - then you will see that the mind, being utterly still, has no power of creating. Whatever the mind creates is in a circle, within the field of self. When the mind is non-creating there is creation, which is not a recognizable process."