Question: Jiddu Krishnamurti used to say that ‘Truth is a pathless land’. What are your thoughts on this?

Tom: Thanks for your question and sorry it’s taken me a while to respond. I’ve just re-read J Krishnamurti’s original ‘truth is a pathless land’ speech (see www.jkrishnamurti.org/about-krishnamurti/dissolution-speech.php) and it seems to me that the thrust of what he was saying was that truth is not to be approached by following an authority. The key word is following.

In the later part of the speech he says ‘But those who really desire to understand, who are looking to find that which is eternal, without beginning and without an end, will walk together with a greater intensity, will be a danger to everything that is unessential, to unrealities, to shadows. And they will concentrate, they will become the flame, because they understand. Such a body we must create…‘

So it seems to me Krishnamurti was saying that you cannot find freedom through following another, but by looking for yourself, which ultimately means to free yourself from beliefs and dogma.

I read Krishnamurti for many many years, and he did have a teaching that he kept on coming back to. In a way this was his teaching, or one of them. Here’s a post from 2015 which I ironically titled ‘Krishnamurti’s Method’, to drive the point home to people who are familiar with Krishnamurti’s writings:

https://tomdas.com/2015/11/01/krishnamurtis-method/

Let me know what you think

In peace

Tom