On Choosing the Crucifixion

Each day, each hour and minute, even each second, you are deciding between the crucifixion and the resurrection; between the ego and the Holy Spirit. The ego is the choice for guilt; the Holy Spirit the choice for guiltlessness. The power of decision is all that is yours. What you can decide between is fixed, because there are no alternatives except truth and illusion. And there is no overlap between them, because they are opposites which cannot be reconciled and cannot both be true. You are guilty or guiltless, bound or free, unhappy or happy. (ACIM:T-14.III.4)

This book about Krishnamurti is without a doubt the definitive biography on him and it makes worthwhile reading. His story continues to amaze, and it is extremely instructive, especially because of the way K emphasized that he was not exceptional, that the path was open to all of us. There can be no question that Charles Leadbeater saw something, when he identified K's aura as being exceptional when he was a little child, but then Leadbeater got increasingly stuck in ritual and bombast which makes the world very real, while K grew up to know the awakening, which he realized was a path that is open to us all. His descriptions of what that means are certainly classic, like when he speaks of the river emptying in the ocean, and that at that point it's no longer meaningful to speak of the river, and he ends up referring to he own persona as merely K and in the 3rd person from then on.

He also saw through the whole cult that was being created around him and what a sham it was, because it persistently chose form over content, and almost unbelievably he ended up dismantling it at the very moment that the mantle was being passed to him, in his famous speech "Truth is a pathless land," in 1929.

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect... Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organised; nor should any organisation be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organise a belief... If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountaintop to the valley. If you would attain the mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous precipices. You must climb towards the Truth, it cannot be 'stepped down' or organised for you... (as quoted in Roland Vernon, Star in the East, p. 181, spoken by JK on August 3rd 1929)

All the issues are here. In Course terminology we have to bring the illusion to the truth, and not drag the truth down to the illusion, realizing that is the great reversal. Ultimately that means to stop choosing form over content, which is the choice for the Crucifixion we all make all the time, and stopping our addiction to that choice means learning to follow the spirit and wake up from the stupor we are in as long as we insist on mistaking form for content. Learning to see Jesus in this light means to drop all the falderal that the world has created around him, to realize that he is present to anyone if we only learn to put the trash out properly (cleaning the Augias stables of our old beliefs and values, etc.). Hence the emphasis of the Course is on undoing, not on doing, on unlearning our bad habits of making the wrong decision, for we need not even make the right decision, we need do nothing, since the truth is what remains if we stop lying. In short, with tongue firmly in cheek, the only sacrifice that is asked of us, is to stop chosing the crucifixion. One of the best ways of putting that is still Logion 42, Be passersby, meaning to take nothing of the world of form seriously at all, don't take it personally, don't identify with it.

To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make. For a decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe. It is the outcome of belief, and follows it as surely as does suffering follow guilt and freedom sinlessness. There is no substitute for peace. What God creates has no alternative. The truth arises from what He knows. And your decisions come from your beliefs as certainly as all creation rose in His Mind because of what He knows. (ACIM:T-24.in.2)

P.S. Something more about this book. Not only is it the best Krishnamurti biography, I would argue that it is the best introduction to his thought. The Mary Luytens biography was good, but in all fairness falls in the category of hagiography, not biography, she was clearly an early follower and an admirer. The book by Radha Rajagopal Sloss, the daughter of the wife of his longtime business manager, with whom (the mother), K had a 25 year relationship, while her marriage was completely dysfunctional, and it was the product of resentment, appealing to negativity. This book is marvelously balanced, but also truly renders a great picture of the intellectual landscapes where K traveled, and thus it provides a very helpful introduction to his thinking against the background of his life story.