The Perfume of the Teachings

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In March 1977, Krishnamurti invited certain trustees from the various Krishnamurti Foundations to participate in small discussion meetings with him in Ojai, California.

Earlier, at a 1973 meeting at Brockwood Park in England, he had suggested that the future of the Foundations after his death was uncertain although he maintained that The schools [run by the Foundations' have to go on, definitely, because they may produce a different kind of human being.'

In 1977, we had discussions with Krishnamurti three times a week from the third to the twenty-fourth of March at the headquarters of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America (KFA); and, as well as the trustees, one or two staff members of the KFA also attended.

Krishnamurti seemed to be fired with even greater and more dynamic energy than usual, and although these discussions were primarily concerned with the future of the Foundations, their scope and detail must surely have relevance to the way in which any inquiring group of people working together might relate to one another intelligently.

Krishnamurti felt strongly that. as well as being responsible for organizing his talks and making these available in recorded and printed form, the Foundations should be of one mind, and be able to convey 'the perfume' of the teachings. He asks at the very beginning of these dialogues if there are people 'who have drunk at the fountain, and can carry on from there? Not merely quoting K but getting the spirit of it, the truth of it. the vitality of it, the energy of it.'

At our first meetings, we seemed a rather disparate group; certainly, we were very far from being of one mind! It was, however, remarkable how closely we came together as our meetings continued. Several of us who had been listening to, and working with, Krishnamurti for many years felt that these dialogues were truly revelatory and life-changing.

Krishnamurti presented us with many challenges. Not the least of these was that we should be able, after his death, not only to convey the essence of the teachings, but to give people who had never known him a sense of the quality of his life and work. and 'meditation'. In his words, 'If I had been in India when Buddha died. I would want to know what the Buddha was like. I would go to people who listened to him, I would want to find out. I have read the books, but I want to touch that which you, who have known him for some years, have touched when he was alive.' A big challenge indeed, which demanded our understanding at a truly deep level. (Incidentally, he later made it clear that in relating this question to the Buddha he was making absolutely no claim to be the Buddha.)

Throughout the dialogues Krishnamurti pointed out that we were dealing with more than 'the continuity of the Foundations'. He had said in 1973, 'For me, it is a continual state of transformation... But we must see what happens with the Foundations. If something is operating in us, then something will happen, not the crystallization of the structure, but much more than that.'

Reading these dialogues now, more than thirty years after they took place, the impact is still extremely fresh and strong. Krishnamurti died in 1986; the Foundations, schools and adult centres are very resilient today. Conflicts which beset the Foundations before his death appear not so much to have been resolved as transcended, and there is a real sens:- of our being, though far-flung, of one mind. It seems that these dialogues did open wide many doors for us.

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