Beginnings of Learning

The world is that way-deceptive, the deceiving politicians, the money-minded. If you are not properly educated, you'll just slip into it. So what is education? Is it to help you fit into the mechanism of the present order, or disorder, of things?

This and many more similar questions posed to senior students by Krishnamurti form the contents of this book, which contains mainly the dialogues he held in the 1970s in the school he founded in Brockwood Park, England. These lively and often intimate exchanges turn on practical, everyday matters as well as wider philosophical issues. The second part of the book contains Krishnamurti's writings, which take the form of conversations with parents and teachers. Whatever be the context, Krishnamurti's emphasis is that the central concern of education should be self-knowledge through inquiry and awareness.

J. Krishnamurti (1895 -1986) is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers and religious teachers of all time. For more than sixty years he travelled the world over, giving talks and holding dialogues, not as a guru but as a friend. His teachings are not based on book knowledge and theories, and therefore they communicate directly to anyone seeking answers to the present world crisis as well to the eternal problems of human existence.

At Brockwood Park in Hampshire, England, there is an Educational Centre for boys and girls aged from thirteen to nineteen. Krishnamurti lived there when he was in England. The first part of this book gives some of the talks and discussions which took place twice a week in an informal way between Krishnamurti, the students and staff in the early 1970s.

The second part of the book consists of Krishnamurti's writings based on the conversations he had with parents and teachers mainly in India.

**Contents and Sample Pages**