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Comment by nabla9 | Hacker News Reader

As with all enlightened superstar spiritual teachers, just don't look his life too closely or you will be disappointed. Even people who start good and their feet on the ground (like Krishnamurti) end up full of shit when they get too much wrong kind of attention. https://tricycle.org/magazine/the-shadow-side-krishnamurti/

“If you want to lose your religion, make friends with the priest.”

As someone who's second career is basically meditating (in terms of time and effort) I acknowledge the value and importance of having personal teacher as a guide. On the other hand I strongly warn about getting into trap of thinking them as something else than specialists that can help you with some issues.

'After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path' by Jack Kornfield is essential reading on the subject.

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I am aware of all of his "scandals", but there never is any hypocrisy on his behalf. If some follower wants to put him on a pedestal, that's the follower's fault.

JK voluntarily tried to give up his fame by the Dissolution of the order of the star.

Yes. The story of him dissolving the Order of the Star is marvelous:

http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/about-krishnamurti/dissolution-...

"The Order of the Star in the East was founded in 1911 to proclaim the coming of the World Teacher. Krishnamurti was made Head of the Order. On August 3, 1929, the opening day of the annual Star Camp at Ommen, Holland, Krishnamurti dissolved the Order before 3000 members."

""I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path.""

His speech was filmed and available to everybody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYnxRYAHmEs&t=11s

>“If you want to lose your religion, make friends with the priest.”

Sounds quite puritanical a view.

Even if we consider Christianity, a priest can and will be (or have been) as flawed as any man, including even a hypocrite, greedy, murderer or worse, and even all kinds of original Christian doctrine (except the BS about the Pope being some kind of super-saint) agrees with that. Heck, the very first person believed to go to heaven in the Christian faith was the murdered/thief/etc next to Christ on the cross.

Why is that a puritanical view?

Clerics in Western religions (Z, J, C, I) (claimed to) sit on a privileged spiritual perch and certainly in Christianity are subject to the "original" 'beam/mote' admonishment.

So yes, if your neighbor is an adulterer, it may be "puritanical" to get on a high horse, but if your confessor is a wolf in sheep's clothing, that is a different story.

>enlightened superstar spiritual teachers

Where did you get this. Show me one reference to where he claimed

1. he is enlightened ( whatever that means)

2. he is a superstar

3. he is teacher

In fact , he goes out of his way to say the disclaimer that he is not some sort a guru/teacher and ppl should not follow his words blindly.

What does his personal life have to do with anything? Do you have any criticism of what he actually said other than random ad hominem attacks?

Agreed, he said repeatedly (I'm paraphrasing) "don't follow me, examine it for yourself."

_Truth is a pathless land_ is an amazingly eye opening speech. I suggest it as a starting point for understanding his position.

Well the linked domain is krishnamurti-teachings.info.

It's a third party site.

Okay, so try his official site: http://jkrishnamurti.org/default.php

That is still someone else making a website, not Krishnamurti himself.

Sure, because he is dead. I also found this: https://www.kfa.org/faq.php#mission

Ultimately, I can't prove anything, but given that everyone is "dispelling his teachings" and states that he wanted his "teachings" to live on, etc. -- oftentimes in the same paragraph of "but he wasn't a teacher" -- makes this whole thing seem really silly to me.

Useful advice for any field. Take no heroes, only inspiration.

I think I have learned most from those unaware that they were teaching.

> end up full of shit

Could you give any details?

a lot of this stuff just devolves into sex scandals. fame and fortune and all that.

what relevance does his personal life have to do with anything?

Can you completely disentangle an individual's spiritual/religious/philosophical teachings from their personal lives?

For example, would you assign the same credibility to the teachings delivered by a Catholic priest who has been proven to have molested children?

Not completely, but somewhat, yes. Gandhi is a terrible example of how to be a husband, but he nevertheless managed to teach nonviolent protest and help liberate a country. MLK also did some philandering, but it doesn't detract from what he did for civil rights. It's easy to be dismissive of a cardboard priest, but if you had an actual human in mind, it would become less black and white.

If you need your spiritual, religious, philosophical leader to be pure as the driven snow, you're going to get some pretty inhuman advice from your leader. Most of us have faults and things we struggle with. If someone doesn't, how do they relate, how do they help?

re: Catholic priest vs. others and credibility, this SMBC comic is appropriate:

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20110503.gif

In other words, it's one thing when someone is claiming to speak on behalf of a deity; it's another otherwise. To be hypocritical in such a context reflects much more harshly on the priest than it does on, say, the civil rights activist.

True, but that only makes the argument weaker for Krishnamurti, who really refused the role of teacher quite strongly himself and certainly didn't want anyone believing in a supernatural savior instead.

i'm not the person who posted the original message.

"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."

But I have grid electric power and municipal tap water!~

Commute to work, write emails

This encapsulates so neatly what I've tried to describe to others.

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