A virtual and live, interactive, continuing exploration of J. Krishnamurtiâs life and collected works.
Unconditionally Free Exploration Online Course
"The exploration of Krishnamurtiâs life and insights we are beginning, provides a rare context I wish I had forty-five years ago. My life would have changed much sooner." â Michael Mendizza Dear Friends, Unconditionally Free is a novel exploration (online course) of J. Krishnamurtiâs life and insights. Many come to this body of insights like we approach other subjects: studying a painting, mathematics, or history, for example. We listen to the words and think we understand, but the nature and quality of this understanding remain in a small corner of a much larger fieldâ abstract, metaphor, intellectual knowing, mental images, or concepts. There may be a different quality of knowing, which is immediate and direct, like plunging into a river. To perceive directly, not filtered by our mental images or concepts, is what Krishnamurti described as âliving the teachings.â This quality of attention demands a different intensity and a different relationship to words, language, and to what we call thought. The intent is to awaken this quality of attention as we explore together Krishnamurtiâs life and insights. Unconditionally Free Exploration | Online Course A virtual, live, and interactive continuing exploration of J. Krishnamurtiâs life and collected works:Twelve live sessions starting February 15, 2023, until January 17, 2024 â one session per month.Participants can register at any time during the year (the previous live sessions will be available as recorded video)Ninety minutes each session: $24 per session / $288 in totalSelected readings (downloadable text) for each session from the books Unconditionally Free, The Life and Insights of J. Krishnamurti and Always Awakening, Buddhaâs Realization Krishnamurtiâs Insight, with Samdhong RinpocheLive recurring international dialogues, questions, commentary, and explorationsHighlights of personal interviews, representing an estimated 500 years of intensive personal interactions with "the speaker"An exclusive, new themed interview collection of thirty-minute videos summarizing the essential themes Krishnamurti used to share his vision:The Years of Awakening, Mary LutyensConditioning and the Self, David and Saral BohmChange, Lana Peters (Stalinâs Daughter) and Ravi RavindraMeditation, Mark and Asha Lee Part 1-2Freedom & Authority, Mary ZimbalistThe Sacred, Bill Quinn, and P. JajakarThe Self as Violence, Dr. P. Krishna, Part 1-2Relationship, Satish Inamdar, MDChoiceless Awareness, Dorothy Simmons and Achyut PatwardhanDeath, Scott Forbes The above themes speak for themselves. The personal insights and observations made by each of the interviewees do the same. The book Unconditionally Free is equally comprehensive, spanning in sequence, decade by decade, giving an overview of Krishnamurtiâs life. Always Awakening provides an essential historical context for the realized state that Krishnamurti invites us to explore. David Bohm spent a full year reading his first Krishnamurti book. âKrishnamurti uses language in a unique and very specific way,â he said. To grasp what Krishnamurti is saying, one may need a better understanding of his use of language. Like the key or legend on a large map, these Unconditionally Free course explorations provide the context that unites all 250,000 pages and all the videos into a coherent, and actually very simple, whole. What to expectImmersion in selected monthly printable readings from the book Unconditional Free, The Life and Insights of J. Krishnamurti, and Always AwakeningReviewing printable transcripts from the new themed interview collection representing essential themes Krishnamurti shared, plus an estimated 500 years of intensive personal interactions with "the speaker"Ability to view the themed interview video presentations at the beginning of each monthly sessionShared dialogue exploring the above with an international group of course attendees Posting questions, thoughts, and observations in an open forum with other participantsThe opportunity to raise and explore related questions with the presenter of the exploration (online course), Michael Mendizza Who this is for This ongoing exploration is for anyone "seriously interested" in Krishnamurtiâs life and insights. What does "freedom from the known," "truth is a pathless land," and "choiceless awareness," actually meanânot as a conceptâbut rather as direct experience? "When two people observe with the same intensity, freedom, and clarity, they see the same thing." - Krishnamurti The intent of this ongoing exploration is to help each other actually penetrate the metaphors and the words Krishnamurti used, and experience in oneself what is being described, as a direct experience, what "the speaker" called "living the teachings." Presenter Michael Mendizza is an educator, documentary filmmaker, and former trustee of the KFA who began investigating Krishnamurtiâs insight in 1974. In 1998, he traveled with Krishnamurti and recorded his talks, resulting in the first major documentary on his life, The Challenge of Change. Michael continued to professionally record Krishnamurtiâs talks for the rest of his life. He then produced an educational series, Beyond Myth and Tradition, and a traveling exhibit, âThe Mind of J. Krishnamurti.â He also compiled a collection of over 100 first-generation interviews and a five-year, three-continent dialogue with Samdhong Rinpoche. He then edited a large, illustrated book, Unconditionally Free, the Life and Insights of J. Krishnamurti, documenting Krishnamurti's life and insights. And lastly, he blended the essential themes in Beyond Myth and Tradition with highlights from the âFirst Generationâ interviews, in a new series of up to 24 thirty-minute programs. *Please contact us (courses@kfa.org) if you require financial assistance to enroll in the course.