Krishnamurti's Notebook

About the work

Krishnamurti's first entry in this handwritten journal is dated 18 June 1961, with the location given as New York City. He continued writing almost daily for nine months while at various locales; the last entry is dated 19 March 1962, at Bombay (Mumbai).

The diary portrays Krishnamurti's world from the inside; in particular, his experience of a nearly lifelong, often acutely painful condition he called the process, and the manifestations of a state he refers to as the otherness – a state that often, but not always, appeared concurrently with the process. As is the case with other Krishnamurti works, the entries often include his impressions of nature, persons, and society, noted by some for "their poetic quality". The journal begins (and ends) without preamble.

Krishnamurti biographer Mary Lutyens wrote in the foreword to the original edition (published 1976), "[i]n this unique daily record we have what may be called the well-spring of Krishnamurti's teaching. The whole essence of his teaching is here, arising from its natural source." Elsewhere, she observes, "apart from its content, it is an extraordinary manuscript, 323 pages without a single erasure." She devoted a chapter to this book in the second volume of her official biography of Krishnamurti, The Years of Fulfillment (published 1983). In it she mentions objections raised against the diary's publication by Krishnamurti associates who had read the manuscript and thought it presented a picture of Krishnamurti at odds with his public pronouncements; his responses to these objections are included.

Lutyens revealed the existence of the process in The Years of Awakening, the first volume of her biography of Krishnamurti (published 1975). This physical condition – which Krishnamurti and those around him did not consider as medical in nature – and experiences similar to the otherness, had reputedly originally appeared in 1922. At the time, Krishnamurti was associated with the so-called World Teacher Project and the Theosophical Society. The existence and history of these experiences had remained unknown outside of the Theosophical Society leadership and Krishnamurti's circle of close associates and friends.

Roland Vernon, another of his biographers, states that previous attempts (by others), at revealing details from his past, including these reputed experiences, were suppressed by Krishnamurti. According to Vernon, Krishnamurti "believed, with good reason, that the sensationalism of his early story would cloud the public's perception of his [then] current work".

Around the time of the diary's publication – more than fourteen years after the final entry – Krishnamurti stated, "I did not write it for publication ... I have attempted to put into words the actual pain and sensation which goes with the heightened consciousness."

Excerpt

As one sat in the aeroplane amidst all the noise, smoking and loud talking, most unexpectedly, the sense of immensity and that extraordinary benediction which was felt at il L., that imminent feeling of sacredness, began to take place. The body was nervously tense because of the crowd, noise, etc. but in spite of all this, it was there. The pressure and the strain were intense and there was acute pain at the back of the head. There was only this state and there was no observer. The whole body was wholly in it and the feeling of sacredness was so intense that a groan escaped from the body and passengers were sitting in the next seats. It went on for several hours, late into the night. It was as though one was looking, not with eyes only but with a thousand centuries; it was altogether a strange occurrence. The brain was completely empty, all reaction had stopped; during all those hours, one was not aware of this emptiness but only in writing it is the thing known, but this knowledge is only descriptive and not real. That the brain could empty itself is an odd phenomenon. As the eyes were closed, the body, the brain seemed to plunge into unfathomable depths, into states of incredible sensitivity and beauty. The passenger in the next seat began to ask something and having replied, this intensity was there; there was no continuity but only being. And dawn was coming leisurely and the clear sky was filling with light. – As this is being written late in the day, with sleepless fatigue, that sacredness is there. The pressure and the strain too. [emphasis in original]

Publication history

The first edition was published in May 1976 by longtime Krishnamurti publishers Gollancz in the United Kingdom and Harper & Row in the United States (see § Original edition). Copyright was held by the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust (KFT), a UK-based organization. Following the Foreword by Lutyens is a table of contents labeled "Itinerary", listing the places the diary was kept. The front and back covers of both impressions feature the same set of contemporary photographs of Krishnamurti.

Following the discovery in the year 2000 of thirty-two additional diary pages, the work was republished in an expanded edition in 2003. This so-called Full Text Edition was published by Krishnamurti Publications, the official publisher and distributor of Krishnamurti's works. This impression includes facsimiles of original diary pages, and a new, edition-specific foreword. It features a photograph similar to the first edition's on the front cover (Krishnamurti alone in a nature setting); a 1935 portrait of his by Edward Weston is on the back cover. This edition's copyright was again registered to the KFT.

The work was first published in digital media in 2008, as a Kindle e-book release of the expanded edition (see § Select editions). By 2010, print versions had several reprints, with the expanded edition offered in 13 languages and dialects; around the same time, the work was made freely available as an electronic document through J. Krishnamurti Online (JKO), the official Jiddu Krishnamurti online repository (see § External links).

Original edition

Select editions

Reception

The Library Journal stated in review, "[Krishnamurti's] insights are, as always, written in plain, nonsectarian language, and give perhaps the best picture we have today of the life of the spirit outside a strictly religious context."

Kirkus Reviews described it as "[m]ore approachable, more intimate than Krishnamurti's didactic writings, this will speak ... to all readers with a feeling for the mystery of existence"; however, London’s Observer thought it better suited to those already familiar with Krishnamurti’s life and outlook.

The Guardian (London) carried a sympathetic report about the book in June 1976; the article was not exclusively focused on the Notebook, also describing Krishnamurti's life and philosophy.

The reputed inner experiences as described in the diary and in Lutyens' biography aroused the interest of Krishnamurti's audiences. After their publication he was questioned by his listeners on the subject; he was generally dismissive of the importance of process-related events, asserting that all discussion of mystical experiences was trivial, and, although he hinted at otherness-like states, he avoided any elaboration.

The book continued to attract attention, and favorable mentions, in the following decades. In its obituary of Krishnamurti, The Times (London), described it as "a remarkable mystical document", while in 2006 the work was cited in a conference paper as "probably ... the most extensive documentation to date of a mystic’s inner thoughts, perceptions, and sensations".

Other diaries

Following this diary's original publication, two other diaries of his were published in book form: Krishnamurti's Journal in 1982, and Krishnamurti to Himself in 1987.