YOUTUBE 📚 THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE 📚 PATREON

📚 Hey, good evening!

So by the time I had read 100 books, I thought that I was pretty damn smart.

I really did think that I knew a thing or two about a thing or two back then, but as it turns out, I didn’t even KNOW what I didn’t know.

Then, as I read my 300th book, my 500th book, my 750th book, my 1,000th book…

I could just sense that I was getting stupider and stupider.

And “stupider” isn’t even a WORD! (A big “D’oh!” for all my Simpsons fans out there).

All of this is to say that reading thousands of books can really humble a person.

Intellectually humble them, I mean. Obviously, I’m still super jacked and handsome (I’m kidding…sort of).

Okay, so about a dozen people just rolled their eyes and unsubscribed. Fair enough. But I’m about to get serious here!

Today’s book breakdown features On Truth, by Jiddu Krishnamurti, who is one of my biggest intellectual influences of all time.

I first read his book, The Revolution from Within, several years ago and it changed the way I see everything.

Here was a guy, respected and loved and listened to by millions, who said:

Don’t follow me.

Don’t praise me.

Don’t just automatically accept what I’m telling you.

Find out what you think.

Find out who you are.

Simply observe the activities of your own mind, see how it’s your own thoughts and attachments, and poisonous emotions that are the root causes of all conflict, both internally and externally.

He taught people that what they are, the world will become, and that it’s pointless to change any kind of cultural system without also changing the individual.

I thought so highly of this book that I wrote a complete breakdown of On Truth for the Stairway to Wisdom, highlights of which I’ll share with you here in this email.

The breakdown itself is about 7,500 words (actually, it’s exactly 7,500 words - weird), covering all the Key Ideas, Book Notes, Action Steps, and more.

It’s also free, by the way.

It’ll only take you about 29 minutes to read the whole thing, and in it, you’ll learn how to remove yourself from negative thought patterns, understand the interconnectedness of all things, maintain an extraordinarily flexible mind as you entertain conflicting truths without fleeing to the numbing safety of any of them, and more.

You can read the full breakdown here, but I’ll give you a little preview in this email so you can decide whether to check out the full one later.

Again, totally free.

I should actually say “free for right NOW,” because it’s going back behind the paywall very shortly.

Then it’s just for members only at the Stairway to Wisdom. 

Alright now, let’s meditate…

This Book is For:

*Everyone who is intensely curious about the true nature of reality but who is distrustful of the people who claim to have all the answers - and always seem to charge money to dispense them.

*Relentless seekers of self-knowledge who want to learn how to stand back from the constant workings of their own mind, and discover things about themselves that they can only find out by watching.

*People with flexible minds capable of holding two or more opposing ideas in their minds without fleeing to the safety of any of them, and who want to maintain and develop this same mental flexibility.

*Anyone who doesn't want to be told what to think, but instead wants to understand more deeply what they think.

Summary:

Thinking that you can find one Ultimate Truth that's going to be final and complete for all time is like a musician trying to hold down one note forever and ever; like trying to close your fist around a flickering flame; or like trying to stop a sunset and hold it in place until the end of time.

Trying to pin down the truth of human existence is an impossible task, and trying to fossilize that truth with words is always a mistake. Not only that, but no one can lead you to the truth either. Sure, they can suggest ways of approaching the truth, but they can never simply hand you the real thing.

Jiddu Krishnamurti understood this from a very early age when in 1929 he voluntarily dissolved the religious organization that sought to name him the new World Teacher and get him to take the lead of their new movement.

In a famous speech entitled Truth is a Pathless Land, he stated that it's impossible to follow anyone to truth and that you'll never find out the basic truth about the structure of Reality by listening to some leader or guru.

So naturally, Krishnamurti in this book - which is a collection of his public talks about the nature of truth and the various ways in which the mind distorts and obscures it - never claims to have access to some special truth that you or I don't have.

In my own life, Krishnamurti motivated me to question everything I thought I knew (and was told) about the world and the mystery of existence. He made me aware of the inner workings of my own mind and helped me see how truth arises when effort stops, when the mind is perfectly empty, and when there is only direct experience of the present moment.

All this is to say that this book won't teach you anything that's "true." Likewise, this breakdown can never claim to feature the Ultimate Truth about anything! There is no authority "out there" that can lead you to the truth, no "script" that you can follow that will lead you to the answers to the most important questions of life. But that's what makes being alive at all so damn exciting!

Dead, lifeless "truths" are just...boring. Life is always moving and changing, and so is the truth of Reality and Existence. The search for what's true is the wildest adventure in the whole damn universe, and we're all living it right now.

READ THE FULL BOOK BREAKDOWN HERE

Key Ideas:

#1: Truth Has No Continuity

Krishnamurti sure does make it difficult to talk about anything! To be consistent with his logic, even my interpretation of this quotation could never be "true" - only an interpretation, an attempt to make Reality hold still, which is obviously impossible. As he says, truth is always new, it has no continuity, one can never hold onto it forever, and the analytical mind can never seize it.

I like to think of Ultimate Truth as a body of calm water, free and pure and clear. The moment when you stick your hand in there in order to point to it and say, "Look! This is the truth!" your very action disturbs the calm water of Truth and makes it false again.

Western minds in particular always want to pin the truth down forever and always, to be able to say, "Here's the answer! We've found it, this is true, and it always will be." But Reality doesn't work that way. Certainty is not a natural property of the universe, and the human mind that goes looking for one, perfect, eternal truth never finds it.

The universe is always becoming, and it never arrives at any finished state. In the same way, truth only exists in the present moment, at the particular time and place that you call the here and now. It is always changing and always new because you are always changing and always new.

One of the most fascinating "truths" of the universe is that none of us ever experiences the world exactly as it is; we only experience it as we are. Once you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

To see this, just observe how when you're tired and hungry, and frustrated after a particularly long day, everything seems dark and aggravating, and hostile. But when you wake up after achieving some victory or other in your life everything seems bright and wonderful!

Or right after you finish searching for new cars to buy, you start seeing the same kind of car everywhere. The truth is that they were always there, but you're just noticing them now. Your focus and awareness changed, and that particular type of car entered your new reality. This is just more proof that you can never experience the world as it really is, but as you are.

So, it follows that if you want to change the world, change yourself.

As we'll discuss in the next Key Idea, that's the only way in which it can be done. This is because we exist in relationship with everyone and everything else, and what you are the world will become.

I'm getting dangerously close here to trying to tell you what Truth is, and obviously, that would be a huge mistake. No one can do that, which is why I've always been drawn to Krishnamurti's talks.

Out of all the books of his that I've read and public talks of his I've watched on YouTube, he has never once said that he knew what Ultimate Truth was and that you should listen to him in order to find out. He always wanted to get people to turn inward and discover what they thought, to examine the questions that they had. And, in the process, to discover that the truth is so much wider, grander, and more magical than our views of it. To discover the truth is, quite literally, to discover the immeasurable.

#2: Only the Individual Can Change

Krishnamurti once said that changing the entire system without changing the actual individual within that system was a dangerous error.

Now, of course, systems do change the people embedded within those systems. To take just one controversial example, there are specific incentives that motivate the actions of people within a capitalist system that do not operate on the members of a communist system, and vice versa. This is clear enough.

So to change the system will almost inevitably change the individual within that system. But not actively working to change the individual at the same time most certainly is a dangerous error, just like Krishnamurti said.

This is true because only the individual can change, and the system has value only to the extent to which the individuals within that system act in accordance with goodness and virtue. Capitalism could work. Communism could work. But perverse individuals have perverted both systems to the extent that neither can be said to work perfectly.

We exist in relationship only. We live alongside everyone with whom we are networked, which, at this point is virtually every single person on earth. What you become, the world will become. If you want to improve the world, improve yourself. The effects of that conscious improvement will have beneficial ripple effects throughout the entire universe.

The key is to work within your circle of control, your circle of influence. Changing yourself is hard enough! I mean, have you ever tried to change someone else? How did that go for you? And an entire system? What hope do you have of effecting that kind of change on your own? Virtually none.

Even changing yourself isn't guaranteed to work, but you have a much higher likelihood of success if you focus on what you can do, what you can influence, which is your own thoughts, your own actions, your own inputs, and the people and ideas you spend the most time with.

All the external change that occurs in the world becomes meaningless if it doesn't positively contribute to the development of the individual. The world won't change until and unless we change, and we must change, for the problems facing the world are simply too great for us to meet them as we are.

#3: Understanding What Is

Whenever you say that you are trying to become happier or non-violent, you have actually defined yourself as someone who is unhappy, someone who is violent.

You're either happy and peaceful or you're not. There is no in-between. It's a total transformation, and as long as you cling to the memories and mindsets of someone who is hateful and unhappy you will never become peaceful and content. These are just two examples that Krishnamurti often used in his public talks, but the idea is worth examining more deeply.

We're always thinking of what we'll become tomorrow, but we rarely take the time to understand who we are now, to understand what is. We think we'll be happier, less envious, more present, and more serene tomorrow, but barely exist today in the here and now, where we're unhappy, jealous, anxious, and scattered. Not all of us, sure, and not all the time, but most of us could surely benefit from a closer examination of ourselves and who we actually are.

This question of who we are is pretty much the most fascinating question one could ever ask because it's so complex and so...elusive. We can never quite pin down an answer that will completely satisfy or reach the bottom of all that we are or could become. Once you get into it, you really just never fully find out!

It's literally the project of a lifetime to figure out Who You Are, and sadly, most people don't even seem to be all that interested in the question. They're more interested in who they were in the past or who they might be at some distant point in time and space that may never arrive.

READ 2 MORE KEY IDEAS HERE

Book Notes:

READ 12 MORE BOOK NOTES HERE

Action Steps:

So you've finished reading. What do you do now?

Reading for pleasure is great, and I wholeheartedly support it. However, I am intensely practical when I'm reading for a particular purpose. I want a result. I want to take what I've learned and apply it to my one and only life to make it better!

Because that's really what the Great Books all say. They all say: "You must change your life!" So here, below, are some suggestions for how you can apply the wisdom found in this breakdown to improve your actual life.

Please commit to taking massive action on this immediately! Acting on what you've learned here today will also help you solidify it in your long-term memory. So there's a double benefit! Let's begin...

#1: Let the Mind Be Still and Clear

Trying to force your mind to be still is like trying to smooth over rough water with a flatiron - as Alan Watts used to say! By which he meant that if it's going to happen, it needs to happen by itself. You can't force your mind to empty itself of thoughts, and you can't force the truth to rise to the surface either.

You'll have to "leave the mind alone," and stop stuffing it with ideas and concepts and beliefs and memories if you ever want to encounter the truth and be able to observe it impartially.

So for the next little while - and really, whenever you have a gap in your busy schedule - simply watch the activities and movements of your own mind without trying to force anything. And instead of trying to cram into your brain all this information about what other people have thought and said, turn inward and find out what you think.

#2: Resist the Urge to Cling to Any Idea

Truth is constantly moving, and you have to move with it, instead of trying to hold onto what came before, no matter how pleasant or comforting.

Whenever you encounter the truth of Reality or Existence (however you conceive it), you may be in tune for a short time with the "immeasurable," as Krishnamurti calls it, but it won't last. The next moment, a new truth will take its place, and if you try to hang onto the old one, you'll miss it.

READ 1 MORE ACTION STEP HERE

"The path to success is to take massive, determined action."

-Tony Robbins

About the Author:

Jiddu Krishnamurti was born on 11 May 1895 in Madanapalle, a small town in south India. He and his brother were adopted in their youth by Dr. Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society. Dr. Besant and others proclaimed that Krishnamurti was to be a world teacher whose coming the Theosophists had predicted. To prepare the world for this coming, a worldwide organization called the Order of the Star in the East was formed, and the young Krishnamurti was made its head.

In 1929, however, Krishnamurti renounced the role that he was expected to play, dissolved the Order with its huge following, and returned all the money and property that had been donated for this work.

From then, for nearly sixty years until his death on 17 February 1986, he traveled throughout the world talking to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in humankind.

Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He did not expound any philosophy or religion but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, of the individual's search for security and happiness, and the need for humankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow.

Krishnamurti reminded his listeners again and again that we are all human beings first and not Hindus, Muslims, or Christians, and that we are like the rest of humanity and are not different from one another. He asked that we tread lightly on this earth without destroying ourselves or the environment. He communicated to his listeners a deep sense of respect for nature. His teachings transcend man-made belief systems, nationalistic sentiment, and sectarianism. At the same time, they give new meaning and direction to humankind's search for truth. His teaching, besides being relevant to the modern age, is timeless and universal.

Additional Resources:

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Wikipedia

Jiddu Krishnamurti - YouTube

Jiddu-Krishnamurti.org - Main Website

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Ending of Conflict

Jiddu Krishnamurti - On Relationships and Conflict

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Truth is a Pathless Land

This Book on Amazon:

On Truth, by Jiddu Krishnamurti

If You Liked This Book:

Discover the Immeasurable, by Jiddu Krishnamurti

On Conflict, by Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Revolution from Within, by Jiddu Krishnamurti

The First and Last Freedom, by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Think on These Things, by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Transcend, by Scott Barry Kaufman

Awareness, by Anthony de Mello

Silence, by Erling Kagge

The Book, by Alan Watts

Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

Ok, that’s it for now…

More excellent book recommendations coming your way soon!

Again, the rest of the above breakdown is absolutely free (for now!), and you can find it right here.

What you see in this email is less than half of what you get at the Stairway to Wisdom. I left out most of the Book Notes, all the Questions to Stimulate Your Thinking, several of the Key Ideas, etc.

So there’s a lot more for you left to read if you enjoyed what you read in this email!

You can also apply to work with me directly on this page right here. I help clients gain wisdom and strength by using the knowledge found in the best books to assist people like you to get in peak physical shape, master your mind, make more money, and live a life you won’t regret.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Reading Life, and enjoy the rest of your week!

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you apply the wisdom found in the greatest books ever written to your life:

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