It is in this distinction drawn between aloneness and loneliness that Krishnamurti seems to be redefining what it means to be capable of love. While as a Jewish theologian, Buber writes of a loving relationship that is based ultimately on a higher cause or devotion to a superordinate entity, Krishnamurti, as an Eastern spiritual guide, writes about a loving relationship that is devoid of all outside agendas. His portray of love seems more closely related to a mandala depicting two lovers intertwined eternally, rather than being a portrayal hanging in a synagogue of two lovers, as in Song of Songs, kneeling in reverence to the all-powerful and ever-present Yahweh (Shekhinah).
Inner and Outer Realms
Like many of his spiritual colleagues coming out of Eastern traditions, Krishnamurti devotes considerable attention to the matter of relationships that exist between our inner self and the externa world in which we live and work. As another spiritual leader with whom I am acquainted has declared, these is a “delicate” interplay between the inner and outer realms. I would phrase this a bit differently. I would say that the “membrane” between the inner and outer is quite permeable. Our inner self strongly influences how we view our world (Piaget’s assimilation); conversely, the external world has a major impact on the structures and content of our inner world (Piaget’s accommodation) (Piaget, 1923/2009) I think Carl Jung would concur with both statements.
Krishnamurti (1956, p. 54) would press on from these statements to suggest that the invasion of the inner into the outer and the outer into the Inner creates the conditions for us to experience the true state of being. An exclusive focus on either one’s inner self or one’s environment prevents us from directly experiencing and from gaining an authentic sense of being. Our one-sided focus leaves facing a state of nothingness in either our inner self or our outer self:
“The greater the outward show, the greater the inward poverty; but freedom from this poverty is not the loin-cloth. The cause of this inward emptiness is the desire to become; and, do what l will, this emptiness can never be filled. You may escape from it in a crude way, or with refinement; but it is as near to you as your shadow. You may not want to look into this emptiness, but nevertheless it is there. The adornments and the renunciations that the self assumes can never cover this inward poverty. By its activities, inner and outer, the self tries to find enrichment, calling it experience or giving it a different name according to its convenience and gratification. The self can never be anonymous; it may take on a new robe, assume a different name, but identity is its very substance. This identifying process prevents the awareness of its own nature. The cumulative process of identification builds up the self, positively or negatively; and its activity is always self-enclosing, however wide the enclosure. Every effort of the self to be or not to be is a movement away from what it is. Apart from its name, attributes, idiosyncrasies, possessions, what is the self? Is there the “I,” the self, when its qualities are taken away? It is this fear of being nothing that drives the self into activity; but it is nothing, it is an emptiness.”
Krishnamurti returns to his emphasis on direct experiencing rather than just relying on memories of the past or planning for the future. The mutual invasion of inner and outer realms occurs in the present; there is no past or future. There is only the direct, present process of experiencing that brings about the integration of the inner and outer realms (Krishnamurti, 1956, p. 30):
“Life is a total process, the inner as well as the outer; the outer definitely affects the inner, but the inner invariably overcomes the outer. What you are, you bring about outwardly. The outer and the inner cannot be separated and kept in watertight compartments, for they are constantly interacting upon each other; bat the inner craving, the hidden pursuits and motives, are always more powerful. Life is not dependent upon political or economic activity; life is not a mere outward show, any more than a tree is the leaf or the branch. Life is a total process whose beauty is to be discovered only in its integration.”
