The Link #24 - Announcements

Winter Gatherings in Thailand have an international character and draw participants from the distant corners of the world. They are held on Koh Ngai, a beautiful and unspoiled island, an ideal place to explore, ponder and discuss the many questions of life.

For more information, please go to http://www.kinfonet.org/community/centres/stream_garden

KFI Gathering 2005

The Krishnamurti Foundation India will hold its public Gathering from 21st to 24th January 2005, at Vasanta Vihar in Chennai (Madras).

For more information, please contact: KFI, Vasanta Vihar, 64/65 Greenways Road, Chennai 600 028, India, Tel.: [91] (44) 493 7803, Fax: [91] (44) 499 1360, e-mail: kfihq@md2.vsnl.net.in

Theme Weekends at The Krishnamurti Centre, Brockwood Park 2005

February 25–27		What is order?
March 25–30		Can the mind be free of the past?
April 22–24		The nature of desire
May 20–22		Open dialogue
June 4		An introduction to Krishnamurti’s teachings
June 24–26		What is compassion?
July 29 – August 3		Facing a world in crisis
September 17		An introduction to Krishnamurti’s teachings
September 23–25		Authority
October 28–30		Is it possible to live in peace?
November 25–30		Fear

While the Centre is open for most of the year for individual study, certain periods are set aside as Theme Weekends or Study Retreats for those who would like to share and pursue their inquiry with others in an atmosphere of openness and seriousness. These events are equally open to people who are acquainted with the teachings and to those who are new to them.
For reservations and inquiries, please contact: The Krishnamurti Centre, Brockwood Park (see pg. 65); online bookings: www.kfoundation.org
Please note that International Committees, Information Centres and study groups are also invited to inquire about using the Centre.

Monthly Meetings in London

A meeting/video showing is held one Wednesday per month at 10 Manchester Street, London W1. The meeting begins at 6.30 pm, followed by the video at 7.45 pm. Monthly dialogue meetings are held at 4.00 pm on the following Sunday at 11 Mandeville Place, London W1.
For more information, please see the Classifieds at www.kinfonet.org or contact Colin Foster, Tel.: [44] (0)208 204 5418.

Krishnamurti Meetings in The Netherlands

There will be a five-day gathering to inquire into Krishnamurti’s teachings from 10th to 15th July 2005. The theme will be Can We Live in Peace in the World? The meetings will take place at Castle Eerde, Ommen. This historic place, so closely associated with Krishnamurti’s early work, offers the appropriate facilities in a beautiful natural setting.
For further information, please contact: Organizing Committee Ommen Gatherings, c/o Peter Jonkers, Jan Gossaertlaan 11, 3723 CM Bilthoven, The Netherlands, Tel.: [31] (0)30 229 0741, e-mail: hzz.pj@freeler.nl

Annual Saanen Gathering 2005 in Switzerland

The Saanen Gathering will, in 2005, take place at L’Aiglon in the town of Chesières-Villars in Switzerland, from 31st July to 14th August. The Parents with Children Week will take place at Alpenblick in Gstaad the week before, and the Young People’s Week will take place in Bourg-St.-Pierre the week after.
For more information, please contact: Gisèle Balleys, 7a Chemin Floraire, 1225 Chêne-Bourg, Genève, Switzerland, Tel/Fax: [41] (22) 349 6674, e-mail: giseleballeys@hotmail.com

Psychiatrists and Psychologists Meeting in Switzerland

Several psychiatrists and psychologists who met during the 2004 Saanen Gathering have decided to meet again to go deeper into an examination of their practice in the light of Krishnamurti’s teachings. Consideration is being given to meeting for three or four days just prior to or after the 2005 Saanen Gathering.
If you are a mental-health professional and would like more information about this possible event, please contact: Dr Doris-Cécilia Stucki, 5 Ch Malombré, 1206 Geneva, Switzerland, Tel./Fax: [41] (0)22 346 03 76, e-mail: doriscecilia@freesurf.ch

European Krishnamurti Education Committee

During this year’s Saanen Gathering, some of the representatives of the European Committees met and discussed the question of education in Europe.

Krishnamurti was deeply concerned with education; he founded several schools and wrote a number of books on education. He was always keen that the parents and teachers concerned with bringing about a different kind of education should themselves take the initiative to start new schools. So what can we do to address the urgent and present challenges in this field?

Some people have expressed their interest in creating a European Committee for Education.

Several people presented their views on education in the form of written documents. Now, how can we investigate and act further? These are some of the possible questions and activities that might be relevant to an attempt to bring K’s holistic education to the attention of the general public and to maintain a fluid communication between interested groups: Should we :

establish a link between the Krishnamurti Committees on this subject?

be regularly present on forums regarding education?

organize educational forums ourselves in different parts of Europe?

write articles in newspapers?

make sure that universities and libraries are equipped with Krishnamurti’s books?

Further suggestions and initiatives are most welcome!

Contacts:
Gisèle Balleys: giseleballeys@hotmail.com
Bernd Hollstein: Hollstein.bernd@t-online.de
Jean-Louis Dewez: jl.dewez@wanadoo.fr

Obituaries

We are sorry to have to announce the death of Reynold Welveart, who was Secretary of the Comité Belge Krishnamurti for almost 13 years. He was a long-time friend of many familiar with Krishnamurti’s teachings, and he was still travelling to India and The Krishnamurti Centre at Brockwood Park well into his 80s. He died in October 2003 after a short illness.

We are also sorry to have to announce the death of Gisela Elmenhorst, who was Secretary of the French Committee for almost 20 years. She had met Krishnamurti in her parents’ house in 1931, when K spoke for the first time in Hamburg, Germany. She died in Paris in October 2004.

New Books

High Schools in Crisis – What Every Parent Should Know
by Ellen Hall and Richard Handley
Praeger Publishers (www.praeger.com), 2004
ISBN: 0-275-98198-3, $22.99 hardback, 193 pages

Ellen Hall is the new director of Oak Grove School, the Krishnamurti School in Ojai, California. Richard Handley is a features reporter for the Ventura County Reporter.

Condensed from the dustcover:
This book exposes the fear and anger that many of today’s teenagers feel and reveals how schools are failing them, and society, not just academically but in almost every way possible. In a straightforward manner, the authors propose core values, teaching techniques, administrative policies and design ideas that can move high schools toward being the safe and genuinely enriching learning environments they should be. Ellen and Richard draw on their many years of running Mountain View High School in Ojai to offer “case study” examples of how teachers and students can work together to create such places. Smaller classes, experiential learning, close relationships and developing together a sense of community inside and outside the school are central to their approach. Each chapter ends with Twenty Questions for Parents to help pinpoint issues and difficulties that young people may be struggling with. And there is a bibliography of helpful sources and suggested further readings.

The Beauty of the Mountain – Memories of J. Krishnamurti
by Friedrich Grohe

This is the fourth edition, re-edited and including fresh stories of Friedrich’s interactions with K, along with new photographs of the Schools and other places where they met. The book can be ordered through www.pathless.com or through the K Foundations, with all proceeds benefiting ‘K projects’.

Comments received regarding previous editions:

"There emerges from it an engaging and intimate portrait of Krishnaji which will be very helpful and interesting to those who did not have the privilege of knowing him. And for those who did, it gives little cameos that serve to remind one of the human characteristics of the extraordinary man who gave us those invaluable teachings."

Stuart Holroyd,
author of Krishnamurti – The Man, the Mystery and the Message

"I liked your memoir immensely and feel you really conveyed something of the intimate and loving feeling for life and for the art of living that made up being with K."

Dr. David Shainberg,
whose discussions with Krishnamurti and David Bohm are available on tape, DVD and in the book The Transformation of Man

"I was much taken with your beautiful photography – so sensitively and meditatively composed. I, too, found Krishnamurti, as you put it, “actually a very shy person.” Perhaps there is an operational link between that trait and freedom from self-bondage."

Dr. Allan W. Anderson,
whose dialogues with Krishnamurti are available on tape, DVD and in the book A Wholly Different Way of Living

"I appreciate the interesting and simple clear descriptions, in which you convey some touching and more personal aspects of Krishnamurti’s life: his humour, his timidness with strangers, his willingness to wash the dishes, his enjoyment of sports, his intense interest that encompassed every aspect of life – the speed and mechanism of an airport shuttle as well as the immensity of the mountains – and most of all his constant declaration that he was “nobody”. And of course you convey that he actually lived the Teachings. ... In fact his life is not as remote and inaccessible to the lay person as one would imagine. Your memoirs shine a little light on a part of Krishnamurti that I did not know before."

a former Brockwood student

"... when I lived with him I noted keenly that his intellect was like a tool which he would use intensively and then put aside in the midst of normal daily life; and that his normal presence was like that of an extremely alert child, responsive, full of wonder and affection. For this reason I think a book like yours is extremely important, since it stands as a witness to K’s extraordinary humanity, which few people were privileged to see, and which indeed exemplifies what he talked about. It always seemed unfortunate to me that his public persona was so austere."

Bill Quinn,
who lived in Ojai and knew K from the 1940s onwards

"During his lifetime Krishnamurti would often ask people who worked with him, “How will you convey the perfume of the teachings when K has gone?” ... One of the values of The Beauty of the Mountain is its simple conveyance of that perfume or flavour. It is an unpretentious account ... by turns touching and humorous, and the author manages, despite his deep appreciation of Krishnamurti’s rare qualities, to avoid the excesses of hero-worship or cult creation."

Mary Cadogan,
Trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd.

Elsie Ridley’s New Address

Elsie Ridley – who for very many years ran the Krishnamurti Information Centre in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England – has retired to a nursing home in Manchester. She is 90 years old and, while still healthy in all other respects, has made this move because of some impairment to her short-term memory processes.

Through the network of Krishnamurti organisations, Elsie made many friends who will be unaware of her condition and disappointed that they can no longer contact her. This is Elsie’s new address:

Elsie Ridley, Fairways House, 116 Chatsworth Road, Worsley, Manchester M28 2NT, England. If you wish to send an e-mail, you may do so via her close friend Geoff Mincke: geoff@mincke.fslife.co.uk