Eight Conversations is a collection of Jiddu Krishnamurti conversations he had with people in 1967 while he worked in the United States. From the book:
Questioner: Recently when I was in India I heard a temple bell ringing and it had a very
strange effect on me. I suddenly felt an extraordinary sensation of unity and
beauty such as I had never felt before. It happened so suddenly that I was rather
dazed by it, and it was real, not a fancy or an illusion. Then a guide came along
and asked me if he could show me the temples, and on that instant I was back
again in the world of noise and vulgarity. I want to recapture it but of course, as
you say, it is only a dead memory and therefore valueless. What can I do, or not
do, to get to the other shore?Krishnamurti: There is no way to the other shore. There is no action, no
behaviour, no prescription that will open the door to the other. It is not an
evolutionary process; it is not the end of a discipline; it cannot be bought or given
or invited. If this is clear, if the mind has forgotten itself and no longer says – the
other bank or this bank – if the mind has stopped groping and searching, if there
is total emptiness and space in the mind itself – then and only then is it there.
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