The most important book I have ever read is "Think on These Things" by Jiddu Krishnamurti.

At 14 years old, Krishnamurti was discovered by a group called the Theosophical Society. He was groomed for 2 decades to be the head of an organisation called Order of the Star. But on the day of his ascension, he disbanded them, explaining that truth is a pathless land, and no organisation should coerce people down a path.

He then committed his entire life to seeing the world clearly.

My friend Lawrence Yeo, the creator of the excellent newsletter More to That, recommended me the book three years ago.

Since then, I have dragged it across four continents and read it almost every day. I have never found so many profound ideas expressed so clearly. It is one of those books that feels new each time you revisit it: the lessons get deeper the more you update your view of reality.

Here are some of my favourite ideas:

• It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
• Most people don’t break free from prison. They just fight for better conditions.
• When the things that prevent happiness are gone, the anxiety, the frustration, the search for your own security, then happiness is there and you don't have to seek it.
• True education is to learn how to think, not what to think.
• Question your scripts, especially the ones you believe to be true. You are merely repeating a formula which has been handed down to you.
• Intelligence is the capacity to think freely, without fear, without a formula.
• The moment we want something, we are no longer free.
• You will find the right answer when you love what you are doing, not to gain recognition but just because you love to do it, and then you will never compete with another.
• Real life is doing something you love with your whole inner being, so there's no inner contradiction, and out of that love comes an extraordinary feeling of creativity.
• The desire to transform yourself is the reason you don't transform; the key is understanding. When you see yourself clearly, spontaneous growth occurs.
• If you meditate with an objective, you're not really meditating.
• If you can observe alertly, keenly, but without judging, without concluding, then your thinking becomes astonishingly acute.
• Relationships are a mirror, showing you not as you wish you were, but how you actually are.

I appreciate that a lot of lessons are context-dependent. So I recorded a video going through my favourite parts of the book and what they mean to me. It’s one of my most popular YT vids, so hopefully you might enjoy it too:

Cheers,

Kieran