Many have considered Buddhism to be the religion closest in spirit to J Krishnamurti’s spiritual teaching-even though the great teacher was famous for urging students to seek truth outside organized religion. This record of an historic encounter between Krishnamurti and a group of Buddhist scholars provides a unique opportunity to see what the great teacher had to say himself about Buddhist teachings.

The conversations, which took place at Brockwood Park in England in the late 1970s, focus on human consciousness and its potential for transformation. Participants include Walpola Rahula, the renowned Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and scholar, author of the classic introductory text What the Buddha Taught.

Most of this book consists of these five conversations. Since, however, they are concerned with barriers to deep shifts of perception, the book also contains a final section of questions in which people who find they have not changed after listening to Krishnamurti ask him to account for this. The various and sometimes vigorous answers he gives may be of as much interest to Buddhists as to students of Krishnamurti, and to readers in neither of these two groups.