"In starting any thesis, it seems to me, one should put
forward as one's starting point of departure something
incontrovertible; the expression should be simple and dignified."
p87 Freeman 1948/1962
Heracleitus of Ephesus, circa 500bc
"If one does not hope, one will not find the unhoped-for,
since there is no trail leading to it and no path." in Freeman 1962
p26
Empedocles of Acragas circa 450bc
"and they follow me in thousands, to inquire where is the
path of advantage ... desiring oracles and healing for their painful
diseases." (p64 Freeman1948/1962)
Archytas of Tarentum, 4th C bc
Right Reckoning, when discovered, checks civil strife and
increases concord; for where it has been acheived, there can be no
excess of gain, and equality reigns. It is this (Right Reckoning)
that brings us to terms over business contracts, and through it the
poor receive from the men of means, and the rich give to the needy,
both trusting that through it (Right Reckoning) they will be treated
fairly. Being the standard and the deterrent of wrongdoers, it
checks those who are able to reckon consequences before they do
wrong, convincing them that they will not be able to avoid detection
when they come against it; but when they are not able to reckon it
shows them thta in this inability to reckon consequences lies their
wrongdoing, and so it prevents them from committing the wrong deed."
in Freeman p80 1948/1962
Bhagavad Gita tr of Edwin Arnold
The One, The Invisible, The Unrevealed, Unnamed, Unthinkable,
Uttermost, All-pervading, Highest, (12:5) Yet, hard
The travail is for such as bend their minds
To reach th' Unmanifest. That viewless path
Shall scarce be trod by man bearing the flesh!
But whereso any doeth all his deeds
Renouncing self, fixed
To serve only the Highest, night and day ...
In the Sanskrit of The Bhagavad Gita gatim is variously translated
as Path, Goal, State, Condition
2: path of virtue, path of final emancipation
3: evil path
4:11 men follow in my path; men retrace my path in every way
4: thorny and dark the path is
5: the farther path
5:17 a state beyond return
6:37 He whose mind has deviated from yoga; deluded on the path
not reaching to yogic attainments, having failed
what path does he take? (What end does he meet?
what way is there for him?)
6:38 pathi
6:38 He is confounded regarding the path of the Absolute
he is perplexed in the path to Brahman
6:45 param gatim; a higher way
7:18 mam gatim (my path, unsurpassed goal, highest goal, way)
9:32 the path celestial (param gatim) the highest path, way
12:5 that viewless path, unperceived goal, unmanifested way; Transcendant
path
The unmanifest is hard for the embodied to realise
13:28 supreme goal (param gatim) highest way
16:20 lowest path (adhaman gatim) lowest way
16:22 param gatim; highest way
16:23 param gatim; highest way
J Krishnamurti
1927: You can then be guided by that one Law, you can then
walk along that one solitary path. We are all walking along the
same path, to the same goal, obeying the same Law.
1928: "Pathless Reality" -
Aug-Sept 1929: I maintain that Truth is a pathless land,
and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion,
by any sect. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable
by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any
organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any
particular path.You must climb towards the Truth. It cannot be
'stepped down' or organized for you.
1933: I feel that no one can lead another to truth, because
truth is infinite; it is a pathless land, and no one can tell you
how to find it. No one can teach you to be an artist; another can
only give you the brushes and canvas and show you the colours to
use.
Margenau 1944
"We have seen before that the description of the motion of
elementary particle in terms of paths, i.e. in classical fashion, is
improper; that it leads neither to correct empirical results nor to
a causal theory." p199
J Krishnamurti
1948: You cannot discover the path, because there is no
path, Truth is a thing that is living, and to a living thing there
is no path - it is only to dead things that there can be a path.
Truth being pathless, to discover it you must be adventurous, ready
for danger; and do you think a guru will help you to be adventurous,
to live in danger? To seek a guru obviously indicates that you are
not adventurous, that you are merely seeking a path to reality as a
means of security.
1957: There is no path to reality. Reality is a pathless
land, and you must venture out and discover it for yourself. It is
because you are frightened inwardly that you depend on something, on
the priest, or on a belief, and so you get caught in the net ...
1960: Comm. on Living III: There is no path to that which
is beyond all the paths that men have made and trodden. To find
that pathless reality, you have to see the truth in the false, or
the false as the false. If you perceive that the path you have
trodden is false - not in comparison with something else, not
through the judgment of disappointment, nor through the evaluation
of social morality, but false in itself - then that very perception
of the false is awareness of the true.
1970: Only Revolution: But truth is not (an accumulation);
it is really a pathless land; it may be at the next curve of the
road, or a thousand miles away. You have to keep going and then you
will find it beside you.
1976: But as truth is a pathless land, you can't lay down a
line, a direction, a path to it and practise it, discipline
yourself, learn a technique. It is immovable. There is no
technique to truth.
1982: So one has to be totally free from all that because
truth has no path to it. It is a pathless land, like a ship that
has no rudder. You have to walk out of darkness, out of your own
chaos, out of your own confusion, out of the forest of ignorance and
come to that by yourself, your own comprehension of perception.
1982: Because if there is any form of conditioning,
psychically, inwardly, truth cannot be found. Truth is a pathless
land, and it must come to one when there is total freedom from
conditioning.
1984: ... self-interest is very small, very petty, very
narrow and unless there is complete freedom of that, truth becomes
impossible. And truth cannot be through any path, it is a pathless
land. You can't go through any system, through any method, through
any form of meditation to reach that.