Do you know this man?

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Jiddu Krishamurti (born in 1895 and died in 1986) was, to me, one of the most fascinating individuals who has lived in the past 100 yrs. He was spiritual without being religious. He tried to teach people a different way to think. He did not identify himself as having any nationality or theology, and spent his life traveling around the world speaking to basically anyone who wanted to listen without regard to who they were, what they had or what they believed. I personally do not think he was a genius or infalable by any stretch. Just a very unique individual. Krishnamurti would not accept "followers" or "worshippers". He saw the relationship between a disciple and a religious teacher as the complete opposite of spiritual freedom. He thought that it created dependency and opened the door to exploitation. In his talks he always encouraged people to think independently and clearly while exploring the reasons behind the way people think. He described the concept of truth as: "Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, nor through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation, and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a sense of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these dominates man's thinking, relationships and his daily life. These are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man in every relationship." In my personal opinion, he probably got as close to true clear thinking as anyone can get. I do not always agree with his concepts in all areas, but it always makes me explore my own thoughts which is exactly the point he always tried to get across to the people.... think for yourself, think clearly and understand why you think the way you do. One of my all time favorite quotes from Krishnamurti from his book "Freedom From The Known": "When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind." Before his death in 1986, he instructed his supporters not to interpret or change his teachings in any way. He did not want a "religion" to be based on his teachings. So true to his wishes, his non-profit foundation has in no way changed or "preached" anything he ever said. He wrote many books and they remain intact along with all of his video taped talks and transcriptions of his speeches. When people ask the question "If you could spend 1 day with one person from history, who would it be?", he would definitely be on my top 10 list. You might wonder why I chose to put this into the "religion" category. Well, over the last year that I've been on myLot I have seen an incredible amount of conflict in the category and I find it very disturbing in many ways. I just want people to THINK. I have found personal connection with Krishnamurti's teachings (just one of many people I admire) in that, being a Pantheist myself, I am very spiritual and find an intense spiritual connection to the Universe and everything in it, but I follow no religion. This has made me happier and more content than I have ever been in my life. There IS such a thing as spirituality without religion and I wanted to present that concept and see what people thought about it. I am not trying to convert anyone to anything, I do not condemn religion in general. But you mention religion in conversation and some people just lose their minds and cease to think clearly. And THAT bothers me. If you would like to read more here are some links to some of his works. http://tchl.freeweb.hu/ this is a collection of his writings. http://www.kfa.org/ this is the Krishnamurti Foundation of America To make this a discussion, I will ask for respectful commentary on how you see spirituality. Do you only connect spirituality with a "religion" or do you think that they can be two separate concepts?