Conference Proceedings J. Krishnamurti and the Contemporary World Crises: Scholars Panel Two Session Four

Abstract

My Personal and Academic Journey with J. Krishnamurti

Ashwani Kumar

In this presentation, I describe my journey with Krishnamurti's existential inquiry at a personal level and in the context of my academic life. I was introduced to Krishnamurti's work during my Bachelor of Education program in India in 2004. While Krishnamurti was quite peripheral to the curriculum, he became a central focus of study for me during the Bachelor of Education, Masters of Education, and during my PhD. His insights have had a deep impact on how I view personal, educational, and social problems and how I approach teaching and research. His work is central to the four pedagogical and practical concepts that I have developed in my academic career thus far which include: curriculum as meditative inquiry, teaching as meditative inquiry, music as meditative inquiry, and dialogical meditative inquiry. My engagement with Krishnamurti's work serves as an example...