A good friend gave me Freedom from the Known from J. Krishnamurti to read. I instantly liked it a lot, maybe because it is talks about mindfulness, long before mindfulness became a trend.

Freedom from the Known is a tough read. So I decided to start sketchnoting some of the chapters, hoping that the visual representations of the text would help me and you gain a deeper understanding of Krishnamurti’s timeless wisdom.

Here the visual summary of chapter 4 you can read in its entirety on Krishnamurti online.

By staying sensitive, we can experience joy. With an open heart, a smile on our face, we can stay connected to the people around us. The moment we try to hold on to joy, our mind turns it into pleasure. Pleasure is nothing bad, in fact a life without pleasure would be dull and meaningless.

But we need to understand, that the moment lives circumstances change, holding on to past memories of pleasure will make us unhappy. Pleasure will turn into pain. Our mind will be busy trying to find ways to repeat past experiences, making it impossible to enjoy what is right in front of us.

I wish you many joyful moments,

Namaste

P.S: Please let me know if my drawings helped you understand Krishnamurti’s text. It would help me a lot to improve my visual storytelling abilities.