3. J. KrishnamurtiThe Book Of Life
It’s the most important book to me. It’s the one that makes it possible for me to still be an artist and tour and keep giving and taking. I did years of therapy, but when I encountered Krishnamurti’s thinking I had a breakthrough and I’m no longer in therapy. It was the last thing I needed to make peace with all the many problems I was having for many years: self-destructive behaviour, anxiety, eating disorder, workaholic-ism. I’m still a bit of a workaholic, but it doesn’t destroy me anymore.
The book is challenging because he’s anti-everything: anti-religion, anti-cult. He didn’t want a following. He always said, “please don’t think like me, make up your own mind.” It puts you in a position to be responsible for yourself. At first it’s strange, because spirituality usually wants you to follow. Maybe you’ve noticed on the new record, I’m really against cult following in general: branding, influencers, politicians, celebrities. At this point in my life, I don’t want to partake in that. I find it really childish. The only thing that really works is being responsible. Not relying on someone else’s teaching. Learning from other people, but then you integrate it and find your own way to grasp existence. It’s something that helps me get back to the present moment and to see things as they are without trying to project. Because we all project, it’s impossible not to. I spend my day projecting, but at least I always make the effort to come back to the essence of what life is, which is to see things as they are.
