What is Our Relationhip with Each Other?

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What is Our Relationship with Each Other?

Supplementary Meeting with Jackie McKinley

December 30, 2021

Zoom online

 

From November 25 to 28 Jackie Mckinley hosted a series of dialogue meetings exploring the question “What is Our Relationship with Each Other?” Those dialogues were attended by fifteen to seventeen people. At the close of the series, Jackie invited participants to reconvene for a follow-up gathering on December 30 to further investigate the same question in the light of what may have been awakened by the first series of dialogues and since. On this occasion, fourteen people were able to attend.

Jackie began with an acknowledgement of the significance of people gathering in an atmosphere of respect and seriousness to address questions of importance to themselves and humanity as a whole. On the other hand, she pointed out, there is a danger in presenting our conclusions as if they are the truth. Thought thinks it is in control but, in fact, we are imprisoned by thought and time without being fully aware of it. Can we “suspend” our thoughts and feelings so there is space to look at and listen to them? Can there be a different quality to our discussion, an awareness which notices the outward reality and the inward at the same time? Can we simply be with what is taking place in the here and now, experientially?

After her introduction, Jackie suggested we sit quietly in silence and be open to whatever arises for individuals. This stimulated a sharing of a number of issues in relationship with others and questions of identification with thoughts and with people. It became a process of “unburying” hidden things in ourselves, which was said to be “very interesting”. The significance of an awareness that questions everything and takes no assumption for granted was explored in the group, and the subject of psychological “death” was brought forward as deeply relevant to self-transformation. It was proposed as a key topic to be looked at when bi-weekly dialogues begin with Jackie in February of 2022