Exploring Ourselves, September 18, 2022

Exploring Ourselves

Sunday, September 18, 2022

With Jackie McInley

Zoom Online Meeting

 

Fourteen people were in attendance for the second “Exploring Ourselves” meeting of the month. Jackie joined us from London, UK, and facilitated the session with her usual skill and sensitivity. She opened with a few probing questions exploring some fundamentals of group dialogue and offering some concise suggestions concerning what we are actually doing in these meetings. She did this while emphasising that we stay clear of any rigid conclusions. Are we truly interested, she asked, in looking at our conditioning? And is there a quality of mind that can learn by perceiving what is actually happening in this present moment? Can we admit that we don’t already know all about what is going on and there may be subtleties about which we have been unconscious? Can we look into our reactions to what is taking place?

The meeting lasted for a little over two hours. The second half consisted of an increased level of interaction between participants. Group dialogue brought forward issues of how to be present with anxiety and other emotions, looking without the word, “arguing for” or giving power to thought and mind, and the role of memory in inquiry. There seemed to be some lack of clarity in the investigation, and it was decided that some of the issues should be further explored at our next meeting.

DB