Understanding Ourselves, October 16, 2022

Understanding Ourselves

Sunday, October 16, 2022

With Jackie McInley

Zoom Online

 

Jackie joined us from London, England, for the second meeting of the month of the “Understanding Ourselves” series. There was a total of sixteen attendees at the meeting, some of whom were new to our dialogue. Jackie opened with a comparison of the online meetings and life itself in that both have their limitations – the limitations of the technology, the lack of direct contact with each other, and the inherent limitations of our human conditioning. We respond to dialogue not as a process manipulated by an expert who has perfect knowledge but more as an exercise in thinking for ourselves with no one’s thoughts or insights being more important than anyone else’s. What is our relationship with authority? Is Krishnamurti an authority for us? Or is dialogue an opportunity to pay attention, to observe each thought we have, including thoughts about others and feelings of being hurt by another? And can we share from a direct experience of what is happening in us in present “time”? Can a part of this be a perceiving of our psychological defense system in action?

After the exposition of what we are doing essentially in our meetings, there was a period of silence followed by a space for questions, comments, and discussion. Jackie asked if anything had touched us deeply and if we felt any sense of urgency in addressing any particular issue. The conversation turned to an exploration of our need for connection with others and ourselves and the contrary sense of disconnection many of us may often feel. This topic carried the meeting for a good length of time until it was brought to a close after 2 ¼ hours. At one point there were some comments by a couple of individuals that they were not understanding much of what was being said, which was leading to a loss of interest. For the most part, however, there was animated sharing and investigation of questions and issues felt to be significant.