Self-inquiry, June 14, 2023

Self-inquiry

June 14, 2023

Esquimalt Gorge Pavilion

With Mukesh Gupta

 

Six people were in attendance for this Sunday afternoon meeting at the Gorge Park Pavilion facilitated by Mukesh Gupta, who is visiting from India for the summer. Mukesh generally offers a very open-ended format so that participants can express and explore whatever issue is foremost in their experience. One of the dialoguers gave a full description of an interpersonal issue she had been struggling with for some time and which had been generating a good deal of frustration and difficulty for her emotionally. A couple of other participants added their own stories to the first one so that the group was soon actively engaged with the resolution of a few issues while at the same time being very aware that seeking a solution to our problems was not going to be ultimately a deeply satisfying procedure. The temporary fix that might be found would not resolve the tendency of thought to create similar problems repeatedly. It became more and more apparent that what was needed was a persistent and deep watchfulness in regard to the activities of the thinking mind. The group began a wider and more profound examination of the mind’s core habits and tendencies. Sometimes these were expressed in very abstract ways which seemed challenging to understand – except by the person sharing them.

As the dialogue continued, the communication seemed to become more comprehensible, with moments of fuller and also of lesser sharing of meaning. This seems to often be the case when people get together to explore the workings of themselves but, nevertheless, it seemed like a worthwhile exercise and a useful way to spend an hour and a half on a Wednesday afternoon. There was a sense of shared meaning in tackling the nature of our consciousness and the focus moving more and more into the realm of mystery. We were quite aware of the extreme difficulty in attaining any final description or definition in the attempts of thought to pin down any reality. Ultimately we found it impossible to find any stable or solid ideas to describe our own nature and the nature of consciousness. This was not an insight to be held without value and the feeling was that we had penetrated a number of layers of our thinking and exposed ourselves to a more interesting level of “what is”.