Self-inquiry with Mukesh Gupta, August 13, 2023

Self-inquiry

Sunday, August 13 2023

With Mukesh Gupta

Krishnamurti Educational Centre, Metchosin, BC

 

Nine people were in attendance for this Sunday afternoon meeting at the Esquimalt Gorge park Pavilion. Mukesh Gupta began the session with his usual guided relaxing meditation, followed by an introduction to the self-inquiry process that we usually engage with. He asked us to bring forward any fundamental question that is significant to us in our lives at the present time so that we can look at its challenges, discuss the issues, and learn about ourselves from our investigation as a group. To go deeply into such exploration requires a quality of silence and quietness in our minds, Mukesh said – a deep quality or ground of listening from the heart, not merely from the thinking mind. This involves qualities of love and compassion, including non-judgement of others and ourselves. Each moment is important, not just some future goal or resolution, and we are invited to focus on what is most alive in us and what is existential rather than intellectual.

One question that can open up our exploration is to inquire what brought each of us to this particular meeting, especially if we are new to this type of dialogue within the context of looking at the teachings of J. Krishnamurti. An issue that arose in asking this question was the sense of separateness, with its loneliness and isolation, that almost all of us experience from time to time (or more often). We discussed how our identification as individuals and members of separate groups can both create a sense of fragmentation as well as a feeling of togetherness. Is the feeling of separateness or fragmentation a construct of thought?

We explored the possibility that by observing or watching the way thought creates fragmentation, this could bring about a diminishment of the feeling of separateness and consequently a greater sense of wholeness and harmony between people. An awareness of the mind as well as the body could generate a state of Presence which gives less importance to images and to a focus on the separate self which feels isolated and apart. The possibility of being a “nobody” was raised and given serious attention. The actuality of such a happening was explored but, at the same time, some people seemed to feel that the discussion was becoming too abstract and “intellectual”. It was not clear to what extent this was seen as a limitation in the dialogue, but it seemed that participants had varying degrees of appreciation of the way the group dialogue had unfolded.

DB