Self-inquiry with Cynthia Overweg, May 29, 2024

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Self-Inquiry with Cynthia Overweg

May 29, 2024

At Gorge Park Pavilion

Victoria, BC

 

Nine people were present, including staff, at the Gorge Park pavilion in Esquimalt for a dialogue meeting sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. Cynthia began the event with a reading from a Krishnamurti Foundation of America newsletter which featured a question asking ”What is the cause of our confusion?” The questioner wondered if we are actually looking deeply and completely at ourselves when we approach the “practice” of self-inquiry. And do we ever listen totally to each other? One of our group had an inquiry which he felt to be related and significant for him in his own desire for self-understanding. He asked if people in the group could describe what is meant by the word “ego” and what Krishnamurti might say about it. There followed some discussion of the way in which most human beings give greater importance to themselves than to the self of others and how such self-importance can cause conflict and even war in the world.

Cynthia read a passage from The Book of Life: Meditations with Krishnamurti in which K spoke of the significance of listening, which, he said, effortlessly brings about an extraordinary change in us which has great beauty and depth of insight. What happens, Cynthia wondered, when listening starts to happen in us? One participant offered that there is an immediate awakening of interest, which creates a different space between the dialoguers. It was offered that Krishnamurti spoke somewhat of feelings which had a reactive and emotional content but seemed to give more significance to feeling as a sensitivity and “presence” or “attention”, a kind of global awareness which might well include a flavour of kindness such as that displayed by the Dalai Lama. Also included would likely be an awareness of one’s judgements and resistances.

The meeting was brought to a close with a period of silence and some casual conversation before heading out of the building.

DB