Effortless Living: The Yoga of Krishnamurti
Date: March 15-17, 2013 (Fri. evening to Sun. afternoon)
Facilitator: Dr. Ravi Ravindra, PhD
Cost: Early bird (register 30 days in advance) $260 | Regular $290, incl. double occupancy and meals; private room option on a first-come basis: $50
Born and educated in India before moving to Canada, Ravi Ravindra holds master’s degrees in technology, physics, and philosophy and a Ph.D. in physics. He was the founding director of the Threshold Award for Integrative Knowledge and is currently professor emeritus at Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he was professor and chair of comparative religion and adjunct professor of physics.
Dr. Ravindra has had a lifelong interest in exploring human consciousness and held numerous one-on-one dialogues with Krishnamurti over a 20 year period. His books include Science and the Sacred, Krishnamurti: Two Birds on One Tree, Yoga and the Teaching of Krishna, and Whispers from the Other Shore. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The siren call in the Yoga of Krishnamurti (K) is on self-inquiry, without resort to any external authority. He repeatedly said, “Read the book of yourself… Question what the speaker is saying… K or the speaker has no authority.”
Accepting K’s strong injunction to ‘Don't think. Look!’, we will try to examine in ourselves the effect of such looking. Does this looking negate and stop all action, effort and practice or does it assist in cleansing these practices of egoistic motivations? Does K’s radical negation of traditions, paths, gurus call for an abandonment of these or for a thorough examination of these, and even more importantly, a continual re-examination of our own being – mind, heart and body – with its fears and desires and addiction to the status quo?
This weekend workshop will try to put into practice a few of the many helpful and practical positive suggestions for self-inquiry suggested by K, as implied in the following remark, very much abbreviated here, "The mind has to slow itself down and how is this to be done? If it forces itself to be slow then opposition is brought into being which creates further conflict, further complication. Compulsion of any kind will nullify its effort. I would like to suggest a way but don't make of it into a hard and fast system, a tyrannical technique or the only way, a boring routine or duty… Meditation is self-knowledge, which is the basis of true thinking; and when there is true thinking, there is understanding, and so right action."
Friday Evening Public Talk in Victoria
March 15, 2013, 7:30 pm
Dr. Ravindra will hold a free public talk and Q&A session in downtown Victoria as a prelude to the Retreat he will be holding on the following Saturday and Sunday at Swanwick Centre. The talk will provide an introduction to the 'Yoga of Krishnamurti' and its implications for living.
Please note, this retreat is presented in two parts. Part 1 will take place in the form of a public introductory session on Friday evening, 7:30 pm, at the Victoria Church of Truth at 111 Superior Street. Retreat participants will overnight at Swanwick Centre and reconvene there on Saturday morning (through to Sunday afternoon) for Part 2.
Extend your weekendwith a personal retreat up to Wed. March 20 for a discounted rate of only $40 per night.
