Swanwick Star Issue No. 6 (2013)

Mark Lee Retreat, July 5-7, 2013

This retreat was focused on the question, “Is it possible to live a meditative life?”  Mark Lee, for many years Executive Director of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America in Ojai, California, and his wife Asha were the guest facilitators. Dr. Ashutosh Kalsi, who teaches at Simon Fraser University, came with them from Vancouver and contributed his passionate interest in dialogue and inquiry to the group. In all there were 18 participants in the retreat.

On the Friday evening, after a short introduction by Mark, Asha and Ashutosh each gave a short talk about dialogue and their intention for the weekend. This was followed by a demonstration by these three of a dialogue on the subject of “What is a meditative life?” The dialogue was then opened to the whole circle.

On Saturday morning a video was shown of Krishnamurti speaking on meditation and the importance of “putting our house in order”. A group dialogue followed until lunch and was picked up again in the afternoon. The discussion was quite intense and passionate at times and provoked some depth of questioning and looking. Before dinner Mark facilitated a text study session wherein passages from the booklet “Mind in Meditation” were read and discussed. A copy of this booklet had been given to every participant at the start of the retreat.

Saturday evening we watched a video of K in conversation with Allan Anderson, again exploring meditation. The group seemed to be spontaneously drawn into a period of silence after the video ended.

A talk given by K in Ojai was shown on Sunday morning, once more on the topic of meditation but this also included the necessity of right relationship, the issue of the self-image being hurt, and the possibility of it never being hurt. K then touched on a variety of related issues such as the psychological recording of hurts, ending problems as they arise, time and the timeless, space without a centre, space and silence, the unoccupied mind, and openness to the new. The question was asked by K, “Can thought come to an end?”.

The remainder of the morning was spent in group dialogue, mostly focused on the question of what is right action in a world that seems to be disintegrating or in disorder. Whether or not the world is in fact disintegrating or in a state of degradation was part of the discussion.

This was followed by a final dialogue in the afternoon. In closing, Mark asked the participants how they felt they had responded to the intent of the retreat, which was to investigate what is a meditative life, and if there were any suggestions for improving the retreat. There were a few suggestions but it seemed that most felt the weekend was very interesting and valuable, very much appreciated the facilitation of Mark and company, and were hoping the three guests would return again next year, which they all said they would be happy to do.

David Bruneau/ Ralph Tiller