January 2 Stillness Within Mini-Retreat
Finding Deeper Awareness Mini-Retreat
This half day event brought 22 people together to share a passion for inner discovery. The presenters offered their experience with a recent program focusing on practices that can support a fundamental sense of well-being. A few of the themes that were explored included:
- The value of community in sharing deeper awareness
Meditation as an evolving discovery rather than a ritualized goal-oriented practice - Many pathways can support unfoldment – it may be valuable to experiment with different awareness techniques to find a good fit and focus on one that works for you
- Some of the practices explored involved sensing and sinking into awareness… becoming aware of awareness, with labels and thoughts being allowed to slip away
- A few practices were explored (noticing the breath and body sensation; group awareness practice; and dyads with the question “Who am I?”)
Krishnamurti’s teachings on Choiceless Awareness speak to a similar pointing:
“Great seers have always told us to acquire experience. They have said that experience gives us understanding. But it is only the innocent mind, the mind unclouded by experience, totally free from the past; it is only such a mind that can perceive what is reality. If you see the truth of that, if you perceive it for a split second, you will know the extraordinary clarity of a mind that is innocent. This means the falling away of all the encrustations of memory, which is the discarding of the past.”
And “… if you give it your complete attention, which is to be attentive with your whole being, then you will see that there is an immediate perception in which no time is involved, in which there is no effort, no conflict; and it is this immediate perception, this choiceless awareness that puts an end to sorrow.”
J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
Links to some of the other content that was explored:
Finders research
Rupert Spira
Mystical Experiences
Guided breath meditation, similar to the one we did together
