Five Day Retreat with Scott Kiloby
Five Day Retreat with Scott Kiloby
“Embodying Awakening”
November 23 – 28, 2018.
We were fortunate to have Scott join us for the fifth year running, this time for a five day intensive retreat exploring his Living Inquiries method of self inquiry. Scott is the founder of the Kiloby Centre for treatment of addictions in Palm Springs, California. A total of twenty-two people were in attendance for the retreat, which began on a Friday evening with a talk on the topics of “awareness, awakening, embodiment, readiness, and inquiry.” Scott pointed out the skills can be taught but readiness cannot. He questioned what stops people from doing the self inquiry work and suggested a number of factors, always emphasizing the need for each one of us to look for ourselves. Resting as awareness is the basic practice, whereas his other techniques are to be used when resting is not easily accessible. He led us in a guided meditation exploring the presence of awareness. Other talks throughout the retreat focused on describing his inquiry methods, some of which were new since his last visit, the nature and trajectory of “awakening”, the need to learn skills for working with our conditioning, contractions in the body, the challenges of the embodiment process, trauma and how to work with it, and addiction. Interspersed were sessions working with the inquiries experientially and practicing them so we could do them on our own after leaving the retreat. There were a number of practice sessions in pairs with participants facilitating each other. This produced some deep work and insights. An assistant was available for private sessions if desired. All the work was supported by the basic practice of resting in and as awareness, which involves recognizing that awareness is our essential nature. From there we can observe everything that arises in and as awareness without taking on the belief that we are those phenomena, without identifying with the thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Scott mentioned that his work is in essence very similar to that of J. Krishnamurti, and participants familiar with Krishnamurti’s teachings experienced the Living Inquiries to be an effective way of applying K’s teachings in a very specific and practical manner.
Other activities over the five days included plenty of Q and A opportunities, a Krishnamurti video, time for self-reflection, walks, and sharing at meal times. Spontaneous conversations took place in the unstructured periods. Meals were provided by catering from Glenrosa Restaurant and Toque. By the end of the retreat there was a strong sense of unity and affection amongst the group members – a direct result of the honesty and authenticity of the sharing and working with the sometimes difficult issues of our human experience. It was an opportunity much appreciated and valued by all the participants. It is a great joy and a privilege to have Scott at our Centre and we look forward to his return at about the same time next year to continue with the exploration of awareness and its embodiment into all aspects of our life experience.