In this first session of the six-part series on The Urgency of Change (1970), we took up the theme of ‘How to Live in this World’, which covered the chapter of that title and the related chapters ‘Conflict’, ‘The Individual and the Community’, ‘Suicide’ and ‘Order’. How to live in this world is a question […]
The overall theme of our dialogue session was the duality of consciousness. What exactly is that duality and one of the group asked whether the separation between observer and observed is real. Is the understanding of this duality an abstraction of the mind: in other words a mental description of duality; or, can the nature […]
We began with the directive to stay within the fertile realm of self inquiry (and resist drifting toward group therapy or therapeutic interventions on each other). We did this by reminding ourselves: “Whenever any of us feel tempted to do an intervention on another participant (such as inviting them to consider something OUR way instead […]
The dialogue session began with questions around being watched by others which includes an impression of self-consciousness. This led us to consider the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness. When we say we are watching ourselves or others, is there a sense of a “watcher” present? Are we judging ourselves or are we attempting to figure […]
This was the first dialogue of our online series and we began, not by introducing ourselves, but by introducing our possible overall intentions for the series. Why do we want to “explore ourselves”; and what drew us to this title? One participant put forward that our intention was to know the truth about ourselves which […]
We began by asking about sorrow and its relationship to love and suffering. Some wondered if life was intrinsically flavoured with suffering or if these were perhaps not intrinsically linked. A differentiation was made between suffering (as unnecessary) and pain (which is inevitable). K’s notion of psychological suffering versus other types was explored. It was […]
We began by discussing the various aspects that reinforce the illusion of our apparent continuation of self in relation to “choiceless awareness”. A question arose about human will and “determination” in regard to the freedom to do or not do something. We explored through personal experience how this creates a resistance or a tension, which […]
Today’s dialogue was well-attended (with 13 participants) and included both regular and new participants. After introductions around the circle, the dialogue began with the Nov 9 quote from Krishnamurti’s Book of Life. The quotation surrounded the question of what might one do if one learned one had but an hour of life left to live. […]
The discussion began with how we encounter dissolution in various forms. An example was given about the feeling of losing one’s mind or memory and how this triggers fear and resistance. This led to exploring how this can also occur with the inability to sleep, which can be seen as avoiding facing the reality of […]
One of the participants, recalling what had been said at the last dialogue meeting at the Swanwick Centre, brought up the question as to what it might mean to embody the emptiness or nothingness that K considers of such central importance in human transformation and wholeness. This topic was instantly embraced by the group, and […]