Meeting Life
January 20 – 23, 2023
With Mukesh Gupta and Ann Engels
Zoom online
Mukesh joined us from Agra in India and Ann from Belgium in order to form a strong team which provided a loving and sensitive environment for a group of eleven inquirers to explore the topic of “Meeting Life” for a period of three days. Each day offered a couple of hours of contemplation in a large space of silence, awareness, and love that Ann invited us to create together. Each day she guided us in an opening meditation which immediately brought a sense of spacious silence. Mukesh then asked us to be simply aware of our experience in the present moment. Can we meet this moment’s reality with a silent stillness that implies meeting everything in ourselves and in our experience?
Usually we are meeting life from our past memories and projections, Mukesh pointed out. Is the quality of this “meeting” limited or are we meeting life from the wholeness of our being, with all our senses? Can there be listening from the space of silence and attention? If there is, then whatever is false will fall away and what is true will remain. The mind is naturally quiet when engaged in looking and listening. No force or suppression is needed. We are simply aware of how thought is creating “noise” and this awareness brings a spontaneous silence and a seeing of what is arising. Whatever arises passes away like a cloud in a blue sky but the sky remains as it is.
Is it possible, Mukesh asked, to see the futility of effort and conflict? Can the noise be understood in clear seeing? He spent a little time describing the process of thought which creates conflict and noise and the significance of naming our experience in the pursuit of happiness or desire. Mind is pursuing its own idea of happiness depending on conditions, but what is it that is searching for happiness as a seeker? Are we creating a separation? Understanding ourselves is essential. It requires inner silence and awareness beyond thought and “ego” as a noisy mind cannot meet life in any new way. To be aware of this fact brings peace.
After a five-minute silent break we continued with questions and discussion. Many interrelated perceptions were shared and the reality of the “separate self” was questioned, The topic of Silence was looked into from numerous angles and its existence in the here and now was acknowledged and given value. In silence the desires of the mind can be seen and dissolved. The energy of silence may even invoke that same energy in others and the truth of this was reported to be felt in the group.
The theme of the second day was Awareness. Again, there was a lovely guided meditation with Ann and a talk by Mukesh. Some of the significant differences between thought and awareness were explored and time spent with their many implications. The limitations of judgement and belief in “good” and “bad” were looked at and the presence of attention and awareness right from the beginning of self-inquiry were suggested. We explored the desire to change the way things are and the problems it generates. After examining awareness from a number of viewpoints it was expressed that it acts without goal or motive and is, in fact, a kind of “deep love” with a transformational quality.
About half way through the session it was suggested that we break into smaller groups. This option was reported to create a greater intimacy and depth in the investigation and it was employed again on the third day of the workshop. After the breakout sessions the whole group reconvened to share the experience.
The theme of the third day was “Love”. There was a sense that we had prepared the ground for such an exploration and were perhaps able to enter it more “skillfully” than in the first hours of the workshop. Ann read some passages from Rumi and Krishnamurti which seemed right on target and led to fruitful “meditation”. The quote from K was as follows: “Can all that is not love be washed away? If we don’t know what to do, then do absolutely nothing…. then there is love.” This quote stimulated a rich discussion of the factor of “not knowing” in the unfoldment of self-knowledge. There were long silences and a quality of stillness in the group as the meeting moved on through the days. As Ann said in her concluding thoughts, the weekend was “a beautiful, slow sharing of awareness and love.”
DB
Know Thyself, February 10 – 12, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauKnow Thyself
February 10 – 12, 2023
With Kathryn Jeffries, Ph.D
Zoom Online
Kathryn joined us from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where she is a Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Education. She is the author of a number of publications including Awake: Education for Enlightenment and Wide Awake: Anatomy of Awakening. She is a certified facilitator of “The Work of Byron Katie” and has studied the teachings of J. Krishnamurti in great depth. While introducing herself to the workshop participants and staff, Kathryn mentioned that conducting a workshop online was a new experience for her. There were twelve people present in total for this event.
Kathryn spoke about her vision of self-inquiry, which for her is a movement beyond abstraction to a way of knowing beyond thought. There are two aspects to it: 1) identifying what we are thinking and believing in a given moment, and 2) questioning the beliefs and conclusions that thought has produced. Rather than attempting to solve problems, it is more a question of seeing how the problem is created by our thinking and thereby accessing a different state of mind. In order to demonstrate the process of questioning our thoughts, Kathryn made use of the methods developed and taught by Bryon Katie. These essentially involve writing down our concepts and then investigating them in an organised manner which often leads to profound insights about ourselves and meaningful shifts in how we are seeing the world and other people. Over the three days of the workshop, we experimented with Katie’s mode of inquiry and dealt with the queries about the process which naturally arose as we engaged with our own minds and our desires for understanding of others, ourselves, and the inquiry process itself. There was a good deal of discussion about the similarities and differences between Krishnamurti’s approach to self-knowledge and that of Bryon Katie. We engaged with processes of self-inquiry which offered opportunities to see ourselves freshly and in revealing ways in the “mirror of relationship” provided by the questions and also central to the “meditation” recommended by Krishnamurti. Both K and Katie assert that self-inquiry is all we need in order to come upon a meaningful sense of who or what we truly are and to live from that realisation of our nature.
Kathryn’s presentations were very useful in showing us an effective way to combine the perspectives of Krishnamurti and those of Byron Katie in deepening our understanding and “skill” in looking at ourselves.
DB
Exploring Ourselves, February 5, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauExploring Ourselves
February 5, 2023
With Jackie McInley
Zoom online
Thirteen men and women were present for this Sunday morning meeting. Most were regular attendees but it seemed quite interesting that one new member of the group was originally from Nepal and had Tibetan roots. He was welcomed warmly into the dialogue environment and seemed to be quickly at home with our style of self-exploration. He had apparently studied Krishnamurti’s teachings to a significant degree and was able to converse easily on the subject of self-knowledge. It soon became clear that we were focused on a deep exploration of the aspects of human conditioning which create an attachment to certain beliefs, assumptions, and ideas of what is necessary in our thought and behaviour. As usual, Jackie led the group by questioning any assumptions that arose and was willingly joined in the endeavour by everyone present. One of the participants asserted that he questioned everything he thinks and he appeared to find no argument there. The issue of the “observer” and the “observed” was proposed as being perhaps the central habit of thought creating conflict and confusion. It was said that “experimentation” is necessary in order to go beyond what the mind says is necessary. A crisis may need to happen in us before we can clearly see the harm done by the division between the “I” and the world. We may need to face the fact of psychological death.
The inquiry moved into the issue of listening. What is the quality of our listening to each other? Can we see or hear what is being said or can we see the impediments to deeply listening as they arise? Are we interpreting what is being said rather than conversing in a state of clarity? Can we listen to ourselves at the same time we are listening to others? Is our listening revealing things or obscuring them? Can we observe without judgement or without “intention” in the form of an agenda? How does an interest in finding out fit in? It was suggested that seeing what thought is doing weakens its “drivenness” and dissolves its tendency to become solid. The result may then be a greater spaciousness and openness. As we moved along we were regularly challenged by Jackie, our facilitator, to keep questioning all conclusions and assertions of “knowing”. This seems to keep the energy of the group and of the dialogue from getting bogged down with an acceptance of ideas that may be less than fully true or supportive of freedom. There is a sense of digging tentatively – and yet possibly more deeply – into the nature of reality and the consciousness of the human being (which is us).
DB
Exploring Ourselves, January 29, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauExploring Ourselves
With Jackie McInley
Sunday, January 29. 2023
Zoom online
Jackie joined us from Ojai, California, to lead us skillfully through this Sunday morning meeting. The dialogue was attended by sixteen people, including Jackie and KECC staff, Ralph and David. There were a number of participants new to sessions at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada but they seemed to have no trouble blending harmoniously with the flow of the dialogue and its way of inquiry into the nature of our experience as human beings.
Jackie began the meeting with some questions and concepts that laid out to some degree the structure and unfoldment of our explorations. “Do we feel free,” she asked, “to share whatever is going on in us? Is there a sensitive listening to each other? Do we have ideas and images about others and about ourselves?
The subject of fear came up in the conversation, as it often does, with some examples of fear in life situations and the need for action. Some fears were considered to be abstract and some more real, some more physical and others more psychological. How often do we avoid looking directly at our problems and what is it we don’t want to look at? Can we face the actual state that is present in our consciousness? Without any relief, what happens? Without a solution, what happens? Are we in danger of being destroyed?
The issue of identification with thoughts was brought in, along with the duality created by such identification. Are they even “my” thoughts, it was asked. What assumptions are mixed in with our thinking and with our pure seeing? What do we really know to be true and do we really know anything? What is a result of insight and what of thoughts and assumptions? Is the “freshness” of our seeing something to do with its “truth” (as Krishnamurti has written)? What happens when we hold a question without giving an answer?
The meeting came to a close with a period of silence
DB
Meeting Life, January 20 – 22, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauMeeting Life
January 20 – 23, 2023
With Mukesh Gupta and Ann Engels
Zoom online
Mukesh joined us from Agra in India and Ann from Belgium in order to form a strong team which provided a loving and sensitive environment for a group of eleven inquirers to explore the topic of “Meeting Life” for a period of three days. Each day offered a couple of hours of contemplation in a large space of silence, awareness, and love that Ann invited us to create together. Each day she guided us in an opening meditation which immediately brought a sense of spacious silence. Mukesh then asked us to be simply aware of our experience in the present moment. Can we meet this moment’s reality with a silent stillness that implies meeting everything in ourselves and in our experience?
Usually we are meeting life from our past memories and projections, Mukesh pointed out. Is the quality of this “meeting” limited or are we meeting life from the wholeness of our being, with all our senses? Can there be listening from the space of silence and attention? If there is, then whatever is false will fall away and what is true will remain. The mind is naturally quiet when engaged in looking and listening. No force or suppression is needed. We are simply aware of how thought is creating “noise” and this awareness brings a spontaneous silence and a seeing of what is arising. Whatever arises passes away like a cloud in a blue sky but the sky remains as it is.
Is it possible, Mukesh asked, to see the futility of effort and conflict? Can the noise be understood in clear seeing? He spent a little time describing the process of thought which creates conflict and noise and the significance of naming our experience in the pursuit of happiness or desire. Mind is pursuing its own idea of happiness depending on conditions, but what is it that is searching for happiness as a seeker? Are we creating a separation? Understanding ourselves is essential. It requires inner silence and awareness beyond thought and “ego” as a noisy mind cannot meet life in any new way. To be aware of this fact brings peace.
After a five-minute silent break we continued with questions and discussion. Many interrelated perceptions were shared and the reality of the “separate self” was questioned, The topic of Silence was looked into from numerous angles and its existence in the here and now was acknowledged and given value. In silence the desires of the mind can be seen and dissolved. The energy of silence may even invoke that same energy in others and the truth of this was reported to be felt in the group.
The theme of the second day was Awareness. Again, there was a lovely guided meditation with Ann and a talk by Mukesh. Some of the significant differences between thought and awareness were explored and time spent with their many implications. The limitations of judgement and belief in “good” and “bad” were looked at and the presence of attention and awareness right from the beginning of self-inquiry were suggested. We explored the desire to change the way things are and the problems it generates. After examining awareness from a number of viewpoints it was expressed that it acts without goal or motive and is, in fact, a kind of “deep love” with a transformational quality.
About half way through the session it was suggested that we break into smaller groups. This option was reported to create a greater intimacy and depth in the investigation and it was employed again on the third day of the workshop. After the breakout sessions the whole group reconvened to share the experience.
The theme of the third day was “Love”. There was a sense that we had prepared the ground for such an exploration and were perhaps able to enter it more “skillfully” than in the first hours of the workshop. Ann read some passages from Rumi and Krishnamurti which seemed right on target and led to fruitful “meditation”. The quote from K was as follows: “Can all that is not love be washed away? If we don’t know what to do, then do absolutely nothing…. then there is love.” This quote stimulated a rich discussion of the factor of “not knowing” in the unfoldment of self-knowledge. There were long silences and a quality of stillness in the group as the meeting moved on through the days. As Ann said in her concluding thoughts, the weekend was “a beautiful, slow sharing of awareness and love.”
DB
Exploring Ourselves, January 15, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauExploring Ourselves
Sunday, January 15, 2023
With Jackie McInley
Zoom Online
Jackie facilitated this online meeting from Ojai, California. There was a total of eighteen people present for the two-hour session which ran from 10 am to about 12:15 pm. A number of the participants were new to dialogue and others had attended other dialogue gatherings but not with our group and not with Jackie, who therefore outlined some of the principles of dialogue to get us started. She pointed to a central element of dialogue and self-inquiry in the fact that the human mind is conditioned, which makes the study of it quite challenging. Instead of being driven by the conditioned mind, is it possible to give it space to emerge and reveal itself, to not judge it but to look at what it is and to share what comes out? Can we look at the activities of the thinking mind without overly analysing them or adding further thought, which only keeps us in an endless loop of thinking? Is it not more fruitful to engage in seeing, perceiving, and direct understanding? Are these separate or are they the same? Some group members introduced the necessity to explore the reality of fear and specifically the fear of death, dissolution, and the ending of the self.
Some interactions amongst the group brought in the issue of the “I” and its responsibility for the desire to be “right” or “safe” and “secure”. The identification with the “I” was considered to be a major cause of psychological disturbance in a multi-faceted way. As we examine ourselves, what is being revealed and what is not being revealed? What is seen and what is not seen? Do we have a choiceless observation of ourselves and an ongoing learning? How can we be aware of ourselves when the self is interfering in the questioning itself? What is authentic observation? Does the observer begin to replace observing and can there be a shift from the observer to observing (without the “me”)? Such questions were the stimulus for focused looking and listening. Participants contributed interesting questions and insights throughout and thereby created an atmosphere of curiosity and penetrating perception. It seemed we were not easily ready to come to the end of the meeting. Many seemed to be inspired to carry the energy of the gathering into our daily lives.
DB
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/in Event Summaries /by David Bruneau4135a5a9001254711e87b6413bce1ba3
Exploring Ourselves, December 18, 2022
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauExploring Ourselves
With Jackie McInley
December 18, 2022
Zoom online
Fifteen people in total were present for this Sunday morning meeting, the last of the year in this series. Jackie joined us from the UK on Zoom and we took some time to discuss our experience of the online format versus in-person meetings. Many expressed a preference for the in-person mode while at the same time appreciating the alternative offered by online meetings, especially in the time of the pandemic. The discussion was followed by a period of silence which spontaneously gave way to an exploration of looking and listening as opposed to thought and analysis. There was an extensive questioning and sharing of thoughts, with some quick answers being offered. Jackie asked if there could be an observation of the thoughts, which seemed to be perhaps the core question or issue in self-observation. Questions arising from the participants inquired if we were invested in thought and were not seeing the error in a manner free of thought or apart from the movement of thought.
At times the inquiry became more personal and touched into the fact of individual sorrow in the forms of jealousy, feeling lost, and other such challenging experiences. Jackie asked if it would be possible to stay in an unfamiliar place or feeling without seeking a solution. What happens when this takes place? She suggested that this question could be our homework until future meetings – which would obviously be welcomed by participants.
DB
To Be Human, December 11, 2022
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauTo Be Human
With Javier Gomez Rodriguez
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Zoom Online
A total of fourteen people showed up for the last session with Javier in the series entitled “To Be Human: Examining the Core of the Teachings”. Javier had subtitled this presentation “The Way of Negation”. It was focused on the last paragraph of Krishnamurti’s summary of his own teachings as published in the small booklet “the Core of the Teachings”. Javier began with a quote from the booklet: “Total negation is the essence of the positive.” He then delved into the meaning of such a statement, including the apparent paradoxes contained within it and the meaning K gives to the “positive” and the “negative”. In seeing the falseness in the positive expressions of thought, they fall away and the “truth” can emerge.
How is truth attainable? Javier asked. Krishnamurti suggests that it is through the ”mirror of relationship” that we can understand ourselves, through observation and not through analysis. The mind must be in a state of “unknowing”, which is intelligence. Our ideas of freedom must be examined to see which are false and which true. And what price are we willing to pay for our “freedom” and “security”? Our layers of conditioning must be looked into and emptied. Our identity must perhaps be abandoned, which brings compassion.
Thought, which is time, cannot capture freedom, which requires “choiceless awareness” in the present moment or “the now”. Thought must be negated, including the division between “the observer” and “the observed”. “Self, observer, and identity must all be denied. Then insight, intelligence, and love will arise.
Javier spoke for about an hour, at times seeming to become somewhat complicated in his manner of expression but still skillfully challenging the participants to question and explore the ideas shared and the concepts of Krishnamurti’s teachings. The talk was followed by an hour of dialogue which investigated the ideas in a deeper way and which Ralph found difficult to slow down and bring to a close. Participants were interested in how they could pursue such discussions more fully and link with Javier in the future. A number of options were suggested, the main one being to keep in touch with the events posted on the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada website.
Javier’s dedication, wisdom, and humour in sharing his understanding of K’s teachings was much appreciated.
Exploring Ourselves, December 4, 2022
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauExploring Ourselves
December 4, 2022
With Jackie McInley
Zoom Online
Ten people were present, all included, for this Sunday morning meeting with Jackie, who facilitated the session on Zoom from the UK. She began by outlining the challenge we face in these meetings given that thought often operates outside of our awareness. Therefore, being aware of our thought processes, as Krishnamurti suggests we “do”, is a paradoxical kind of activity. Awareness of thought takes great humility, for we cannot assume that we are truly listening without the interference of thought. The nature of thought is to know and in a basic sense thought lacks humility. It may be best to have no conclusions about ourselves and our way of conducting ourselves. A question arose about the mind’s habit of asserting that there can be little awareness of our thinking processes and whether or not this is true. There was a good deal of discussion amongst the group about this and related issues in the attempt to “be aware”.
As the conversation was opened up, there was some use of the term “self”. One participant wanted to explore the meaning that was being given to the nature of a “self”. It was suggested that it might be best to look at what meaning we were giving to the term rather than trying to describe what the self actually is. This might be more in the spirit of the “negative way” which Krishnamurti seemed to think was the most effective when engaging in inquiry. To see what something is not is perhaps more useful than to assert what we think it is. We then explored the significance of being widely interested in everything that thought produces as ideas about who or what we are. This might introduce a more unbounded and inclusive sense of awareness than anything divided up by thought or chosen as a focused approach to self-knowledge.
The investigation was perhaps challenging and “arduous”, and yet participants expressed that the “process” still had real value.
Unfolding Conflict
November 23 – 27, 2002
With Jackie McInley
Zoom Online
This workshop facilitated by Jackie McInley from the UK was designed as five two-hour sessions intended to encourage a deep exploration of conflict as it shows up in our daily lives. The sessions were usually attended by fourteen participants, with occasional absences from one or two. Recordings were provided for those who were unable to attend all the sessions. Some participants also took the opportunity to watch sessions a second time, and this was reported to be a valuable activity.
Jackie introduced the first meeting with some pointed questions and ideas looking at our orientation towards the examination of conflict. Would we call it a difficult endeavour? Would we call it a “serious” activity? A number of descriptive words were offered, such as “challenging”, “weighty”, “consequential”, and “universally relevant”. Jackie said that conflict is always potentially present. We are all in the same boat, all conditioned, and the source of conflict is in each one of us. Krishnamurti said that to look at conflict in ourselves is “arduous” and we must ultimately see it for ourselves. Is thought the best tool for examining conflict or is there an observation beyond thought? How is time involved? Can we look as if we have never looked before? Can we listen to each other that way? Can we explore without the memory of what we already know, without assumptions? When we use the word “I” in our conversations, what is it exactly that we are referring to? What does it mean to be an individual?
The subject of belief or conviction was introduced. Why does human consciousness keep going back to thought and its convictions? This led to a fairly complex discussion with a great deal of input from the participants. Does our investigation rely on thought, and what are the implications of that? It was agreed that the issues around conflict and observation must be unfolded slowly and more fully. Some “homework” was given with readings from Krishnamurti’s contemplations on conflict to be studied if we so chose.
Each session began with a short period of silence, often followed by a concise review by Jackie of the previous day’s questions and inquiries. There then followed a group dialogue which attempted to look very deeply into important questions about conflict. Jackie regularly asked if we were looking freshly or looking from past knowledge or “the known”. Did our investigations produce a kind of tension and, if so, what was its cause, was it “dangerous” in terms of our relationships with each other, and could tension be of value as something to be explored? What place, it was asked, does “emptiness” or “nothingness” have in our self-observation? These topics stimulated quite a rich variety of insights and comments. It was suggested that friendliness towards the unconscious aspects of mind is necessary for any deep listening and exploration. The energy of the group seemed to be generally friendly and conducive to penetrating and effective self-examination. The sessions always went on longer than planned and continuously challenged us all to keep going beyond the verbal level of investigation and to see clearly whatever is preventing us from doing so. The result was experienced in the writer’s case as a process of clarification and deepening of the sense of Being and Presence. Participants expressed gratitude for the experience.