Exploring Ourselves

With Jackie McInley

August 7, 2022

Zoom Online

This Sunday morning meeting, facilitated online by Jackie, was attended by fifteen people in all. We picked up the thread of the previous meeting from two weeks before and entered a discussion of how to best conduct the dialogues. It can be challenging to generate an effective way of inquiring and asking questions. And there is also the issue of responding to the questions in a way that supports the inquiry and best invites insight and a deepening of the sharing and sense of “looking together” that Krishnamurti strongly recommends. The dialogue moved into an investigation of various ideas about promoting an experience of “shared meaning” spoken of by David Bohm in relation to the process. The idea of finding connection within a group was brought in and along with it the question as to what exactly it means to be “connected” in such an endeavour. With what are we connected and how can it be described? The inquiry seemed to get quite complicated. It seemed that some participants, as often happens in such discussions, felt the need to keep bringing forward the difficulties involved with the activity of thought whereas others were more interested in simply engaging awareness as the natural catalyst for freedom from the problems generated by thought. Some participants felt that there was an expanded listening developing during the dialogue, whereas others may not have seen the process so positively. There often seems to be quite a mixture of experiences amongst the group. One possibly useful question was asked at the end of the session: “What is aware of the image-making process that is so central to the movement of thought?”

The exploration of ourselves will continue on August 21.

DB

To Be Human, session 1, with Javier Rodriguez

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Zoom online

Towards the end of his life, J. Krishnamurti produced a summary of his teachings which was published in booklet form entitled The Core of the Teachings. Javier will explore the booklet in six instalments over the next six months; this first presentation was labelled “Truth is a Pathless Land”. There were 17 participants in total in attendance.

Javier began by questioning the meaning of the word “truth” and the value we give it. Truth and falseness are necessary distinctions in many ways in our ordinary lives and also in the philosophical domain. How is the truth of any idea established, and is it anything more than a belief? Javier pointed out that Krishnamurti was not asserting any absolute truth. There may be truth, but it cannot be conceptualised or found in the religious domain. In K’s world truth is a rather strange creature not found through analysis or knowledge. The focus on the known must be relinquished for the truth of the unknown to be realized. It is not a fixed point and it can only be “found” in the “mirror of relationship”. Through this mirror one must understand or see clearly the contents of one’s own mind as they are revealed in relationship with others and with oneself. The mind is the seat of illusion, and illusion must be understood for truth to come into our awareness. The tendency to escape from the facts of what we are must be put aside, at which point love will begin to flow through us as the truth of what we are.

After a presentation of about forty-five minutes Javier opened the meeting to questions from the participants. A process of exchanging ideas took place within the group for the remainder of the meeting, another forty-five minutes, and involved inquiry into a number of issues such as our tendency to deceive ourselves when we bring in our past experiences when considering the truth of any concept or idea. We must be aware of how we “lie” to ourselves. Group members were invited to share their questions and insights or comments, which stimulated discussion of topics such as awareness, love, stopping of thoughts, belief systems, right relationship, and the mystery of life and relationship. It was a lively sharing of inquiry and insights and will no doubt be interesting as the series of presentations unfolds over the next six months. The session was guided with skill and intelligence by Javier and promises to be continued in that manner.

Self-inquiry: The Merging of Heart and Mind

June 24 – 26, 2022 with GP Walsh

Zoom online

We were pleased to have GP with us again, online from Seattle, with a group of participants numbering between 23 and 25 on each of the three days of the workshop focused on self-inquiry or the study of who and what we really are. GP skillfully guided us at the start of each of the three 1 ½ hour sessions with a guided meditation featuring an experiential journey into the nature of our consciousness and our identity. He referred to a few teachings from ancient sources such as the Ribhu Gita and modern sources such as Ramana Maharshi, Mooji, and J. Krishnamurti. His main pointer was that we are the pure awareness that is hearing the words being spoken at this very moment. This awareness cannot be separated into subject and object or into other categories such as Being, Consciousness, and Feeling, or Heart and Mind. The Heart is the felt sense of Being and is that which we are experiencing at every moment. The nature of consciousness is very subtle and invites a great deal of inquiry into its nature in order to realise the simplicity of the truth that “I am That”. Over the weekend the group participants explored various aspects of our nature, our thinking, and our non-dual identity which turns into an experience of suffering as soon as we identify with the body or the mind. When “otherness” disappears the infinite appears.

Together GP and the group members explored a variety of questions such as “Who is perceiving?”, “What is the thought “I” referring to?”, “What is aware of being aware?”, “How can I let go of attachment?”, and so on. Such profound questions may have no answer in terms of ordinary thought processes and yet may produce a direct experience of ourselves, which may be what we are looking for. According to Ramana, the greatest barrier to Enlightenment is the belief that we are not enlightened already. We investigated the wisdom of such pointers which often appear complex and incomprehensible and yet can be understood in terms of thought’s habit of making everything into a problem. GP made twists and turns that challenged our understanding but somehow made the fact more accessible that “what we are looking for is what we are looking from.” It was a very interesting three meetings and GP’s presentation was much enjoyed.

DB

Meditative Self-inquiry with Mukesh Gupta:

Inner Peace, Joy, and Beauty

June 12, 2022

Zoom online

Mukesh began this last session in the current series by contrasting the field of love within us and the field of conditioning. Presence, awareness, and beauty cannot be manufactured, so how can the shift happen from one set of qualities to the other? How can there be a shift from conflict to love and joy? It seems to require an awareness of how thought is dominating our experience in the moment. In order to support such a shift, Mukesh employed a series of slides depicting lovely nature scenes along with meaningful quotes from Krishnamurti and others. The messages conveyed the need for clear perception of “what is” from a place of stillness of the mind and heart.. What happens when we see the play of conditioning with our whole being, including the “heart”, from the inside and the outside? What happens when we do not fight with what is but, rather, listen and look from a non-reactive, still mind, without choice, judgement, or resistance? Can there be no fighting with ourselves, a learning that has no sense of achieving a result? Can there be an awareness of inattention, of the creation of a self with all its problems? Then there is a different quality of relationship with ourselves and others, a relationship without measurement or direction? Seeing from wholeness is different from seeing through the thinking mind.

Mukesh’s opening presentation was followed by some group discussion and elaboration. Participants brought forward questions about being with “negative” thoughts. It was asked whether thoughts are personal or universal and if the source of our thoughts and fears can be seen. Perhaps we have not attended fully and therefore fear has arisen. Dealing with fear through thought is ineffective, Mukesh asserted. What is needed is a non-reactive mind that does not judge but remains with the whole reality of the conditioned mind from a place of wonder and “not-knowing”. Total presence is the deepest wisdom and involves constant learning. We can be with the “ego” as if it were a child, with love and compassion. Then there is a dialogue with oneself and others, a seeing of the construction (by thought) of the egoic self. Then there is a different experience of oneself and one’s life.

The meeting was a sharing of ideas and insights along with an exploration of the implications of seeing our thought patterns and habits. Mukesh reminded us in his conclusion that existence is a mystery and a miracle. When we are aware of this there is peace, joy, and love.

The Only Revolution: Exploring Loneliness and Fear

With Cynthia Overweg

May 14, 2022

Zoom online

This presentation was Part 3 in a series of 4 comprising a collection labelled “The Only Revolution” after the title of one of J. Krishnamurti’s books. Cynthia opened the session by connecting the universal issues of fear and loneliness with the current world situation, including the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and climate change. Covid, for example, with its isolating effect, is forcing us to look at ourselves in a way that is unusually demanding, and war asks us to look into the sources of division and violence. We are particularly interested in the psychological aspects of these human behaviours. Fourteen people were in attendance.

Bringing in Krishnamurti’s teachings as she usually does, Cynthia shared his statement that “fear is what makes us accept our conditioning.” We are perhaps too afraid to challenge our conditioning and its sources in fear and loneliness. K says that “to find the truth, we must stand alone, and that is arduous.”

The discussion took the direction of contrasting loneliness and aloneness, expressions of “what should be” and what actually is. Fear is created by thought; can we look at it when it appears? We are unconsciously aware that we are empty, nothing, and the “me” is just a construct of thought. Emptiness must be understood if we are to go beyond it. We must look at our psychological dependence and be with the feeling of emptiness without any condemnation or effort to get away from it. The sense of “not being” may be the cause of all fear. K said that the mind cannot separate itself from emptiness because the mind itself is that emptiness. Loneliness is the very essence of the self, the “me”. Can it be seen without naming it? Can the mind go beyond it? Only then is there absolute freedom. We must understand the whole process of our own thinking, and out of that understanding comes love.

After about an hour of presentation, with some periods of silent meditation, watching the breath, and listening to music, the group turned to more interactive sharing and exploration. Appreciation was expressed for the hard work of stripping away our masks in order to see what is underneath. It was noted that the witnessing of the “me” in relationship with others is very challenging but can be seen against a background of silence, in nature for example. It was noted that Krishnamurti himself never let up from the urgency of looking at ourselves. How, we might ask, can this discussion be bigger in the world and how does it affect the whole of life?

It was another meaningful exploration under Cynthia’s skillful guidance.

DB