Self Study Meeting

Sunday, November 7, 2021

Zoom online

 

Thirteen people were present for the November Self Study Meeting sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. We are still meeting online, which allows for participation with participants from all over the world. In this case we were joined by interested people from as far away as New Zealand and from coast to coast across North America. This meeting we were scheduled to explore the March readings from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. The subheadings for the four sections of the chapter are Dependence, Attachment, Relationship, and Fear, and the selections cover some of the most central of Krishnamurti’s teachings about the nature of human consciousness and experience. The challenges of looking directly into our inner emptiness and confronting our attachments to the sense of identity which comprises our “self” are explored in detail. The group discussion brought up various questions and perceptions which created what one participant called “perhaps the best dialogue I have ever been part of.” There was a rich communication of insights and understandings between the group members and apparently a meaningful examination of our thinking around these subjects as we study Krishnamurti and apply what he says to our own self-inquiry and self-observation. Occasional disagreements seemed sometimes counterproductive but they may have added to the mix of the group interaction and stimulated a fairly intense sharing.

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Meeting

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Zoom Online

Nine members of this dialogue group showed up for the Sunday morning meeting online. Four group members had informed us they would not be able to attend for various reasons and one was a mystery. The plan for the session was to do a final review of the chapter on “Fear” in The Urgency of Change because of its central importance in Krishnamurti’s teachings and in the discussions we’d had over the year while exploring the text and looking into our own selves. We were also interested in revisiting the idea of “action” as Krishnamurti speaks of it, as well as looking at some subtleties of the non-dual teachings that are popular these days and that seemed relevant to our inquiries.

After a short period of silence to begin the session, we began reading the text together and asking questions about some of the passages. As usual there was little hesitation in bringing forth issues to contemplate and discuss. We looked at our experiences of fear and how it operates in us. Is it similar to how the “Questioner” in the text describes it in one place, like a “black, bottomless, ghastly pit”, or is it quite different than that? Some agreed that the mind or thought can indeed project that kind of an experience when looking into the unknown. A number of different aspects of fear and dependency were brought forward for examination and the conversation took a direction towards love as the answer to the issue of fear. Krishnamurti says in the chapter that when there is love there is no fear, which raised questions of how we experience and understand love. Can love be described in positive terms, or is it more helpful to follow what seems to be K’s approach, which we could call “negation”. When we see clearly that in us which is not love and “discard” it, then what remains is love, though we may not be able to adequately describe it. Still, we may enjoy doing our best to say something about it and perhaps capturing some of the fragrance of it. It was pointed out by a few participants that as soon as thought begins to conceptualize something like love we are in danger of becoming caught in rigid assertions about reality which are disconnected from anything really true. A few people shared some deep perceptions about the nature of conditioned thought and it’s hold on our consciousness.

As we moved ahead with our dialogue we touched upon the subject of action and its relation in K’s outlook to pure seeing. There were insightful sharings from a number of the group. “The seeing is the action” was an idea that seemed to have the ring of truth within the given context. The question was asked whether it is possible to talk about anything without bringing in the principle of duality. This invited in the subject of “the observer” and “the observed”, which K seems to consider very important to understand. We came upon a resolution of the paradox between unity and duality which seemed to resonate for at least some – and perhaps most – of us.

It then seemed clear that we had, without consciously attempting to do so, opened all the questions we’d planned to examine before the meeting. We had received some meaningful insights into them and had dissolved the dilemma of seeing thought as an impediment that must be gotten rid of. This understanding seemed to bring us a sense of freedom, which was a good place to call the meeting to a close.

Meditative Self-Inquiry

With Mukesh Gupta

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Zoom online

 

Nine people showed up for this Sunday morning meeting with Mukesh, who logged in from Belgium. He had two questions he wished to explore with the participants. First was to ask ourselves if we are living a mediocre life and, secondly, “What is a creative living?” We began with a short silent sit which was then followed by an hour-long talk by Mukesh and a splitting into small “breakout” groups for a more intimate discussion of the issues being explored. The talk began with Mukesh openly wondering what creativity actually is. As human beings our creativity in any field seems to be limited, and what is our daily life like? Is there joy, peace, and beauty? Is creativity limited to its expression, and does it depend on being recognized? What actually is a creative state of mind?

Krishnamurti might begin by asking “What is not creativity?” Is it a mediocre life when we only go halfway in our engagement with life and we hold back our full potential? And what blocks us from the full depth of participation in our lives? Can we be free of patterns, traditions, and beliefs? Can we be free of judging or comparing ourselves and others. These patterns of thought create mediocrity, a living in the past. Are we identified with certain perspectives and aspects of our thinking that bring limitation and suffering? Is mediocrity accepting things as they are, without questioning or doubting our conclusions?

Mukesh pointed to K’s challenge that we relate authentically to whatever information comes before us. Can there be a seeing that all conflict is created by thought? Attempting to resolve conflict through thought is contradictory. Can there be, on the other hand, a quiet observation? Can we be present with others and with ourselves? This may be a creative act. Can I look without conclusions? There is then a quality of love and an openness to learning and unlearning. Going more deeply, the cause of mediocrity is fear, which comes from not knowing myself. I must explore the means of exploration, the tools and energies I use to get to the root of fear. This inquiry may be true creativity out of which comes compassionate presence and choiceless sharing of Being, without effort or achievement.

As the meeting turned to group discussion, the topics that had arisen were investigated more thoroughly, with greater participation from participants. It became more apparent that inquiry and “being with what is” is itself creative. We broke up into smaller groups for about forty-five minutes and then returned to the main group for concluding comments. It was suggested that creativity is starting afresh moment to moment and this seemed to carry meaning for everyone.

Krishnamurti’s Notebook

With Javier Gomez Rodriguez

September 24 – 26, 2021

Zoom online

 

Javier joined us online from the Netherlands for a three-part retreat exploring J. Krishnamurti’s writings as published in the form of Krishnamurti’s Notebook. The meetings were attended by twenty-two or twenty-three people in each case. Each of the three sessions was 1 ½ hours in length and consisted of a talk by Javier followed by some time for questions, comments, and inquiry. The book reveals details of K’s experience that he didn’t often discuss in his public talks and dialogues and is thus more personal and intimate than usual. Javier began with an introduction to the work that was first published in 1976 and describes some of the painful “process” K endured for many years along with more ecstatic experiences of ”benediction” and joy seemingly arising on a regular basis in K’s consciousness.

The issue of K’s engagement with “meditation” and the forms it took, along with some of the unusual phenomena experienced, were discussed in the context of his teachings which normally gave less detail about such matters. The question of awakening kundalini energy was touched on as an explanation of his “process” but then the focus shifted to K’s insistence that we need to face the facts of our lives, the suffering and the desires, without escaping from them. This releases a huge amount of energy which he felt was necessary in order to enter the realms of “truth” beyond the thinking mind and its projections and to contact the dimension he called “the other.” Consciousness must be emptied of its content. We must ask ourselves if we are addressing the fact of division and conflict in our lives. According to K, his meeting the reality of “death” freed him from the reality of thought. He spoke thereafter of the flowering and dying of thought and its expressions such as fear and loneliness.

Javier discussed some of the similarities between K’s experience and the traditional path of Christian mysticism, the importance of humility as a virtue in both approaches, and the central element of “seeing” for Krishnamurti. Seeing requires sensitivity, which is the essence of affection and compassion. Javier broke down the conditions that K seemed to feel were essential for “regeneration” to take place in human consciousness and for “creative energy” to be a reality in our lives.

– Simplicity of being

– Passion or total energy

– A sensitivity to beauty beyond thought and feeling

– Love and its immensity

– Awareness of the dimension where time is not predominant

– A capacity to wander freely beyond time and space – or openness to the “other”

The three sessions were a combination of talks by Javier along with opportunities to ask questions and to explore issues arising in the consideration of K’s spontaneous sharing of his insights and sensitive perceptions. Javier ended with a few readings of lovely passages from the text, which was followed by some appreciative feedback from participants about the quality of the retreat. It was hoped that Javier would offer further explorations and dialogues in the near future.

A New Mind and Heart: The Ultimate Relationship

With Cynthia Overweg online

Saturday, September 18, 2021

 

Cynthia joined us from Ojai once again on a Saturday morning to continue the series entitled “A New Mind and Heart,” an exploration of J. Krishnamurti’s teachings. There were seventeen of us in attendance, all included. Cynthia began with the statement that the ultimate relationship is a unity in silence. “The mind and the heart are one,” Krishnamurti says, and “to live in this world sanely there must be a radical change of mind and heart.”

“What is relationship?” Cynthia asked. Krishnamurti taught that “relationship is a process of self-revelation in which one discovers the hidden causes of sorrow. This self-revelation is only possible in relationship… to live is to be related, and it is only in the mirror of relationship that I understand myself.” K kept turning the attention back to ourselves.

Cynthia interspersed the talking with periods of silence and full presence while listening to meditative music such as Tibetan bowls. She quoted Krishnamurti extensively along with her own understanding of the teachings. Points she made included his saying that the world is you and you are the world. Our problems are global problems and conflicts exist in all our relationships. Self-understanding requires earnestness and persistence. There is no guide – only you and your relationships. We are responsible for our experience, an assertion that often brings up some questions in people’s minds. In what sense is the statement true?

Cynthia guided the group in looking at and discussing together a number of issues. If relationship is tethered to the past, to memory, its movement is limited and brings suffering. The fog of conditioning distorts our perceptions. We explored the mind’s creation of images, with the division and conflict involved. The seeing of the “me” as it arises in thought, without praise or blame, makes a discovery out of every encounter and is the door to love and the “Immeasurable”.

Krishnamurti gives great importance to our relationship with the natural world and we were invited to be aware of this in ourselves and perhaps thus diminish the widespread human destruction of nature. The silent mind has a different quality of energy which can wipe away the past, and this matters in our world. Cynthia ended with her favourite quote from K: “When I understand myself I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.” The presentation was much enjoyed and appreciated by the participants.