Science and Nonduality Conference
Livestream and Recorded Transmission
October 25 – 27, 2019
At KECC

It has become an annual tradition for us to bring this conference from California to Victoria via the internet. This year the conference was held in San Jose. Thirteen people were in attendance at the Krishnamurti Centre for the weekend streaming of the event, beginning on the Friday evening. We showed opening talks by A.H. Almaas, Swami Swarvapryananda, and Adyashanti. Almaas spoke about embodying love and how relationship and nonduality fit or don’t fit together. He pointed out that there are many different qualities of love and experiences of it and made a good case for the idea that both the personal and the transcendental aspects of love are precious.
Adyashanti also explored the subject of love and its embodiment. The spiritual impulse of absolute love wants to be fully embodied in the life of the individuals. How this can happen is a “life koan,” or a question to be held constantly in our consciousness. Wisdom and human warmth are both necessary. Can we look through the eyes of the heart and invite “redemptive love” into our lives?
Swami S presented a condensed form of Advaita Vedanta in twenty minutes, focusing on the capacity to witness all that appears in consciousness and to realize that we are that which cannot be objectified.
Saturday was rich with numerous presentations focusing on various aspects of Oneness and Compassion, the Absolute and the relative aspects of love and presence. There was a good deal of discussion about trauma and its effects and the importance of self-compassion for healing. Rupert Spira spoke on the essence of nonduality, Jean Houston gave a passionate presentation about the mystic path, and Paul Levy explored the relationship of quantum physics and spiritual realization. Others spoke from multiple perspectives within the container of science and non-dual awareness and participants had their own favourite presentations. We watched a movie produced by Micheal Mendizza (“Walking Beside the Mind”) investigating some of the interactions and inquiry between J. Krishnamurti and the quantum physicist David Bohm, who had many dialogues over the years.
Sunday continued to be a rich blend of male and female presenters as well as panel discussions on climate change and how to approach the challenges facing us today in terms of the threats to the planet and the creatures depending on it. There were suggestions that we need new paradigms and ways of understanding reality and ourselves in order to live in harmony with nature and each other. The final words of the last presenters left us with some hopeful and uplifting viewpoints.
It seemed that everyone participating in our retreat felt the weekend was very interesting and worthwhile. We had opportunities for some walks on the lovely property and many informal conversations and sharings which added to the experience of being together. Delicious meals were catered by Glenrosa Restaurant and, as always, breakfasts were prepared by Luis and Nao, who work tirelessly keeping the property in wonderful condition and cleaning up during and after the meals and the retreats. They are a much appreciated part of the “team” that provides the environment for the retreats to take place. Ralph Tiller did a great job, as usual, in organizing practical aspects of the weekend.

With the fall return of UVic’s Stillness Within Meetup, eight of us met in September to look at direct inquiry approaches and considerations.  Five of the group were existing members and three were new.

The content and discussion took many turns, looking at advaita teachings such as Richard Sylvester (“I Hope You Die Soon” is one of his recent writings).   He suggests that the sense of ‘I’ is constantly being created and recreated by every one phenomenon, every thought, sensation and feeling.   Yet, he offers little in the way of practices or strategies for inquiring into the nature of the ‘I’, suggesting that the act of looking can only strengthen the ‘I’ sense.

Krishnamurti isn’t that far off from Sylvester in some ways…. In “Freedom From the Known” he even states that:

“To find out what takes place when you die, you must die before you die… not physically but psychologically, inwardly, die to the things you have cherished and to the things you are bitter about.  If you have died to one of your pleasures, the smallest or the greatest, naturally without any force or argument, then you will know what it means to die.  To die is to have a mind that is completely free of itself, empty of its daily longings, pleasures and agonies.  Death is a renewal, a mutation, in which thought does not function at all because thought is old.  When there is death, there is something new.  Freedom from the known is death, and then you are living”.

We tried out a couple of practical applications of direct inquiry, first using dyads to explore the question “Who am I” in a facilitated way, and then the group also explored a guided self inquiry provided by Peter Dziuban excerpted from his book “Simply Notice”.

It was a great group with many insights,…. as well as stretching moments where everything ‘worldly’ simply faded out, replaced only with a ‘still silent truth’.

Thanks all for your contributions to this month’s meetup and for the KECC for their support for the event.

Exploring Awareness
Sunday, October 6, 2019
At KECC

Only three of us were in attendance for this Sunday afternoon session exploring the nature of attention and awareness through guided meditations. We started by listening to a meditation by Rupert Spira focusing on beginning as awareness and remaining as that fundamental truth of our existence, the “knowing” by which all experience is known. Rupert is very skilled in leading such inquiries into our true nature.
David then led a guided meditation based on two central themes of J. Krishnamurti’s teachings: being with our experience without naming it and becoming aware of the split between the “observer” and “the observed.” Bringing attention to these two issues created a sense of stillness, silence, and wholeness which could then be “carried” with us into our lives in the world, so to speak. The meditative approach for the afternoon was appreciated by each of us.

Krishnamurti and Bohm Dialogue in Audio
Sunday, September 29, 2019
At KECC

A long-time student of Krishnamurti’s teachings, John Raica from Vancouver, is visiting the Krishnamurti Educational Centre in Metchosin, BC for a month or two. During that time he will be transcribing twelve dialogues that took place in 1975 between K and David Bohm, renowned physicist. The conversations were recorded on CDs and three of them were published in book form titled Reality, Actuality, and Truth (or perhaps Truth and Actuality?) We thought it would be interesting to share the audio of the first dialogue with interested people and to discuss the material. Seven of us were present for the meeting. The dialogue lasted about 1 ¼ hours and was of fairly clear quality. Most of the exploration between the two men was into the distinction between thought-created reality and the energy of truth. Knowledge, the product of thought, cannot reach to truth, but the very seeing that reality cannot be truth is truth. The energy of truth can comprehend reality; reality then can run straight and the contradictions of thought can be informed by insight and therefore be “sane”.
The group engaged in a lively dialogue of our own after listening to the CD, exploring some of the points made and ranging into other aspects of Krishnamurti’s teachings. It was an enjoyable and educational afternoon and we thank John and Ralph for promoting the event.

Approaches to Self-Inquiry
Sunday, September 8, 2019
At KECC

A small group of three were in attendance for this afternoon session, one of whom was visiting the Centre for the first time. This was a meeting in an ongoing series exploring various approaches to self-inquiry which are felt to resonate with that of J. Krishnamurti but which can perhaps illuminate the subject from different angles. In this case we viewed some video clips wherein Paul Smit explored some questions relevant to the central question, “Who am I?” He explored, through interviews with a few scientists, whether we are consciously in control of our choices or those choices are being made by the subconscious, beneath the level of our conscious awareness. Related to this issue is the question as to what is the self and is there a separate individual or more accurately just a movement of life without a “doer”. Paul’s way of presenting these issues is fresh and interesting. The video clips were interspersed with discussion of the material, the subject of self-inquiry, and its place in our lives. Krishnamurti’s approach to the questions was included in the discussion and some written material about his teachings was taken away by the new participant.