Report for the Rupert Spira Session—January 13th, 2019
Chapter 23—The Open, Empty, Transparent Body
In Attendance—Rick, Katherine, Charlene, Jim
In this morning’s audio, Rupert took us deep into the body in a profound contemplation meant to reveal that our experience, if we stay with it, shows us the way to realization. It is the realization that there is nothing there, inside or outside of us, but Pure Knowing, modulating itself as sensations, thoughts, feelings or perceptions.
If we take a stand as this Pure Knowing, he says, all we will know is that, our Self, the light of Pure Knowing, never ceases to be itself; never being, knowing or becoming anything other than itself.
This aligns with Krishnamurti’s teaching that the observer is the observed.
Krishnamurti Study Session at KECC, March 17, 2019
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauKrishnamurti Study Session
Sunday, March 17, 2019
At KECC
This Sunday morning session at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC, was attended by five participants. The Krishnamurti text for study at present is The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. We are moving through the book at the pace that occurs spontaneously in the meetings, which is usually very slowly. One page of “meditations” often stimulates a depth of inquiry that keeps us exploring for a couple of hours. In this case the entry was for January 8 and was entitled “Look with Intensity.” K points to the fact that we rarely look or listen with our full attention because we filter our looking through what we already know and it is therefore not fresh and new. “If one can listen to something with all of one’s being, with vigor, with vitality, then the very act of listening is a liberative factor.”
The group discussion provoked by the text material was quite alive and interesting, opening up to include a range of related points of inquiry. It seemed to be enjoyed and appreciated by all.
UVic Meetup: Krishnamurti on Love (part 2)
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauStillness Within meetup – Krishnamurti on Love (Part 2)
We continued at the February meetup to reflect on K’s “Freedom from the Known” chapter on Love.
The chapter continued from the previous month’s explorations of what love is not… with Krishnamurti emphasizing that some expressions that we tend to think of as love often involve personal attachments, expectations, judgements or a need for validation. Some examples of this include: romantic love, parental love, love of country, death and grieving (lost love) or a need for strengthened self-identity. K. invites us to consider what love could be if there’s no attachment. Is it possible that love can only be fully experienced with the diminishment of self?
As the group explored the chapter more fully, we wondered if the truth of love in K’s eyes was more aligned with our own experience of pure awareness, of seeing the world and those around us without judgements, filtres or internal needs or wants… The quote below seemed to get to punctuate our discussion quite nicely!
Krishnamurti study Session, March 3, 2019 at KECC
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauKrishnamurti Book Study Session
March 3rd, 2019
KECC
In David’s absence this session was facilitated by Rick Mickelson, whose report follows.
In Attendance—Seven participants: Rick M, Rick R, Bill, Laurie, Angelique, Katherine, and a woman staying in the Gatehouse who did not sign the Guest Book.
Today we read the passages from J. Krishnamurti’s text The Book of Life for January 6th (Listening Without Effort) and January 7th (Listening to Yourself). These meditations sparked profound sharing in the group, covering many topics which included:
1. Resistance—Why do we resist doing what we must do?
2. Listening—How did K’s words transmit shifts in the quality of our listening today?
3. Meditation Practice—Why are both formal and informal meditational practices helpful to us in our ongoing search for experiential truth?
4. Truth—What is truth and how do we listen for it?
5. Spiritual Authorities—How do beliefs in the teaching of authorities like Billy Graham or Catholic priests lead us astray; that is to say, lead us away from our own experience?
6. Addictions—How is it that seeing the whole process of our addictive behaviors leads to the “falling away” of harmful habits, compulsions and obsessions?
We opened the meeting with a few minutes of silence then took a tea break at the mid-point of the session. We added another period of silence as the clock approached 1 pm and then ended the meeting. It was announced that David will be back for the next scheduled K Book Study
The Infinite Field of Pure Knowing
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauReport for the Rupert Spira Session—February 10th, 2019.
In this chapter, Rupert advises us to be knowingly the open, empty, luminous space of Awareness in which all experience arises.
He makes a critical distinction at this point—the difference between thinking and experiencing. Thoughts tell us that a separate self exists and is made out of the belief and feeling that I, Awareness, am identical to the body and the mind. Experience, on the other hand, reveals a unified field of Awareness which is itself aware. All experience is just pure knowing, vibrating within itself, taking the shapes of thinking, sensing and perceiving. From its point of view, Awareness never becomes or knows anything other than itself.
In conclusion, Rupert says, “Be, know and love that knowing alone.”
As Krishnamurti states in, The Freedom Of The Known, “…there is no freedom…(until all the layers of our consciousness)…are understood through awareness.
Krishnamurti Study Session, February 3, 2019, at KECC
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauKrishnamurti Study Session
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada
The session was facilitated by Laurie Sthamaan in David’s abscence. Her report follows. “Three of us met today to read the meditation (Jan 4) “Listening Without Thought” in J. Krishnamurti’s The Book of Life. We had a most lively and invigorating dialogue, going into it deeply, together, listening and learning. We inquired if the brain can see the movement of thought, including the ongoing intense suffering that is the human condition, and open to the aliveness that is love, which is beyond the brain, the illusion of the “me”, and which can cause transformation.”
Krishnamurti – On Love – Uvic Stillness Within January 23rd Meetup
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauThe first meetup of 2019 was a really enjoyable exploration and book study! We pondered many reflections and insights as we read through the first part of Krishnamurti’s writings on “Love” in Freedom From the Known.
Highlights from our reading and reflection are captured here:
* We think we know what love is but often what we really know as ‘love’ are simply our beliefs and concepts – or wants and needs such as security, prestige, comfort etc.
* Love as we often experience it, more often than not, has a subject and object – it’s become imbued with separation / duality
* When really allowing our perception to go beyond conceptual expression and comprehension, love seems to become the collapse of separation – a glimpse of oneness/unity…
* At times, it even can seem as if Love is a boundless flow of something immense that peeks through us
* Or more precisely, it seems when we are very open, that this Love appears as a wonderful exquisite gentleness that sees the world AS us!
We had some wonderful discussion – well beyond what’s capturable here. The group are keen to see where K will take us next through the inquiry (we didn’t get through the whole chapter on love so will pick it up again when we meet in February).
Thank you to the K Centre of Canada for supporting this Meetup!
Krishnamurti Study Session, January 20, 2019, at KECC
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauKrishnamurti Study Session
Sunday, January 20, 2019
At Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada
Seven participants were in attendance for this Sunday morning session at the Centre in Metchosin. We began the study of the Krishnamurti text, The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. The first selections for the month of January focus on the theme of listening and challenge us to put aside our projections and desires so that real perception of what is can be taking place. K’s guidance is simple and direct in these passages, lending themselves to quiet contemplation. Periods of silence were interspersed with the readings and then some group dialogue on the meaning and significance of what was read and discovered in contemplation. It was a very good start to the new phase of the K study program.
Approaches to Self-Inquiry, January 13, 2019
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauApproaches to Self-Inquiry
Sunday, January 13, 2019
KECC
Five people were in attendance for this Sunday afternoon session at the Centre in Metchosin. Ralph had purchased a feature-length movie entitled Closer than Close, which followed some of the process of a group of young men and women who were meeting over a period of time to share their journeys of self-discovery. The film producer interviewed the group members and a few other individuals who had been committed to some time to self-inquiry and the search for wholeness or “enlightenment”. The characters discussed what had motivated them to set out on the search and some of the key insights that had occured. The exploration of the fact of death for all of us, and what impact it has on our life experience, was one of the central themes. All those interviewed presented their thoughts, questions, and realizations very eloquently; as listeners we could easily relate to their experience.
Following the film we discussed issues raised by the film and how they related to our own lives and understanding. It was a very interesting exchange of ideas and insights.
The Open, Empty, Transparent Body
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauReport for the Rupert Spira Session—January 13th, 2019
Chapter 23—The Open, Empty, Transparent Body
In Attendance—Rick, Katherine, Charlene, Jim
In this morning’s audio, Rupert took us deep into the body in a profound contemplation meant to reveal that our experience, if we stay with it, shows us the way to realization. It is the realization that there is nothing there, inside or outside of us, but Pure Knowing, modulating itself as sensations, thoughts, feelings or perceptions.
If we take a stand as this Pure Knowing, he says, all we will know is that, our Self, the light of Pure Knowing, never ceases to be itself; never being, knowing or becoming anything other than itself.
This aligns with Krishnamurti’s teaching that the observer is the observed.
Exploring Awareness, January 6, 2019
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauExploring Awareness
January 6, 2019
Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada
This afternoon session was attended by nine people. The purpose of these “Exploring Awareness” meetings is to invite an experiential understanding or direct experience of what the “choiceless awareness” spoken of by J. Krishnamurti actually is, and thereby to help activate the kind of transformation in consciousness that he felt necessary in our lives. We make use of guided meditations from various sources as well as creating our own explorations and inquiries. In this case we listened to a New Year’s day guided meditation offered by self-inquiry teacher Mooji, a video which lasted about eighty minutes. The guided meditation seemed to have a powerful effect in producing a deep and silent space of observation in the group. Some discussion and questions then arose and the conversation branched out in some unexpected ways. Participants were very engaged and seemed reluctant to end the session, so it went on for quite some time. The selection for the meditation was apparently felt to be of relevance and value.