The 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, April 7, 2019
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauKrishnamurti Study Session
Sunday, April 7, 2019
At KECC
The entry for January 9 in J. Krishnamurti’s book entitled The Book of Life was the material for exploration in this Sunday morning session at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. The title of the entry was “To Learn, the Mind Must be Quiet.” Six people were in attendance. The session began with a reading of the text, followed by five minutes of silence. Then we went around the circle of participants and each of those who wished had the opportunity to share a perception, insight, question, or other comment. We then opened the sharing up for spontaneous dialogue starting with a more in-depth investigation of one of the comments. This format seemed to inspire participation by all the group members and it was felt that we went quite deeply into an actual experience of what K was pointing to as he spoke of discovering “the new”. There was inquiry into the possibility of seeing the limitations of thought, which can naturally make thought less predominant in our experience and the sense of freshness of perception and feeling more obvious. There seemed to be a movement “beyond” the known.
Love is the Answer Retreat with Burt Harding, March 22 – 24, 2019
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauLove is the Answer
A weekend retreat with Burt Harding
March 22 – 24, 2019 at KECC
Burt Harding joined us from Vancouver for the sixth consecutive year to present a weekend retreat, this time called “Love is the Answer,” on the subject of self-realization and learning to live as our true nature. He began on the Friday evening with an introduction to the topic and its central importance for happiness and well-being. He suggested that realizing that we are love is the solution and effective response to every human psychological and spiritual problem. Burt quoted J. Krishnamurti’s statement that “love is the ending of time” and explored the meaning of it with the group of sixteen participants. He led us in an ice-breaking exercise involving looking into the eyes of others in order to sense the connection or oneness between us all. He also guided the group into a meditation observing thoughts and coming into the peace of the “I Am.” A brochure written by Burt and entitled “The Greatest Secret” was distributed and formed the basis for much of the discussion and inquiry over the weekend. Again, the main focus was on love as the essence of what we are.
There were seventeen participants for the Saturday session. After guiding us in some breathing and bodily movement with affirmations, Burt led the group in a number of different meditative and connecting exercises, inviting us into a state of relaxation and total awareness, using awareness for healing and for travel out of the body, and working with fear. There was an extensive discussion of subtle questions regarding how we look at ourselves, who or what we really are, and what is meant by non-duality. The afternoon also included a video introduction to the life and teachings of J. Krishnamurti with Alan Anderson as well as a BBC interview with K which many retreat participants found very interesting.
The rest of the weekend was spent exploring our true nature and the meaning and significance of Emptiness, which Burt puts at the centre of what is true in life and in ourselves. In group discussion he went into details and fielded questions and perceptions from the participants. The simplicity and purity of Emptiness rightly understood is the place we can actually rest in Being and happiness. There were more guided meditations, further exploration of Emptiness, Silence, Love, and Stillness, and how we let go into these beautiful qualities of Being. The schedule allowed time for rest, talk, and walks on the lovely property. Delicious food was provided by Glenrosa Restaurant. The weekend seemed to be a rich experience for all and each took something with them to sustain the art of being in the course of daily life. Feedback from Burt regarding personal issues of individuals was no doubt very helpful. He summarized by saying that real growth comes from finding out who we truly are and being it.
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.