Ten Year Anniversary Celebration at KECC

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Ten Year Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, June 30, 2018

A special day was organized to mark the ten-year anniversary of the re-opening of the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada after a three year closure from 2005 to 2008. The Centre has, since 2008, been offering a full program of events related to the teachings of J. Krishnamurti and other teachers presenting essentially similar perspectives in the area of self-knowledge and insight into the truths of self, consciousness, and awareness. We had an excellent turnout of 27 people in all.
The day began with a Zoom session led by Italian spiritual teacher Shakti Catarina Maggi. She invited questions from the audience and there was plenty of opportunity for participants to inquire with her. Catarina placed a large emphasis on questioning and listening “from the heart” as she offered insight and guidance on the process of “embodiment” of our understanding in daily life and experience. Her wisdom and loving responses were much appreciated and enjoyed by the participants.
After the Zoom session we enjoyed a sumptuous lunch provided by the Centre and by contributions from the guests. There was the opportunity for socializing and discussion with old friends and new, some of whom had been present in the original days of the Centre when it was a private high-school in the late 1970’s. Some people took the time to walk around the property, although the sun did not appear until later in the afternoon.
A movie entitled “The Mind of Krishnamurti” was shown at 2pm. It is an excellent introduction to the life and teachings of Krishnamurti and may be viewed on Youtube. There was then a draw for a free weekend retreat at the Centre and an outline of upcoming programs and retreats.
To wind up the day some light entertainment was offered in the Guest Cottage, where Greg Sumner played on the piano and sang a collection of songs including “The Krishnamurti Blues,” his own composition.
It was a lovely day of sharing and communication with like-minded friends. Thanks goes to all those who helped with the event.

The Light of Pure Knowing: Weekend Retreat at KECC

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The Light of Pure Knowing
Weekend Retreat at KECC
June 22 – 24, 2018

This weekend retreat was presented by Passia Pandora, who is currently studying philosophy at the University of Victoria. She has also deeply explored the teachings and guidance of the English non-dual teacher Rupert Spira, and she expressed to the group that she has for some time had a passion to share at the Krishnamurti Centre the understandings gained from him. Passia put together a very well organized retreat based on the Spira book The Light of Pure Knowing, which comes with audio guided meditations by the author. We listened to thirteen of the meditations as a group, engaged in discussion of their material, and had regular breaks for personal contemplation and walks on the lovely property. The program was intentionally concentrated so as to keep participants immersed in the perspective being offered by Rupert, thus inviting deep insight and understanding. There were seventeen participants, including facilitators and a couple of drop-ins, and everyone remained focused on the investigations presented. On the lighter side there were some spontaneous musical performances, communications, and “fun” over the weekend. Delicious food was provided by Glenrosa Restaurant.The predominant meditative atmosphere was appreciated by the group and the extra focus on experiential understanding was felt to be a significant contribution to the programs at the Centre.

Krishnamurti Study Session at KECC, June 16, 2018

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Krishnamurti Study Session
Saturday, June 16, 2018
KECC

Today’s session began as an exploration of Q & A Chapter 30, “On God,” In J. Krishnamurti’s book The First and Last Freedom. The “You have realized reality. Can you tell us what God is?”

K begins his response with a fundamental challenge to the questioner. How does he know that K has realized truth, and how can we know whether anyone has done so? Furthermore, what relevance does it have to our own inquiry? Is not what is being said the important thing? And can one realize for oneself if he (or she) accepts the authority of another? Immediately a group inquiry began about the material and the five participants entered into an engaging and insightful looking at the nature of self-observation with and without seeking to change “what is.” The discussion deepened spontaneously from one question or insight to another and seemed to be a very creative and interesting process. Fine weather enabled us to sit out on the front lawn and to enjoy the natural surroundings while delving into the words of Krishnamurti. We will continue with the same chapter next meeting.

Stillness Within Meetup: Our Shared Essence – Eckhart Tolle Talk

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The Eckhart Tolle video meetup Saturday was rich with a playful yet sincere message for the six of us who came out to the gathering. Eckhart talked about inherent Presence in all beings, including plants and animals. He proposed that this “deeper I” exists apart from the structures of ego, personal stories, and even the concept of duality, and is sometimes referred to as “Buddha nature” or “Christ consciousness.” When we touch upon this boundless inner space, we can begin to see ourselves as an emanation from the eternal source of all things.

Practices included being with nature and in particular, sensing without thinking, the essential beingness of the natural world, whether it’s looking into a dog’s eyes, being present with a tree or even taking in the profile of a large mountain. He also suggested that we can draw on this spacious dimension in the midst of very busy environments, such as a downtown street or in a supermarket or airport – by noticing the space in which all activity is taking place. Noticing and becoming more attuned to the space invites a reduction in thinking and a full embrace of the current moment.

A number of group members after the talk expressed points that stood out for them. One member was appreciative of the depth of the talk’s contents (the two hours were definitely not an introductory talk). Another attendee felt that the reminder not to pay mind to every passing thought or reaction was helpful – the brain may chatter on but we don’t need to take it so seriously. One member felt that the inquiry process as Krishnamurti has taught, can complement the presence approach described by Eckhart (that is, noticing without judgement the internal mind and emotional processes, seeing how they emerge and what beliefs seem to be attached to them).

A very enjoyable gathering – thanks all for making it a success, to Louis for hosting us so nicely, and to the KECC for providing the space.

True Meditation Never Ends

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True Meditation Never Ends

 

At today’s session we used a slightly different format. After starting with a centering meditation at 2 pm, we listened to the audio in approximately twelve minute intervals interspersed with the sharing of our experience. At about the midpoint, we paused for a refreshment break and we ended at precisely 4 pm with another meditation.

 

It was a contemplative meditation of Rupert’s that delved into why our bodies create such a sense of separation in all of us—even when we know in our minds that we’re actually the light of pure, infinite awareness. Rupert noted that our bodies are nothing more than sensations that have no depth, no gender and no age. When we rely only on our experience, we see that bodies have no borders and are not dense. He asked us to visualize our breath as an alive, empty, open space that is seeping into the body over its entire surface.

 

In ignorance, when the reality of experience is overlooked, our essential nature of pure knowing seems to acquire the properties that belong to a temporary, solid body– but in understanding, the body takes on the properties that belong to my Self, or pure knowing. Gradually, as we go into it, the feeling of having a solid body dissolves into that pure knowing. That is because the body is made of pure knowing and everything we experience is just a modulation of that knowing.

 

In our sharing we noted the illusory nature of our sense of separation. We saw that in Rupert’s world, empathy is simply the deep knowledge that nothing is wrong. What is happening is just what is happening. We can embrace it and abide in it knowingly and even get to the point of saying we can stay with uncomfortable experiences for the rest of our lives. This sets us free. We are liberated when we rest in awareness and just let life be as it is. And when we are liberated we impact the world in a powerful, mysterious way. This is just as Krishnamurti said it would be.

 

It was a wonderful session!

Inquiry Sunday at the Centre, June 3, 2018

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Inquiry Sunday at KECC
June 3, 2018

The Inquiry Sunday session at the Centre in Metchosin was attended by the two facilitators and four interested guests. In the morning we looked at a video recording of Shakti Caterina Maggi, and Italian non-dual teacher who has been a student of Rupert Spira. Rupert features significantly in the programs at the Centre. Caterina’s topic was “Embodied Awakening”, a talk given at the Science and Nonduality Conference in San Francisco. In various ways she emphasizes the significance of moving in life from the “heart” rather than from the thinking mind. Her sense of the heart is not merely the emotional centre but includes the vastness of pure awareness as our true nature without denying our human qualities. The participants very much enjoyed her presentation and found it relevant to their own self-inquiry.
For the afternoon session we began with an introductory video clip from GP Walsh, an American teacher who will be offering a weekend retreat at our Centre in late July. The video addresses the question “What is Nonduality?” and takes its listeners into a meditation on the nature of present-moment awareness and the sense of knowing which is present in all experience. Nonduality, he says, is experiencing what is here prior to our description of it. The way GP expressed this essence of self-inquiry was new to some of the participants and evoked some discussion and exploration. We look forward to having him with us in July to go further into his teachings.
Following the first video clip we watched a few clips of Krishnamurti speaking on topics of interest to the participants and entered into some fairly subtle points of inquiry concerning awareness and self-observation. It was a full day of meditation and seemed to be enjoyed by all.

Krishnamurti Study Session, June 2, 2018

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Krishnamurti Study Session
June 2, 2018 at KECC

During this meeting at the Centre in Metchosin we completed our study of chapter 29 in the Q & A section of The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti. The chapter is entitled “Truth and Lie”. The second half of the section goes into the question “What really is a lie? Why is it wrong to lie? Is this not a profound and subtle problem on all the levels of our existence?” K asks if the important issue is not why we have contradictions in ourselves which create conflict. In looking at the question it opened up in perhaps surprising ways which touched on wider aspects of our lives than we might have expected. The three participants engaged in an inquiry into the topic which was felt to be of interest and value.

Meditation and Inner Freedom: Weekend Retreat with Dr. Ashwani Kumar

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Meditation and Inner Freedom
A Weekend Retreat with Dr. Ashwani Kumar
May 25-27, 2018

Dr. Ashwani Kumar is currently a professor of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. He has been seriously engaged with J. Krishnamurti’s work for more than 14 years and has spoken at Krishnamurti schools and study centers in the US, Canada, the UK, and India. He is the author of the book Curriculum As Meditative Inquiry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) which explores Krishnamurti’s insights regarding meditation, consciousness, and education. Dr. Kumar joined us for the sixth year in a row to present, this time, a weekend retreat entitled “Meditation and Inner Freedom.” The retreat began on Friday evening with an introductory exploration of the subject of self-inquiry. Thirteen participants engaged with him in looking at the most real and meaningful questions in our lives at the present time. We were encouraged to share and further explore our questions to see the deeper issues underneath them. Being directly in touch with ourselves in this way, we were immediately in direct and real contact with ourselves and experiencing an inner integration.
Ashwani does not present anything as knowledge to be accepted or rejected but, rather, as encouragement to look clearly for ourselves at what is actually happening in us from moment to moment. He invites an intense looking and listening which involves the whole being rather than just the intellect. He guided the group into a number of awareness and relaxation exercises, including some very dynamic forms of “meditation”, which promote a balanced approach to self-inquiry and meditation. Over the course of the weekend we jumped into meditations involving dance and movement, laughing, and speaking in gibberish. We engaged in group dialogue sessions and were guided in deep explorations of the questions that were most important to us. There was also a generous amount of time to be quietly with ourselves and to be in nature in order to integrate what had arisen in the dialogues and meditations. Ashwani regularly asked us to share our experience of what was going on for us as we engaged with the exploration of what it means to be in a flow of meditative understanding in our lives. Our inquiry was supported by watching a talk on video by Krishnamurti entitled “What is Meditation?” in which he spoke of attention and inattention. To be attentive to inattention is attention.
Ashwani presented an experience of real substance and depth which participants found of great interest and benefit. Many expressed that their understanding of inquiry and self-knowledge had deepened in a significant way. We are very grateful for his visit.

Eckhart Tolle, the Deeper “I” – Stillness Within Meetup (May 12, 2018)

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Earlier in May, Stillness Within members were able to share an extraordinary Eckhart Tolle talk: The Deeper I

Thanks to Suzanne Stewart for hosting a great gathering and preparing the summary below!

 

After a few minutes of shared stillness, we watched in awed presence as Eckhart introduced his “Deeper I.” He starts with “the surface I,” that “historical self” who is never very comfortable with “not knowing” and creates the “illusion of knowing by compulsively interpreting, judging, concluding, labelling.” In this way the surface “sense of self is never very satisfying, always needing more” of this illusory knowledge. Eckhart points out that this only works to prevent a “direct experience of our deeper Self.”

 

Eckhart harkens frequently to K’s SEEING in alert, intense awareness within us, this “seeming need for knowledge,”—seeing this clearly as an impediment to presence. He stresses that this seeing “is NOT and act of willpower.”

 

Eckhart elaborates on many themes as he points to the nature of the Deeper I: the arising of “creative beauty” and “the transformation of daily life;” the roles of suffering, time, striving and seeking, which he does not recommend as paths to the direct experience of the Deeper I. He simply invites us to ask, “What is it that allows every experience to BE experienced?”

 

Eckhart follows this with a detailed talk about his “portals into presence,” the simple practices he first introduced in The Power of Now almost 20 years ago. The video was over 2 hours long, so we opted to share a prepared summary of this 50 minute section. We ended with a short but intensely aware practice of Eckhart’s favourite Inner Body Awareness practice. A copy of the summary handout follows.

Krishnamurti also alludes to an inner “I” which can lead us to true discovery and ultimate truth:

“The mind must be utterly silent.  Not asking, not hoping for experience.  It must be completely still.  Only then is there a possibility of that light which will dispel our darkness.”

Thanks again for supporting a great event!

Krishnamurti Study Session at the Centre, May 19, 2018

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Krishnamurti Study Session
Saturday, May 19, 2018

Five participants gathered at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre in Metchosin to study Q & A # 29, “Truth and Lie”, in the book The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti. It was a lovely day, enabling us to sit on the grass in front of the main building. The question posed to K was “How does truth, as you have said, when repeated, become a lie? Why is it wrong to lie? Is this not a profound and subtle problem on all the levels of our existence?” In responding, K begins with the first question and later moves on to the second. “Merely repeating certain ideas is not reality”, he points out. There is a radical difference between thought and direct experiencing and “one must be aware of oneself in the process of repetition, of habits, or words, of sensations. That awareness gives on an extraordinary freedom, so that there can be a renewal, a constant experiencing, a newness.”
As a group we explored the details and subtleties of K’s unravelling of the issue, going into his pointing that we not think in terms of the opposite but, rather, see what is actually happening. This has its own action on what is. There was a presence and intensity in the group which gave real substance to the inquiry.