Victoria Church of Truth Krishnamurti Event
Friday, February 2, 2018

The monthly meeting at the Church of Truth in Victoria was entitled “Learning About Ourselves”. There were five of us in attendance and we began with viewing a half-hour video of J. Krishnamurti responding to a question at Ojai in 1981 about being free of our conditioning. He pointed out, among other things, that we must not resort to the idea of taking time to be free. The discussion that followed went into different aspects of our conditioning and what it means to look at it directly and with full attention. A couple of people were new to the meetings but participated with a depth of understanding and interest that complimented the contributions of the more familiar participants. After almost an hour the group discussion came to a natural silence which felt quite lovely. There was a handout from the Krishnamurti book Freedom from the Known which participants took home with them.

A Contemplative Winter Retreat
January 26 – 28, 2018

This residential weekend retreat at the Krishnamurti Educational Center of Canada in Metchosin was attended by ten participants, mostly from the Victoria area. Unfortunately one of the two facilitators, Lynne, was unable to attend due to health issues, leaving David as the sole presenter. He organized a program consisting of talks by J. Krishnamurti, Rupert Spira, Mooji, Adyashanti, and Clare Blanchflower on video or audio, guided and silent meditations, group discussions, and contemplation of significant questions about our experience of life and self. There was time for rest, walks, and quiet integration of the material presented. Most of the retreat was in silence other than while in the group activities. The central topic tying everything together was awareness and its fundamental place in spiritual practice and self-inquiry. The various teachers, the guided meditations, and the discussions all emphasized that effortless awareness is our very nature and can fruitfully be explored as the doorway to and essence of peace and well-being. The participants expressed an appreciation of the silence in the retreat and some would have liked more of it. All activities were optional, so participants could to a significant degree create their own blend of verbal and non-verbal engagement. The feedback indicated that the great majority valued and enjoyed the weekend greatly. Delicious meals were provided by Glenrosa Restaurant.

Rupert Spira Session

January 14^th, 2018

In attendance—Rick M. & Laurie S.

In today’s session, we listened to a section on Disc 3, The Second Awakening.

Rupert explained that, although Reality is One, three states of Being appear to manifest themselves in Consciousness. The first is the dream state. In the dream state, everything is projected from mind. That is to say, for example, when you travel to Hawaii in a dream, you only travel there in your mind.

You have to wake up and enter the waking state to realize that the hallucination you were having was only a dream. The waking state is based on the life of a subject, moving about a world of objects in space and time.

According to Rupert, you can have a second awakening. You can move into the experience of pure consciousness and finally know who you really are. That is to say, you can become aware of being aware. In that state, you see that the basis of Reality is Consciousness, not mind or matter. When you have that second awakening, the waking state is seen as very dream-like in nature. In the third state, a person experiences being in the Now, in the flow of life—moving freely in dimensionless, timeless Reality. At that point life becomes peaceful, clear, tranquil and joyous.

After listening to the tape we discussed these matters further and then had some delicious refreshments. It was a very worthwhile way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Krishnamurti Study Session
Saturday, January 6, 2018

Six participants gathered to explore J. Krishnamurti’s book The First and Last Freedom, Q & A # 22. The chapter was entitled “On Love.” It began with a question put to Krishnamurti, “What do you mean by love?” K. responds by saying that we would find out what love is by first seeing what it is not. In his usual style of negation, he strips away all the conventional concepts about love, fundamentally saying that love is not of the mind and that all projections of thought are not love. “Love is the unknown …. What we are going to do is … look at the known, and when that is looked at purely, without condemnation, the mind becomes free from the known; then we shall know what love is… It is only when there is love that all our problems can be solved, and then we shall know its bliss and its happiness.”
The material in the text gave the group plenty to grapple with in the discussion that accompanied the reading and we had a very interesting investigation of the topic. There were a couple of newcomers along with some of the more regular attendees, all of whom were most welcome.

A dozen of us gathered for a year-end meetup, enjoying the film – Being Here – A Beginner’s Guide to Non-Duality.  As a follow up from film-makers’ production of “Who’s Driving the Dream Bus“, Being Here was released in fall of 2017, capturing an ambling drive through the UK countryside as filmmakers re-visit a few local characters who describe their own sense of what non-duality means (and, what it doesn’t mean)! The interviewer posed questions that many have asked:  Is there some knowable reason to pursue a non-dual type of knowing? Does it mean something? Is there a way one can get there?

The answers always seemed to circle back to a few key messages:

• there isn’t any ‘one’ who can get this ‘truth’… it’s beyond any kind of mental concept;
• it isn’t actually elusive – it’s right here to be felt within every moment of existence (it is existence after the filtres we tend to see through have fallen away);
• there aren’t notable benefits to the individual to acquiring this type of knowledge – what Tony Parsons calls “The Open Secret“… (the ‘me’ frequently hopes for some gain or reward yet finding the absence of a ‘me’ within spacious awareness is the ultimate discovery)

The group also watched a Jetz TV interview with Mooji, followed by a guided meditation exploring facets of our own awareness. We also enjoyed some wonderful discussion and sharing of people’s inquiry journeys.

Krishnamurti once suggested that “From innumerable complexities we must grow to simplicity; we must become simple in our inward life and in our outward needs.” This seems to speak to letting go of expectation and striving, relaxing into the current moment.  In my own experience, when ‘efforting’ and striving fall away, one can find something beautiful and mysterious in it’s wake!

Thanks so much for hosting us – people were very grateful for the gathering!