The Awakening of Consciousness – Eckhart Tolle talk

The June Stillness Within Meetup….

Brought 12 people together to enjoy a recorded talk by Eckhart Tolle which drew out many themes that resonated with the group. The Denver talk explored the many ways that stillness invites us in – both in the small day to day joys but also in the more challenging expressions of life. Some of us have experienced the gradual reduction in thought that he described and more importantly, a shrinking identification as our thoughts.

Krishnamurti points out one of the gifts that freedom from thought can bring: 
“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”
Eckhart points out that as we become more attuned to ourselves not as individual waves but as the entire ocean, we may begin to feel a flow from the wholeness of all that exists. When we are more identified as wholeness, we also may begin to recognize an essential beingness and beauty in others. Connection with others can be discovered or experienced as an expression of wholeness… And as Eckhart describes, we may begin to sense the universe discovering itself through our own awakening consciousness. Such a fun viewpoint – that one is being breathed by life, and lived by the universe!

 

April Eckhart Tolle Event

Stillness Within meetup in April featured a recorded talk “The Awakening Experience – Before and After”.  The talk described Tolle’s understanding of the nature of experience.  The talk focused on the unfolding of deeper consciousness and in his words “the liberation that comes when we transcend the limitations of a solely conceptual identity”.  We had some interesting discussion afterward and a group awareness exercise.  With a few new members joining in, it made for a wonderful Saturday afternoon in the gatehouse.

In Freedom from the Known, Krishnamurti points to the dropping away of identity and concepts in a very beautiful way:

“When you look at the stars there is you who are looking at the stars in the sky; the sky is flooded with brilliant stars, there is cool air, and there is you, the observer, the experiencer, the thinker, you with your aching heart, you, the centre, creating space. You will never understand about the space between yourself and the stars, yourself and your wife or husband, or friend, because you have never looked without the image, and that is why you do not know what beauty is or what love is. You talk about it, you write about it, but you have never known it except perhaps at rare intervals of total self-abandonment. So long as there is a centre creating space around itself there is neither love nor beauty. When there is no centre and no circumference then there is love. And when you love you are beauty.”

I love this expression – or love loves itself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Krishnamurti Study Group at the Centre

Krishnamurti Study Group

Saturday, June 3, 2017

 

Five people were in attendance for the study session. We looked into the second half of Q & A chapter 9,  ‘On Relationship”. According to K, the real value of relationship is in revealing ourselves to ourselves. If we are seeking comfort and gratification in our relationships we will not wish to look at the disturbing things that arise but which are a source of real learning. He speaks of the significance of a truly loving relationship, which actually goes beyond duality and into “communion with the highest”. As a group we explored our experience in relationship in the light of K’s pointings and entered a creative sharing and investigation of related issues. It felt like a very worthwhile dialogue.

Inquiry Sunday at the Centre

Inquiry Sunday

June 4, 2017

Our morning session began with a video featuring Fred Davis and entitled “Truth, Dream, and the Teaching”. He began by relating that most seekers tell him that they understand the idea “Oneness” intellectually but are not actually experiencing it. He said that in this realm everything is backwards from the way we think it is. The truth is that we are experiencing oneness but are just not understanding it intellectually. He went on from there to discuss some of the implications of his statement. The seven people attending our session then explored what was said, some finding it challenging to accept or comprehend what was being pointed to. It turned out to be a very alive and insightful dialogue for many of the group and certainly brought awareness to the process of questioning and remaining open to new ways of seeing.

The afternoon session involved choosing questions asked of Krishnamurti at various talks and listening to his responses, then exploring them in group dialogue. Three people stayed for the afternoon. We first looked at K’s response to a question about fear and the urge to escape from it rather than staying with the fear. K emphasized the importance of being fully with “what is” without trying to change it. A second question was about the correct approach to right livelihood in the world today. As he often does, K gave a wide view of what is necessary in our lives in addressing the psychological conflicts so prevalent in the world and in ourselves. There was plenty to look into further and the small group actively engaged in such inquiry.

 

Saturday Dialogue with Harshad

Saturday Dialogue with Harshad

May 27, 2017

 

Four people participated in a Saturday afternoon dialogue with Harshad, our visitor from India. In guiding us into an exploration of Krishnamurti’s teachings, Harshad used material from Commentaries on Living, Series 1. The chapter was entitled “Awareness” and featured a man’s sharing with K his conflict in the area of sexual desire. K’s response covered the topic of desire in a wide and inclusive manner and asked the man to examine himself deeply. Our discussion of the material led us into questioning the nature of the “I” and its activities in our lives. The dialogue, as had the previous one with the same four participants, moved naturally into a looking and listening to ourselves and each other which generated a sense of effortless but deep investigation.

Sunday Event at the Centre

Dialogue Session at the Centre

Sunday, May 28, 2017

 

Harshad hosted another group dialogue on a warm and sunny day in Metchosin. We were able to sit on the grass in front of the main house as we had on Saturday. Four people attended, two of whom had not been participants in the previous dialogues with Harshad this year. The text studied was from The Flight of the Eagle by J. Krishnamurti, Chapter 8: “The Transcendental”. K describes the nature of the (ego) self in accurate detail and how the attitude of seeking the “beyond” can strengthen the self rather than dissolving it. He questions the traditional concepts of self discipline and effort to achieve a higher state and asks us to be aware of our motivations.  The material stimulated some exploration and discussion into a number of issues, including the place of the head and the heart in the quest for wholeness. The need to see for ourselves how the mind and heart are functioning in us was emphasized.

We have very much enjoyed Harshad’s presence at the Centre over the past five weeks and, as always, have appreciated his straightforward and clear approach to the subject of self-knowledge.

 

 

Victoria Day Dialogue at the Centre

Three of us joined Harshad, a long-time associate and student of Krishnamurti, as well as a teacher in his schools, who is visiting the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada for some weeks, for a dialogue on a beautiful warm day. We sat under the apple trees behind the Guest Cottage and enjoyed an engaging interaction which was focused around Harshad’s reading of a chapter from Commentaries on Living by J. Krishnamurti. The chapter was entitled “Suffering” and it went deeply into a questioner’s experience of losing his wife and the intense suffering he was enduring as a result. Krishnamurti explored with him the nature of love and attachment. The reading was a launching pad for a group investigation of how we tend to move away from uncomfortable and painful feelings and towards more pleasurable ones. We looked at this issue and related questions in some depth. We all appreciated having Harshad present as a guest and his sharing of his vision of what is essential and central in K’s teachings and our self exploration.

 

Krishnamurti Study Group

 

Krishnamurti Study Group

Saturday, May 20, 2017

 

Four participants gathered on the lawn at the Centre in Metchosin on a lovely sunny day to study Chapter 9 in the Q & A section of J. Krishnamurti’s book The First and Last Freedom. This selection was entitled “On Relationship”. The potential for true communion between people in relationship was spelled out by K along with the fact that such communion is often not the case. One of the main factors in the lack of communion is the seeking of gratification through relationship. If we are seeking our own pleasure and gratification, we will be fearful about our desires not being fulfilled and will in effect be using each other rather than relating in a loving way. The group discussion included looking at being aware of thoughts and feelings which create a sense of separateness and the challenges of being so aware. Is it “difficult” to be aware of the movements of thought and feeling, or can it be an effortless quality of attention which becomes quite natural? The inquiry was interesting and perhaps insightful for the participants.

 

 

Weekend Retreat at the Centre

The Quest for Truth

Retreat with Professor P. Krishna

May 12 – 14, 2017

Professor P. Krishna visited us again this year to facilitate a weekend workshop exploring “The Quest for Truth”. Prof. Krishna has been a long-time associate of J. Krishnamurti, has directed the Krishnamurti adult centre and been principal of the K school at Rajghat near Varansi. He has written numerous articles and books on K’s teachings and given talks around the world. Formerly a physicist, he has a deep comprehension of the scientific approach to truth as well as the inner or spiritual approach. The weekend retreat began with a public talk by Prof. Krishna at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada near Victoria in which he discussed the differences and similarities between the scientific and spiritual approaches to truth. It was a very interesting talk in which he stressed that the two approaches need not be antagonistic towards each other but can be complimentary. The desire to inquire into the truth of nature or of ourselves in based in a natural curiosity which is built in to the human consciousness. The scientific exploration is into the external environment, whereas the spiritual is inward. It is possible to have both a scientific mind as well as a “religious” one. The true measure of spiritual truth, he suggested, was whether or not a human being becomes more compassionate and loving in his daily life. The point of the spiritual quest is to bring about order in consciousness, which naturally produces compassion as a by-product. Without wisdom, mere knowledge becomes a problem. Eleven people were in attendance for the Friday evening talk. A version of the talk can be seen on YouTube.

The rest of the weekend was attended by eight people and was a further exploration into both the scientific approach and the spiritual, with a greater emphasis on the latter. It was suggested that the most meaningful things in life are not attainable through thought and will, but are by-products of self- understanding. Authority is not helpful in the religious search. Knowledge has its place but is not transformative: we must find out for ourselves. The question as to what brings actual transformation in ourselves was looked into. We watched two videos of 1983 K talks in Saanen which stimulated group discussion, had plenty of time for walks on the property and resting, and enjoyed delicious meals from the Pearson College kitchen. Our Sunday topic was the illusions that create disorder and which appear at various levels of consciousness. We need to establish right relationship with these illusory concepts and beliefs with begin at the level of superstition and have their deepest effect in the belief that we are a separate entity. The remedy for illusions is seeing their danger through passive awareness or watchfulness. The blocks to such seeing are our attachments to the “me” and its manifestations, looking for pleasure and comfort rather than truth, and not looking at the root of our problems. Awareness can see the illusion of ego as it arises from moment to moment.

More information about Prof. Krishna and his work can be found on his website, www.P.Krishna.org

Krishnamurti Study Group

Krishnamurti Study Group

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Six people gathered for the study group this week. We were able to sit outdoors for the first time and enjoy the grounds and the surrounding beauty while inquiring into chapter 8 of the Q & A section of The First and Last Freedom. The topic was “Awareness” and the difference between introspection or analysis and awareness. This was felt to be a crucial distinction in understanding Krishnamurti’s approach to self transformation and for understanding ourselves, the main point of the exercise. K also explored the difference between experiencing and the arising of an experiencer and an object of experience, which creates a duality where in fact there is none. The reading of the text led us into some in-depth looking into the issues. The six participants included Harshad, a guest from India, who always adds valuable insights to our dialogues. An excellent session with perceptive contributions by all!

Inquiry Sunday at the Centre

Inquiry Sunday at KECC

May 7, 2017

A rather small turnout of four people attended the Sunday meeting at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin. For the morning session we watched a video of a talk given by Susan Blackmore at the Science and Nonduality Conference in San Francisco. She spoke for about forty-five minutes on the issue of “Living without Free Will,” and then fielded questions from the audience. It was a very interesting talk combining scientific reasons for questioning the reality of free will and spiritual inquiry into the question. The crux of the matter for her is not just the scientific evidence that free will is an illusion, but, more importantly perhaps, the questioning of the existence of a separate self, an entity who has or does not have free will. If it is seen that there is no entity as a “self” other than what thought creates, then the whole debate about free will collapses. As the talk and the questions from the audience proceeded it became evident that the issue has many complex aspects to it. The participants in our group enjoyed the video and engaged in an interesting group exploration of the material the how it related to the perspectives of J. Krishnamurti and our own understandings.

The afternoon session was comprised of questions put to Krishnamurti at various talks and his responses to the questions. One question was chosen to look at on video: “Can thought be aware of itself as it arises and not merely after it has passed?” K gave a passionate response to the question and our group then delved deeply into our own investigation. Our inquiry took us to the end of the meeting time for the day. Some very interesting points were touched on, including the possibility of being aware of thoughts without any duality between thought and awareness.