The meeting began with a few minutes of silence and a suggestion to give attention to one’s breath during the silence. Afterwards, several participants said they appreciated the “quality” of the silence, noting that there was a sense of relaxation in the stillness, especially since some had driven to the meeting in heavy and noisy traffic. This stimulated an exploration of the vast amount of noise and conflict in the world, something Krishnamurti pointed to as a result or projection of our own inner divisions and conflicts. Ten people were present.

A participant wondered why we continue, century after century, to endure the status-quo and even make it worse with escalating conflict and the destruction of ecosystems. Several observations were expressed that ranged from our individual and collective conditioning to a sense of helplessness to affect significant change. A question was asked: What if the thought of helplessness about our world situation is just the mind’s way of escaping responsibility? One of Krishnamurti’s statements along these lines was offered: “If you as a human being transform yourself, you affect the consciousness of the rest of the world.” The part affects the whole of human consciousness. This provided an important context for Krishnamurti’s emphasis on self-understanding, transformation and the responsibility each of us has in helping to bring about a new society.

We then read a brief passage from the Book of Life which centered on Krishnamurti’s statement that “fear is the non-acceptance of what is.” One participant, who is facing a medical diagnosis which involves ongoing memory loss, offered his own insights about understanding fear and accepting “what is.” His sensitive and heart-felt comments about what “letting go of the known” means for him generated a feeling of communion among us. The searing authenticity of what was said lingered in the air for a while. The meeting ended with a deep sense of our connectedness and a long period of silence.

By Cynthia Overweg

We began the meeting with a few minutes of silence. After the silence ended, several participants commented on the sense of being deeply nourished by the stillness that was present in the group. One participant noted how the silence seemed to bring everyone closer together, even though some of us had met for the first time. Perhaps this is what Krishnamurti was pointing to when he said: “Silence is a great benediction.” There were ten participants at the meeting.

During the early part of our dialog, several participants spoke of the growing discord and violence in the world and whether it was possible to not be affected by it. How do we live in such a world was the central question. This brought up Krishnamurti’s statement that “you are the world and the world is you.” The quality of our own consciousness matters because it affects the whole of human consciousness was the main thread during this portion of our gathering together.

We then read an excerpt from Krishnamurti’s, The Book of Life, titled, The Old Brain, Our Animalistic Brain. A portion is quoted here:

“It is important to understand the operation, the functioning, the activity of the old Brain … To understand, you must understand the old brain, be aware of it, know all its movements, its activities, its demands, its pursuits … when you see the total movement of the old mind, when you see it totally, then it becomes quiet.”

The reading produced a lively exchange about the relationship between self-observation and the “old brain and new brain,” as Krishnamurti referred to it. The group delved into the question of self-observation and the fleeting capacity to see without the filter of thought. One participant described it as a light that quiets the mind and creates something new, a “mutation” (Krishnamurti’s word) in the brain: a flash of insight that momentarily reveals ourselves to ourselves.

A question was asked: “Can we find the root of one thought? This question engaged everyone in the group. Krishnamurti’s insight around this question that “the source of thought is memory,” which is made by experience, seemed to provide a way of understanding why we so often automatically react or over-react in ways that repeatedly produce conflict or sorrow. Two participants gave examples in which they could trace a certain kind of behavior back to the memory of a childhood experience that still produces conflict in various situations. This brought the group back to the “old brain” (the conditioned mind), and the importance of understanding how it operates and how it conditions our lives.

We ended the meeting as it began with a few minutes of in silence.

By Cynthia Overweg

The ten participants shared a period of silence to begin the dialogue. A question was asked regarding the silence: Was it peaceful or was it somewhat oppressive? Oppressive in the sense of self-conscious chatter dominating the quiet period. The group felt that just going into the silence instead of moving on to the reading portion was quite relevant and that the silence deserves attention on point. 

The reading was from the Book of Life (October 11 entry) and distinguished between freedom from something and freedom as freedom itself. The group was very aware that freedom from something involves a subject/object relationship ie, me and something I want to be free of. Usually some emotional state of suffering is detected and we want the opposite of that or the disappearance of that. This led the group to question the very nature of the subject and its seeming ability to enter into a relationship with these emotional/psychological states. 

It was offered that the energy inside of us is not human, yes, not human but rather energy inside a body, a container and the container is designed to provide awareness of that energy in any state that the consciousness is in, …. Except when there is an observer, a me that is a pattern of the past, something we were not born with in this body, and which co-opts that energy and creates a reality of experience based on its memory, its knowledge: psychological time. 

Lastly, freedom was observed as freedom, without definition, because definition would pattern the freedom, it would put it in the realm of the known, and then freedom is no longer free, it is limited to its definition. This freedom, being already free, is not attained, if it was it would be something we knew, pursued and achieved. Freedom is here now, effortless as it pertains to achieving it, and it does not come and go based on what is inside consciousness or what the experience is except for when there is the duality of a me and my thoughts which we mentioned earlier. So freedom is free, it is the unchanging force, the natural state.  Experiences, including direct experiences, come and go, and if we depend on them then we are bound by desire. If we understand that freedom is the totality, then freedom and its beauty, its effortlessness, and wisdom are undisturbed and eternal.

• John Duncan

We did not have the pavilion room available to us due to a scheduling mishap, and the group decided to sit outside on a nearby picnic table. This afforded the group a greater intimacy due to the close quarters of the picnic table, as well as the opportunity to relate to the beautiful trees surrounding us as we communed with one another. 

We began with a period of silence. One person remarked on the affectionate quality of the silence, and the palpable sense of heart presence – simply from silence. Beautiful, and if it had ended here it would still have been worth the while. 

We read a passage from Krishnamurti on the state of “I do not know.” We considered this statement and the fact that, as each moment is new, that this moment and all moments can inherently not be known, so this ‘not knowing’ is not a state of confusion but rather one of understanding. This lightens the propensity to want to cull from memory some bits of knowledge that might be mined in order to reconstruct past insights or understandings. Furthermore, the living and dying of each moment in the present brings forth the challenge of meeting death in the present rather than having it hovering around somewhere in the future, creating a fear of the unknown. 

Living with death is a central theme of Krishnamurti’s teaching, perhaps the most important to understand and to live, because without this all our actions are a substitution for or a distraction from this challenge. 

Also, time and the timeless came into the discussion, time as a psychological construction containing both the dead past and the imaginary future in the living present. Can we live without the challenges of past trauma and fear of death in the future invading the present? Is that what humanity is doing? No, and how is that working out on a global relationship scale both now and throughout history? So, the ending of time, which is putting away the past and meeting death in the present (this is the stopping point for most) was considered and why we might still resist it even in light of seeing the fact of its necessity. 

The beautiful day, the beautiful surroundings and the affection felt within the group: yes.

• John Duncan

The group considered the quote:

To Be Alone.

“Meditation is the act of being alone. The act is entirely different from the activities of isolation. The very nature of the “me” is to isolate itself, through concentration, through various methods of meditation, and through the daily activities of separation. But to be alone is not a withdrawal from the world.”

The group considered the meaning of “meditation”, including the two meanings of “meditation “ to be found in this passage; “Meditation” as an in-the-world act of whole observation vs sitting meditation; as an “isolating”/ separating activity of the “me”. Comparison was made to Buddhist practices and discussion of methods, goals, and “becoming” that may accompany various forms of sitting meditation.

The group pivoted to notice the difference between the content and the process of thought within the dialogue itself. Thought’s tendency to organize into “good”& “bad”  was observed. Also observed was our tendency to focus on the object or person that is viewed as “good or bad” vs a mind process that is organizing these categories.

Dialogue was viewed as a living opportunity to watch thought’s usual processes of analysis, comparison and organization.

Observation of these normally unseen movements within dialogue was felt to be “stunning”. Observations of the word “stunning” included shock, pause, and a disturbance of thought’s usual momentum.

The process of inquiry was seen as a “deconstructing” of thought through via negativa,

Discussion focused on thought’s frequent “building” process that enhances the “me” through building opinion, building identity, and building “nirvana” .

Observations included the constant opinion building on social media.

Other focus included thought’s unquestioned assumption that it can build a loving world,-in spite of the non-love right in front of us.

K’s statement that “Seeing the false as false is truth” was observed to be a wholly different understanding of love/truth in the world; The love lies in the seeing of the world as it is.

The group  concluded by contemplating the use of words in relation to insight experiences.

—Vala Kondo-Legan