Self-inquiry
October 25, 2023
With Jackie McIinley
Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion
We are very pleased to have Jackie back with us from the UK for another series of meetings sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. As before, Jackie will facilitate events at the Swanwick Road location in Metchosin as well as at the Esquimalt Gorge Pavilion at 1070 Tillicum Road in Victoria. Thirteen people in total were present for her return meeting on a Wednesday afternoon from 4:30 – 6:00 pm, an attendance the size of which was very satisfying. The participants quickly entered into the spirit of the dialogue and were attentive to Jackie’s introduction wherein she spoke about the differences in people who had attended her sessions in many locations around the world as well as the similarities at a deeper level of their experience. She outlined the phenomenon of “conditioning”, which is a central aspect of J. Krishnamurti’s perspective on the human being and involves the ways we have been taught to think and to behave in our particular society and in the world in its larger context. Krishnamurti’s teachings suggest we understand ourselves and our conditioning by carefully observing ourselves in our relationship with the world we live in. This may bring about an experience of freedom that is not normally accessible to us.
Jackie asked the participants if they would be willing to share what it was that drew them to such a meeting. In response, group members provided a variety of motives for their interest in such a gathering:
– seeking some depth in their lives
– wanting to explore the question “Who (or what) am I truly?”
– Desiring to be seen by others and to share such seeing
– Observing one’s life
– Attraction to what they see as Krishnamurti’s compassion
– going on the “soul’s journey”
– learning to silence the mind and to let intelligence emerge
– wanting to look “under the hood” to see what may be hidden there
waiting to be discovered. There may be revelations in store.
– There may be a deeper, non-verbal sharing going on that is of great
value
– desiring to see through the “mask” of oneself
– For the writer, there seemed to be a value in being vulnerable to each other and exposing our “deeper” persons (or beyond our persons).
– Jackie pointed out that dialogue is an opportunity to notice things we normally do not notice in ourselves in our regular lives.
– Other questions arose:
– Can we touch the sense of Presence, which is our true identity and is available in silence?
– Who is the weaver of our stories and who sees through the weaver?
– The mind comes up with many answers to the questions of life, seeking certainty. Is it possible to live without certainty, without quick answers?
– Is entering the Unknown an activity of something other than thought?
– What feels threatened by the unknown, by not knowing?
– Can everything be open to questioning?
It was decided that it might be interesting to stay with the last questions until the next meeting.
DB
Self-inquiry, November 5, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry with Jackie McInley
Sunday, November 5, 2023
At KECC Metchosin, BC
Sixteen of us were present for this Sunday afternoon meeting at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC. It was a larger turnout than usual. We began with a silent sit for about five minutes after which Jackie, our visitor from the UK, commented that it was very nice to have a quiet moment at the beginning of such a gathering. She wondered what non-verbal sense of the group the attendees might have and what kind of relationship they might have to the topic we were going to explore, that being the fundamental nature of who or what we are. We were not, she said, present to debate the issue but were hopefully here to explore our perceptions of ourselves and each other as we communicated together. When we listen closely to each other and ourselves we can be noticing how we relate to what is being shared. It is possible to notice without forming conclusions either before speaking takes place or afterwards. We are learning about ourselves in an open space of listening which involves an acute attention and a perception of how we are reacting to what is happening in the group circle. Much of what is happening is a revealing of our “conditioning” as thoughts arise and are expressed. Can we notice these thoughts and what they reveal about ourselves as the group members interact?
One participant mentioned the importance of being vulnerable and another shared the necessity of “passion” and intensity in our looking and being with the insights that arise. When we look with intensity, we become a nobody, or an “emptiness”, as the self dissolves. Another mentioned that this can produce a shared sense of Being which can contain a deep meaning as barriers between individuals fall away. It may be difficult to go beyond our conditioning and to achieve a goal of some sort, and yet it may not be complicated to simply look at ourselves in action. At the same time, freedom from habitual patterns of thought and feeling may be challenging to realise and we may not find the intensity of passion that Krishnamurti finds necessary in our intention to change. It seems we cannot make ourselves passionate if we are not!
Nevertheless, surely we must question and be aware of our motivations and our resistance to being transformed.
Participants in the dialogue seemed at the least to be involved in learning how to question and to inquire into their own selves.
DB
Self-inquiry, November 1, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry with Jackie McInley
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Esquimalt Gorge Park
Victoria, BC
We were again fortunate enough to have Jackie with us to guide us through the sometimes complicated and challenging process of self-inquiry or “dialogue” intended to shed light on the fundamental spiritual question “Who am I?” Jackie started the session by asking the thirteen participants (all included) if any of them were carrying a question which they would very much like to explore in the group context. Her question stimulated further questions and comments that seemed (to the writer) fairly complex and not at all easy to comprehend. The writer perhaps failed to make enough intelligible notes to form a basis for a meaningful report of what went on in the meeting. He did his best.
Towards the end of the meeting the author remarked that it seemed very important in such a dialogue for participants to be “vulnerable” and open in their expression of what their experience was when they looked at the thoughts and feelings that were arising within themselves. Would we be willing to expose our concepts and ideas in a way that could clear assumptions and beliefs from the mind and dissolve them, leaving a non-conceptual state of “being” rather than intellectual and conceptual “truths” which were asserting some kind of knowledge?
There was some discussion of what it means to “touch the unknown”, sometimes mentioned by Krishnamurti. One person asserted that what is required is complete silence of the mind. Jackie regularly reminded us that the most subtle concepts are still concepts and are providing more content to consciousness rather than moving into a space beyond content which might be called “emptiness”. We all agreed that these things can be very challenging to talk about and to explore in a way that produces freedom rather than a more subtle expression of thought, which is always limited. (Even this very attempt to describe the process of the inquiry seems limited).
An attempt was made to suggest that the essence of self-inquiry is to be aware moment to moment of whatever arises in the thoughts, feelings, and sensations, including all evaluations of what arises and all assertions or rejections of what is being experienced. The “seeing” is the insight that is itself the transformation which is bringing about the necessary change in us that Krishnamurti is passionately wishing for.
DB
Self-inquiry, October 29, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry
Sunday, October 29, 2023
With Jackie McInley
At KECC, Metchosin, BC
Thirteen people, all included, attended this event sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada and held at the Centre’s main location at 538 Swanwick Road in Metchosin, BC at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon. The meeting was facilitated by Jackie McInley from the UK, who seems to attract on a regular basis a good number of serious seekers committed to exploring who or what they truly are in a context of group exploration and investigation. She pointed out right from the beginning that it is not a group with membership, rules, particular loyalties or principles. The group is not focused on the individual but, at the same time, does not ignore him or her. The subject of interest is the human mind or the human being itself and how it creates its experience of life.
Where should we begin such an exploration? Jackie asked. One interesting approach might be to focus on something that is weighing us down, that we would like to address, or anything we felt stuck on in our lives. We may be disturbed by changes in our world, by uncertainty, chaos, or our expectations not being met. What is our relationship with anxiety and insecurity? Jackie asked, and with a sense of instability we may feel in our lives? And what is it that triggers these feelings? These questions stimulated a string of penetrating observations and ideas from the participants which challenged the conventional ways we might inquire into such issues and brought us into ever-deeper insights and perceptions in the realm of understanding the nature of thought and its movements in ourselves. We considered the proposition that observation of thought brings about a silence in the mind and explored the possibility of touching the “Unknown”, which Krishnamurti and others suggest is of utmost importance in our self-exploration. Group members seemed to feel that the dialogue was very worthwhile.
DB
Self-inquiry, October 25, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry
October 25, 2023
With Jackie McIinley
Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion
We are very pleased to have Jackie back with us from the UK for another series of meetings sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. As before, Jackie will facilitate events at the Swanwick Road location in Metchosin as well as at the Esquimalt Gorge Pavilion at 1070 Tillicum Road in Victoria. Thirteen people in total were present for her return meeting on a Wednesday afternoon from 4:30 – 6:00 pm, an attendance the size of which was very satisfying. The participants quickly entered into the spirit of the dialogue and were attentive to Jackie’s introduction wherein she spoke about the differences in people who had attended her sessions in many locations around the world as well as the similarities at a deeper level of their experience. She outlined the phenomenon of “conditioning”, which is a central aspect of J. Krishnamurti’s perspective on the human being and involves the ways we have been taught to think and to behave in our particular society and in the world in its larger context. Krishnamurti’s teachings suggest we understand ourselves and our conditioning by carefully observing ourselves in our relationship with the world we live in. This may bring about an experience of freedom that is not normally accessible to us.
Jackie asked the participants if they would be willing to share what it was that drew them to such a meeting. In response, group members provided a variety of motives for their interest in such a gathering:
– seeking some depth in their lives
– wanting to explore the question “Who (or what) am I truly?”
– Desiring to be seen by others and to share such seeing
– Observing one’s life
– Attraction to what they see as Krishnamurti’s compassion
– going on the “soul’s journey”
– learning to silence the mind and to let intelligence emerge
– wanting to look “under the hood” to see what may be hidden there
waiting to be discovered. There may be revelations in store.
– There may be a deeper, non-verbal sharing going on that is of great
value
– desiring to see through the “mask” of oneself
– For the writer, there seemed to be a value in being vulnerable to each other and exposing our “deeper” persons (or beyond our persons).
– Jackie pointed out that dialogue is an opportunity to notice things we normally do not notice in ourselves in our regular lives.
– Other questions arose:
– Can we touch the sense of Presence, which is our true identity and is available in silence?
– Who is the weaver of our stories and who sees through the weaver?
– The mind comes up with many answers to the questions of life, seeking certainty. Is it possible to live without certainty, without quick answers?
– Is entering the Unknown an activity of something other than thought?
– What feels threatened by the unknown, by not knowing?
– Can everything be open to questioning?
It was decided that it might be interesting to stay with the last questions until the next meeting.
DB
Self-inquiry, October 22, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry
Sunday, October 22, 2023
With James Waite
At 538 Swanwick Road in Metchosin, BC
Ten people all included were present for this Sunday afternoon meeting at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin. The meeting was facilitated by James Waite, who picked up in the area he’d left on the previous Sunday, which was Krishnamurti’s description of the “old brain” and the “new brain”. He gave a short summary of what we had previously covered. The old brain creates our sense of ourselves by projecting images that together make up the sense of a person. These images must be seen instantly as they arise and not through search and analysis, which are the ways of the old brain. K speaks of the “way of negation” and the “emptying of consciousness” or the “emptying of the known”. As we empty our consciousness of the known we begin to know what is true. The seeing of the false brings about a complete revolution in consciousness, James asserted, revealing our true nature as peace, love, joy, and beauty. We do not know these qualities objectively: we are them.
The question arose, “how does conflict and suffering arise in us? Do they originate in fear? We spent some time with the issue of fear. It was asked if fear disappears with the death of the body. It was mentioned that the Buddha had claimed that the cause of suffering is ignorance, the ignoring of what we truly are.
It was suggested that “passion” is required in the journey of self-inquiry and, James suggested, this passion is a gift rather than something we ourselves create. It is a yearning within us to know the truth. Once we take the first step into truth the rest will unfold by itself as we negate the contents of the conscious and unconscious mind.
It was proposed that an intensive attention is necessary and we wondered how such awareness arises. Is suffering necessary, and are suffering and sorrow the same? Do we really care deeply about the truth or are we merely lukewarm in our interest? What is our motive for such activity? James suggested we read the postings in the Facebook group called West Coast Self-inquiry where we might find some material of interest.
We finished up our meeting with a modest meal of Indian sweet desserts provided by the wife of one of our group members. The food and the friendly company was very much enjoyed as a supplement to our dialogue and inquiry session.
DB
Self-inquiry, October 18, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry
October 18, 2023
With KECC staff
Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion
Eight people attended this meeting at the fairly new Gorge Park pavilion in Victoria, BC. James Waite, who was scheduled to facilitate the event, was not able to do so and was replaced by Ralph and David representing the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. The meeting began with short self-introductions by those present and then a question wondering if any of the attendees had a subject related to self-inquiry or the teachings of J. Krishnamurti on that activity which they would like to explore within the context of the group format.
One person spoke directly to her interest in the question “What is self-inquiry?” and a few others responded with their perspectives on the nature of the “practice” or activity. The responses focused mainly on the significance of observing one’s thoughts and feelings as they manifest in relation to one’s interactions with the world and with other individuals. We looked carefully for some time at the sensations and reactions of our physical body, noticing that our bodies react in subtle and complex ways as we go about our daily lives. Our minds are also very complex and display multiple expressions of a “self” or personality. This “I” concept is very much involved in creating conflict in our relationships and observing its movements is necessary if we wish to attain any freedom from conflict and suffering. Insight into the workings of our body-mind is crucial in this practice of self-inquiry. We can learn to be more sensitive to the various layers of the self as we observe.
It was an interesting exploration of some fundamental aspects of Krishnamurti’s vision of life and the potential of the human being.
DB
Self-inquiry, October 15, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry
With James Waite
Sunday, October 15, 2023
Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada
Eight people attended this Sunday afternoon dialogue session at the Metchosin location for KECC at 538 Swanwick Road. Facilitator James Waite opened the meeting with a reading from a J. Krishnamurti talk on the subject of the “old brain” and the “new brain”. When the brain becomes quiet the old brain is transcended, making space for a new clarity of perception and understanding which the old brain cannot have. The old brain, James pointed out, is binary or dualistic, always thinking in terms of either/or. It is dualistic, grounded in subject/object conceiving, and oriented to the past, whereas the new brain is attentive in the present moment and can recognize our true nature as awareness. The old brain is who or what we think we are, not what we really are.
A question was posed by a participant, “How can we switch from the old brain or mind to the new?”
A sensitive discussion followed concerning the limitations of beliefs and definitions and then the need for “order” when we are seeking freedom. The nature of order and the need to see the disorder in ourselves were looked into and it was suggested that seeing the disorder is the essence of the new functioning of the brain, bringing forth a different quality of awareness or perception.
It was suggested we take care to notice during the coming week how the old brain habitually acts in our daily lives. There seemed to be a keenness to watch ourselves in such a way.
DB
Self-inquiry October 11, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
With KECC staff
Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion
A total of seven people were present for this late afternoon meeting of inquirers interested in exploring J. Krishnamurti’s perspectives on self-inquiry and the way individuals can investigate the nature of their own psychological and “spiritual’ make-up. As K himself said, an effective application of self observation can bring about a state of freedom and fulfilment in the individual which can express itself in his or her daily life. Some of those present were fairly new to Krishnamurti’s approach to self-knowledge but had penetrating questions and insights, thus bringing a freshness and creativity to the inquiry which made it very interesting and challenging in a somewhat profound way.
Originally the expectation had been that the session would be facilitated by James Waite. The time of day, however, made it difficult for James to drive home on the Malahat highway and James was replaced by Ralph and David in the basically leaderless gathering. The situation was acknowledged at the beginning, there were brief introductions by participants, then the floor was opened to anyone with a burning question who would like to share it with the group. When one group member mentioned Krishnamurti’s emphasis on “choiceless awareness” in exploring one’s consciousness, a second person asked if one could in fact make a distinction between the two things. This led to some pertinent observations about the two concepts, their meanings, and the subtleties of unfolding their deepest significance. How we go about such an investigation was explored. The dissolution of concepts and of thought in the face of direct seeing made for interesting dialogue.
A participant read a passage from a K book entitled Freedom, which opened up a discussion of the nature of space and of the concrete images that fill the space as the centre we call ”me”. The functioning of this “I” thought was commented upon, along with a further reading from the Krishnamurti book, and the dialogue unfolded in a way both pleasant and revealing. It was an enjoyable sharing and inquiry into the nature of the mind and beyond.
DB
Self-inquiry, October 1, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry with Oda Lindner
Sunday, October 1, 2023
At Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada
Metchosin, BC
Nine people showed up at the Centre to explore the teachings of Krishnamurti together with Oda Lindner from Niagara. Oda has been visiting for a couple of weeks and facilitating twice-weekly meetings with interested people as well as having individual inquiry sessions with participants wishing to have a more intimate exploration of what K may have to offer them. The group meetings provide an opportunity to look more deeply into the teachings in a group context.
One of the participants suggested we each give a short introduction to ourselves and to our understanding of what K has said. Oda then recommended that each one address the questions “What is meditation?” and “How do I apply meditation in my life?” Oda began by saying that her understanding of meditation is to be aware of every thought and feeling that arises in us. This awareness of the movement of thought brings about a natural silence which contains a sense of love, joy, and beauty. It is learning about oneself through choiceless awareness and being fully attentive to that end.
Other participants shared their experience of meditation, which included being aware of conflict within us. The opposition between “what is” and “what should be” or “what will be” creates conflict and lack of harmony in relationships, which in turn brings suffering. The fact of fear was mentioned and some discussion of how to deal with it took place. It was asked if we need to see the whole picture of fear before it will disappear completely. How can fear be completely resolved in us? Sharing our perspectives brought a richness to the exploration of the questions brought to the circle. Participants seemed to value and enjoy the process.
DB
Self-inquiry, September 27, 2023
/in Event Summaries /by David BruneauSelf-inquiry
September 27, 2023
With Oda Lindner
Esquimalt Gorge Pavilion
Seven people in total attended this Wednesday afternoon meeting at the beautifully constructed pavilion in Gorge Park on Tillicum Road. The session was facilitated by Oda Lindner, who is visiting the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC, and is being sponsored by the same charitable organisation. The purpose of the Centre is to disseminate the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, a spiritual teacher who lived from 1895 to 1986. Oda Lindner has spent many years studying the teachings and presently lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario.
Oda began the meeting by describing how she had found breath work very helpful in experiencing the meaning of what Krishnamurti spoke of when he gave his own talks and wrote his many books. Breathing is always taking place in the present moment, which K says is the only time we can realise the truth of what he is saying. There is a strong tendency in the human mind to continuously bring in the past and to separate ourselves from each other and from the present moment. Group discussion or dialogue is useful in bringing attention to the deeper aspects of our capacities to penetrate deeply into the layers of our consciousness and to realise a sense of freedom in ourselves.
Different participants had varying input into the discussion, some of which seemed to stray from the central points of K’s teachings and yet were considered to be important for those sharing them. One group member produced a book written by Mark Lee entitled Probing the Mystery and asked permission to read a passage which expressed K’s assertion at the end of his life that nobody has touched the mystery that is Krishnamurti and nobody ever will. At the same time it was agreed that it is not helpful to compare ourselves to Krishnamurti and judge ourselves to be less than perfect in that comparison.
The dialogue ranged through a number of topics and questions raised by K during his lifetime. The issue of desire was considered by one person in particular to be very important in unravelling the meanings in the teachings and we spent some time with it. The writer had some doubts about the extent to which the dialogue actually revealed significant insights into the understanding of our habits of thinking in that area, but the process of inquiry seemed to be felt useful by some of the group. How many was difficult to tell.