Self-inquiry

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion

 

Eleven people were present for this Wednesday afternoon dialogue meeting at the lovely Gorge Park pavilion. Jackie McInley was again facilitating the session and, as always, she did an excellent job of keeping the dialogue on track with searching questions and comments. She began by saying that people have always met in groups to talk over problems and have found the format of sitting in a circle to be very conducive to worthwhile communication. In a Krishnamurti dialogue, she pointed out, participants might think the structure was quite different in some ways. We look at problems both individually and as human beings who share many issues and challenges, both physically and psychologically. Beginning with his statement that “the first step is the last step”, we look at our assumptions about what life is. Our individual awareness shapes how we experience the world, but we might not be aware that our thoughts are creating a reality. Our inquiry is to discover ourselves and the universal nature where we are all the same. We may get a sense of our particular responses to each other and also of how our responses are conditioned by our society and upbringing.

Jackie asked if people would be interested in sharing what they understood from Krishnamurti’s teachings, which stimulated some interesting feedback. Some of it seemed overly complicated and there was a request to keep our ideas more simple to follow.

Another group member asked what was the most important question for us, and it was suggested that the issue of separation was the core problem for humans. This led to a rather intense interaction exploring separation and why it is a problem. The focus on trying to meet our needs was looked into and a question was raised concerning how we are creating separation NOW in this very moment. It was asked if we have the intensity to really be with the question. Could we go beneath the current level of our state of consciousness and be with a deeper feeling or experience. One participant offered that, for him, it was fear that was underneath but we may be afraid to look. Jackie agreed that we are often afraid to look at the fear but that may not necessarily always be the case. Further inquiry is needed into the matter.

DB

Self-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 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 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

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