Over the years there has been apparent controversy and comparison between JK and UG. Although UG and JK share the same name, their apparent perspectives are very different in one respect. Although JK denounced teachers, his message was that man can bring about some kind of tremendous transformation and mutation of his brain by watching himself and his thoughts. So this sort of lecturing seems to have put him on a pedestal and many considered him a teacher. UG negates all teaching and concepts of change. “I have no teaching. There is nothing to preserve. Teaching implies something that can be used to bring about change. Sorry, there is no teaching here, just disjointed, disconnected sentences. What is there is only your interpretation, nothing else. For this reason there is not now nor will there ever be any kind of copyright for whatever I am saying. I have no claims”.  However, from a non-dual perspective there is no need to differentiate between UG or JK. There is no need to hold one up against the other. Once it is realized that all is THIS and that THIS is expressing Itself as the apparent teacher and student, the apparent beggar and King, the apparent saint and sinner, and the apparent guru or anti-guru;  there is a relaxation and falling away of any need to compare or denounce one over the other.  

  “Setting Your Heart Free” Weekend Retreat with Burt Harding March 25 – 27, 2016 Burt Harding returned to the Krishnamurti Centre for the third year running to offer a weekend of exploration into the nature of who we really are and the possibility of living from and as “the Heart”. Burt was freshly energized by a recent deepening of his realization and a shift in emphasis from the mind to the heart. His state of being was a large factor in making the retreat a powerful and fruitful one for the participants. He employed a variety of guided meditations and exercises which, combined with his talks and group discussions, created a strong energy of loving presence in the group. We could experience directly that to which he was pointing, the primal reality of the heart, which is peace, love, joy, silence, beauty, and such qualities. Much of the material used to introduce the subject was from Burt’s recent book, The Truth the World Doesn’t Want You to Know About, as well as from a number of handouts and booklets written by Burt to share his latest insights and suggestions for simple and straight forward techniques for accessing Being. Burt’s presence was delightful, as was that of the other twenty-four participants, and the weekend was a beautiful sharing of love, joy, and authentic inquiry. The weather allowed us to enjoy the lovely property, and the meals were delicious. Burt closed by saying that surely none of us could leave and still say we don’t know who we are!

Victoria Krishnamurti Event Sunday, March 13, 2016 The topic for this meeting at the Church of Truth in Victoria was “Transcending Dualistic Perception”. Five people were present as we started and two more joined us as the session progressed. We began with a video of Krishnamurti speaking at Brockwood Park about attachment and looking at strong emotions. He asked if we can we see that we are not separate from attachment, but that it is a part of us? Without attachment there is no “me” at all. When we look at attachment or the resulting emotional reactions without creating a separate self or observer, then our relationship with what is observed undergoes a radical change. The video was a good expression of the essence of K’s teachings. We discussed the viewed subject material within the context of looking at our own attachments and responses as we interacted in a group setting. The focus moved to other ideas and experiences on the part of the participants but the group was quite engaged. A handout from Freedom from the Known was distributed after the dialogue. A tea break was followed by a video of Rupert Spira investigating the nature of perception. The video provoked some strong reactions from one of the participants, who felt it was idealistic and conceptual rather than practical. Others didn’t feel the same way. A fairly intense conversation ensued about the fear of going beyond the conceptual mind and entering more expansive states of consciousness. Most people seemed to find the meeting of value and expressed an intention to return for the next month’s session.  

It was an exceptional weekend retreat for the 11 of us who took part.  Participants were from near and far, having poured in from across BC, as far east as Grand Prairie, Alberta with one driving up through Washington State. One of the early Eckhart Tolle talks suggested that dedicated time away from work and home life could provide an opportunity for us to retreat from our own minds.  The mind can be habitually active through our daily life but Eckhart points out, we always have access to a stillness that underlies this stream of thought (or more accurately, that we ARE this stillness).  Eckhart made it sound easy… gradually becoming more oriented to the stillness that we are.  One opportunity he mentioned is to notice the aliveness or sense of our inner body – simply noticing our aliveness and even becoming aware of that awareness.  For some, this can seem challenging amidst day to day existence… Eckhart made light of our ‘connected’ culture where life seems to find so many of us in a state of constant stimulation.   There were fits of laughter in the room as Eckhart playfully demonstrated the pull towards constant attention on externals (through TV, social media, mobile devices, or a variety of other distractions). As the weekend progressed, the talks built on this theme, exploring the balance between doing vs. being.  It seemed like a few of us could see how a mind-dominated way of living is closely linked to a need for constantly putting effort in one direction or another.  An ‘efforting approach’ can even be applied to spiritual seeking and the need for attainment.  Eckhart points to a gentler freedom from effort, allowing our sense of the moment, presence and relaxed perception.  This state can form a foundation from which creativity, and a natural flow of doing can emerge. One segment of the series explored how past events and experiences can leave accumulations in the mind.  Eckhart proposed that this is where people get their sense of self from.  He also noted that in general, people spend inordinate amounts of time trying to “solve the problem of themselves”; they see themselves as a collection of imperfections that require a solution.  Luckily, this goes away when we realise that the essence of who we are is perfect and even ‘formless’.  The sense of accumulated self is in fact an illusion.  When this illusion is een through, one may begin to experience their true identity as pure ‘space consciousness’. Later in the series of talks, Eckhart explored the nature of true power.  If we are able to allow full attention to activities such as cooking or folding laundry (allowing for some practical thought but not slipping into unconscious repetitive thinking) one can find an expression of the divine in each and every action.  This applies to interactions with other people as well – if we are coming from stillness, we are much more likely to perceive others in their ‘beingness’ rather than the attuning to their more human dimension.  I had opportunity to apply this to very difficult personal matter involving someone not at the retreat… as I sat with what was – just sat with it, it seemed that any judgements that tried to emerge spontaneously kept slipping away like flimsy soap bubbles down a drain – fleeting and insubstantive. In a clip shown from a series called The Real Revolution, Krishnamurti spoke passionately about the need for a transformation of consciousness.  Eckhart echoed this in a most optimistic way, noting in the final talk that there is a shift that many have experienced – away from life as automated role playing, towards the direct realisation and unique expression of our true being.