Inquiry Sunday Sunday, April 5, 2015       On Sunday morning four people gathered to continue with the meditations of Rupert Spira on the nature of our experience. The DVD we have been exploring is The Transparency of Things and this completed our viewing of this particular series of interviews and guided contemplations with Rupert. Participants felt that Rupert is, like Krishnamurti in his time, presenting a radical and fresh perspective on the subject of self understanding and the seeing of reality. His pointings can be most helpful in leading us to a deeper seeing of what is.   The Sunday afternoon session included a showing of a question and answer meeting with Krishnamurti from Saanen, Switzerland. K responded to a question on the nature of desire and how it is awakened. He spoke of how to observe desire as it arises so that there is a gap before one acts and therefore a freedom. This freedom can release us from the sense of being slaves to our desires. The discussion that followed investigated the ideas further in terms of practical experience.

  “Secret of the Heart”, Part 2       On Saturday and Sunday Burt focused in turn on the rest of the K quote: not trying to change what you are, and the transformation that occurs.  He also spoke of love and the barriers to its full emergence.  We are generally seeking safety, love and approval, and control of our lives outside ourselves when these things are actually to be found “within”, in the sense of Being.  There were guided meditations on awareness and Being, much lively discussion withing the group, and various ideas presented by Burt which seemed to stretch the understanding of the participants.  He continually  pointed to the fact that the limited “mind” cannot adequately understand what he was pointing to and a certain kind of “letting go” or “surrender” is necessary.     An introductory video was shown about Krishnamurti and there was an evident integration of K into the subject matter.  The feedback from the participants was extremely positive and many were asking that Burt return for another retreat.

On the golf course is my favourite place to practice. Both my golf game and mind game. Today, as seems to be the ‘usual’ Plan, I was able to play the front nine by myself. For whatever reason, to me, being on the golf course is a perfect setting for practicing ‘seeing’ or two-way attention. That is, observing all the wonderful sights, sounds and sensations of the environment as well as this action figure named Robert –as he pretends to pull off miraculous golf shots – while not losing sight of the Seer or, Myself as being expressed through the finite mind as it spray-paints the moment to moment apparent happenings. The wide open space of the golf course with its expansive green fairways is perfect for noticing the expansiveness Within. As well as the complicated execution of the golf swing as one strikes the ball (apparently). And the satisfaction of watching the outcome of the shot as the ball appears to travel through the air and land somewhere near the ‘intended’ target. Or along the ground as it rolls toward the flag, and little smiles of playful joy as it drops to its final resting place…the little 4 ½  inch hole in the green. Although the weather today was sunny and mild (shorts and t-shirt) there has been a lot of rain over the past few weeks that hasn’t dried up, so the fairways tend to be quite soggy and even muddy in places. Because of the wet conditions the golf course instigates what it calls the “cart path rule.” Basically for golfers who are riding a golf cart, have to stay on the path and walk diagonally to their ball in the fairway to play their next shot. So, rather than play the usual game of hitting the ball down the centre of the fairway, it was decided to aim for the cart path the runs along the edge of the coarse… even though I was walking. The reasoning of course is to stay as dry as possible and not have to walk through the puddles or have the ball get covered with mud etc. This turned out to be a delightful challenge!   About half way through the round I began contemplating what K calls “a pathless path.” And as I said earlier, I seem to do a lot of practice during a round of golf, so the thought came…”Hey, instead of the path of the Heart, this is like the “Path of the Cart!”  Followed by a lot of laughter! 

  Inquiry Sunday Sunday, March 22, 2015.              Five people gathered for the Sunday event held in the meditation room.   The morning session started with a video of Rupert Spira entitled The Transparency of Things:  Contemplating the Nature of Experience.   In this interview he guides us through various explorations of our actual experience to show that our assumptions of separateness are not founded in reality.  As the sense of being a separate entity is the basis of our psychological suffering, Rupert’s way of questioning and looking at our experience can be a radical “solution” to our human problems.  He spoke about the tendency to accept our contracted state as a natural one and to then see any relaxing as a kind of effort.  In fact no effort is required:  we only need to see that we are holding on.  The discussion that followed was very relevant to the participants and seemed to create a space for some direct insight.  Facing discomfort was an issue discussed in some depth.  An attitude of “not knowing”, as opposed to thinking we already know, allowed an openness in which fresh insight could take place in the context of a group inquiry and dialogue could be a “meditation”.

    Dialogue Group Meeting Sunday, March 15, 2015        Five people met at the Swanwick Centre for an afternoon of unstructured dialoguing.  Lynn was not able to facilitate due to a cold, so by default I, David, became the leaderless leader.  On the drive to the Centre I had been thinking about my purpose in attending these meetings and how I can best achieve that purpose.  It seemed immediately clear that the essence of it all for me is to “practice” being fully present and attentive to whatever is arising in my life and likewise in the meetings.  This can have many residual benefits and offshoots or aspects to it.  The question seemed to perhaps be an interesting one for the group as a whole, especially as there was a new member who might gain a good sense of what we are about as individuals and as a group.  Group members shared their own reasons for participation and their valuing of the group.  Appreciation was expressed for the quality of listening usually present, the emphasis given to questioning rather than to knowledge, and the opportunity to observe oneself in interaction with others.  The conversation moved into the subject of choice and “doership”, a fertile ground for inquiry and exploration.  Do we choose what to do or is there more a movement that happens from a larger field of intelligence – or perhaps conditioning?  The discussion turned to the problem of suffering and the urge to experience unity or oneness.  One participant mentioned that often the “what?” question is asked but it seems rarely the “why?”  Is there a plan or meaning to life and the universe?  Why are we here?  Why is life here?   I’m sorry to report that no conclusive answer was found.  It was mentioned that Krishnamurti said that if we see that the observer and the observed are one and the division collapses, then we will never need to ask what is the meaning of life.  Krishnamurti’s teachings were also referred to in relation to other points of discussion. The last part of the meeting was taken up largely considering the impact of beliefs on the stage of politics and international relations.  Hopefully an interesting and useful afternoon for all.