Daily Dying and Living Well Retreat with Ravi Ravindra    For the third year in a row Ravi Ravindra, a PhD and former university professor of physics and philosophy, visited from Halifax to lead a weekend retreat at the Krishnamurti Educational Center of Canada in Metchosin, BC.  The subject of the weekend was death, including the universally recommended “practice” of dying daily in order to fully live, or “dying before we die”.  Ravi gave an introductory presentation on Friday evening at the Centre, attended by 22 people in all.  He asked the audience what questions we have about death and gave an interesting talk on religious and scientific views about death and the possibility of survival beyond the death of the body.  He emphasized that each of us must look into the issue for ourselves rather than accepting any outside authority.  An interesting distinction was the difference between looking into death with a motivation of fear and looking from a sense of wonder.  If we are perceiving from a sense of wonder fear does not exist.  Ravi spoke of the importance of the question “Who am I?”  Who is it that dies, and who is it that lives?  To fully investigate the questions of life and death we must look into the real nature of the “I”.     Sixteen people returned on Saturday for the full weekend retreat.  It consisted of a variety of activities, including guided meditations, exploring Krishnamurti quotations, “observing” without commentary while outdoors in nature, and a good deal of discussion about the central topics of the retreat both in the full group and in smaller groups.  Ravi shared a number of stories relevant to the topics at hand about his meetings and conversations with Krishnamurti.  He also prescribed some writing exercises in which a certain question was asked and the participants were given time of consider it and write their responses.  What would we do if we only had two weeks to live?  What is our expectation about death?  What insight(s) have we had about death over the weekend?  On Saturday evening an audio recording was played of a conversation between Ravi and Krishnamurti on the subject of death.     Many interesting questions and gems of wisdom were presented over the weekend for our contemplation and discussion.  Perhaps one of the most significant focuses for many was the issue of what assists the surrender of the self or ego and what prevents it.  Throughout the retreat Ravi demonstrated a skillful way of inquiring into what is really meant by any statement or so-called authoritative idea, encouraging us to break down unquestioned acceptance and absolutist positions regarding “truth”.  We thus come upon a more open and flexible mode of viewing reality.

  Victoria Krishnamurti Event Sunday, April 12, 2015.     Eight people gathered on Sunday afternoon at the Church of Truth in Victoria to contemplate the nature of pleasure and desire, a subject given some importance by Krishnamurti and other spiritual teachers.  The session began with a silent reading of a handout on pleasure taken from the book Freedom From the Known.  This gave some context for the following twenty minute video of K responding to a question about desire and its awakening.  He focused on the possibility of slowing down the process of desiring by paying careful attention to it.  Then a gap can be open up between the contact with an object or an image projected by thought, the resulting sensation, and the movement of thought which then wants to possess that object or fulfill the mental image.  This opening of a space naturally makes desire and the seeking of pleasure less of a driving force. The group then entered into a discussion of what had been read and seen.  Many relevant insights were shared and questions raised.  It often becomes apparent in these dialogues that people take many different viewpoints, even on subjects dealing with more subtle dimensions of life like non-duality.  The need to listen carefully to what each person is saying without quickly reacting and asserting one’s own opinion became evident to me as the facilitator and as a participant.  There was certainly a lively interest in inquiring into the subjects presented. After a tea break we watched a video of Gabor Mate giving a TED talk in Rio de Janeiro.  He spoke of the high cost of addiction in terms of damage to people’s lives and relationships and touched on the sources of addiction in the residual pain from childhood abuse and the sense of inner emptiness that many feel.   It was an excellent talk and very relevant to the exploration of desire and the drive to seek pleasure.  Finally we watched Eckhart Tolle answering a question about how pleasure fits into a spiritual life.  Eckhart covered some similar ground to K and Mate in his own style and ended with the idea that pleasure is not to be judged or avoided but there is also a deeper joy available which effortlessly arises from our contact with Being.  A short discussion followed. It felt like a densely packed afternoon but seemed to be interesting and insightful for the participants.

  Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, April 4, 2015     Four people participated in the study of Chapter 3 of Freedom From the Known by J. Krishnamurti. The chapter focuses on the relationship between the individual and the society and goes in some detail into K’s well known statement that “you are the world.” In this chapter he also emphasizes the need for the individual to find the source of creativity, which will bring about a society that can renew itself and not become static. The discussion explored the themes in some depth and was an inquiry into creative looking and understanding. The next session will begin with Chapter 4 in the text.