A Glimpse Into Total Freedom October 3 – 5, 2014     This weekend retreat was facilitated by Richard Waxberg and Deborah Kerner who live in Ojai and have led many retreats at the Krishnamurti Centre there.  The main focus of the weekend was on pure seeing:  “a direct impersonal seeing beyond the limitations of thought, its structures, and the illusion of a separate “me”.  The format included brief periods of silent sitting, a videotape of Krishnamurti in conversation with Pupul Jayakar in India, and group dialogues which were designed to “create a radical space of exploration”, of “seeing and listening”.  There was also a good balance of free time for walks and enjoying the property at the Swanwick Centre.  Altogether fifteen people (including facilitators) participated in the program. The facilitators were very skillful in creating an atmosphere of mutual support and affection as well as challenging participants to question assumptions and beliefs and to delve into their experience.  The participants in their turn seemed very eager for and capable of a deep looking into themselves.  It seemed the dialogues were unusually profound and valuable for everyone, bringing many insights and often a sense of an energetic shift in consciousness from “becoming” to “being” and a greater appreciation of the mystery of beingness “beyond time, beyond meaning and purpose”.  There was a good deal of talk about how wonderful the weekend had been and how another such meeting could be arranged in the future.  Hopefully Richard and Deborah will be returning before very long.

One of K’s famous books and teachings was titled “Freedom from the Known.” But, as with all words, “known” can be a paradox of sorts. Rupert Spira uses the word (pointer) to establish the relationship of Awareness and Experience. Here is a small excerpt from Rupert’s latest Essay/Dialogue published this month in the SAND 2014 Newsletter, “The Nature of Experience.” I found it very compelling and recommend reading the entire essay. Here is the link.  “Our only experiential knowledge of the world is perception – sights, sounds, tastes, textures and smells. In fact, nobody has ever found an independently existing object or world; all that is ever found are perceptions. We cannot therefore even say we have perceptions of the world because that world has never been found. We can only say for sure that we know perceptions. And perceptions are never known independently of Awareness. This is the startling but simple fact of experience that our culture has not yet faced: matter, the dead inert stuff out of which the independently existing universe is supposed to be made, has never been found. Matter is a concept, a valuable concept that is useful as a working model in some situations, but nevertheless a concept. It has never been found. Nor will it ever be found for whatever is found is, by definition, never known independently of Awareness. In fact, even the model of thoughts, sensations and perceptions appearing in Awareness does not stand up to the scrutiny of experience. It is a half way stage that dissolves the belief in the independent reality of matter and mind and establishes the presence and the primacy of Awareness. But once this has been established, not philosophically but in our actual experience, this model too has to be abandoned in favor of one that more accurately reflects the reality of experience. All we know of a thought is the experience of thinking, all we know of a sensation is the experience of sensing, all we know of a sight is the experiencing of seeing, all we know of a sound is the experience of hearing etc. And all that is known of thinking, sensing, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling is the knowing of them. And what is it that knows this knowing? Only something that itself has the capacity to know could know anything. So it is knowing that knows knowing. All that is ever known is pure knowing, knowing and being itself. And that knowing is your self. All that is known is Awareness knowing itself, the self knowing the self. There is only your self – not a self that belongs to any object or person because there are no objects or people as such to which it could belong. This knowing belongs to itself alone. It is itself and knows itself alone. There are no others or objects there, no inside self or outside world. And what is the name we commonly give to this absence of otherness, distance, separation and objectness? It is beauty or love. Beauty is the discovery that objects are not objects; love is the discovery that others are not others.”

Krishnamurti Video and Dialogue Victoria, BC September 14, 2014   It was another hot and sunny summer day in Victoria but still four people showed up for the afternoon event at the Church of Truth.   The video shown was from the Attention and Order series of talks in Ojai in the spring of 1984.  It was the second talk.   K went into a number of issues as usual, but he focused particularly on the problem of fear in our lives and how thought and time are responsible.  He emphasized that he was not giving a lecture but that he and the audience must explore together and have direct insight into the question.  It is also essential to go right to the very end of the investigation into fear and not get stuck half way.   A very open and vulnerable dialogue followed the video in which the group honestly examined some of their own experience with fear and conflict.   One theme that emerged was the idea, often expressed by Krishnamurti, that our feelings and emotions – our psychological life – is something that is common to all humanity and how this can awaken more of a sense of compassion for others and for ourselves as we inquire into these types of issues.  The central factor of the belief in a “separate self” was discussed, as often seems to be the case.

  Krishnamurti Study Session Saturday, August 23, 2014     This week we studied the second half of chapter 14 in Freedom From the Known by J. Krishnamurti.   The subject matter included Achievement, Discipline, Silence, Truth, and Reality.  There were seven participants and they all were eager to explore.  A lively discussion began immediately even before we had read any of the text and the investigation covered a broad range of issues which were presented by the participants.  There was an in-depth exploration of fear and insecurity and the question of where true security lies.   What is real silence and what is the silence that K is pointing to were questions that challenged the group to look into the text material and their own understanding.   It was a lovely summer day and the enjoyment of contemplating ourselves and Truth was enhanced by being able to sit outdoors in the beautiful surroundings.

  Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, August 2, 2014   Seven people gathered to study Chapter 14 in Freedom From the Known by J. Krishnamurti.   The first part of the chapter focuses on the need for a quiet mind and the issue of resolving psychological problems.   K challenges us to find the way to solve a problem immediately by seeing how the problem itself is created by thought.   There was some reading of the text and then some focused discussion of the issues raised.  Participants were very attentive and present to the exploration and it seemed like some valuable insights occurred.  There was a period of silence during which we looked at what prevents a quiet mind and the immediate resolution of a problem.  Further interesting discussion followed.     Inquiry Sunday Sunday, August 3, 2014 In the afternoon a video of Krishnamurti was shown on the topic of Death:  Leaving the Stream.  The half hour compilation is one of the Evelyn Blau series “Beyond Myth and Tradition”.   There were some comments from the six participants that this video was a particularly clear and direct presentation of a central aspect of K’s teachings.  After the DVD the group broke up into pairs and explored what was significant about what had been heard and how it was relevant the our lives.  A group dialogue followed during which the question “What does it mean to die psychologically every day, every moment?”  was addressed by the group among other topics.   The beautiful weather allowed us to sit outdoors frequently over the weekend, which seems to add a certain quality of expansiveness and broader attention.