Archive for category: Event Summaries

Self-inquiry 

With Ralph Tiller and David Bruneau 

Sunday, November 17, 2024 

At Metchosin location 

 

Eight people were present for this Sunday afternoon meeting at the Swanwick Road location in Metchosin, BC. We sat in a circle while David guided the group in a meditation focusing on awareness of thoughts and feelings or bodily sensations which could reveal aspects of one’s nature or conditioned “self” as we explored the make-up of our psychological structures by noticing what was arising in the space of our awareness. 

After the short silence David asked if participants had any issues they would like to explore within the context of the group. One person said that she was experiencing anxiety about sitting in a group of individuals feeling that her awareness was revealing a sense of social anxiety in her body but that only the sensations above her body were the ones that mattered. 

Other group members shared their habitual sense of social anxiety and, further, the presence of what Krishnamurti called fear in his talks and dialogues. David related that he’d been reading a K book called Krishnamurti for Beginners but had found it far more challenging to understand than a book for beginners. In fact, the book had brought up difficulties in understanding what K was communicating. 

Ralph and David spoke of K’s “teachings” regarding the process of freeing oneself of fear and the necessity for “insight” when seeking self-knowledge or self-awareness. After we discussed the need for “interest” in learning about oneself, some group members confided that they were feeling very interested in the possibilities of self-observation and self-discovery. Later in the day, David found that many quotes later in the Krishnamurti book were from a selection of K books that would be well worth exploring in the participants’ own time: 

 

     The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti 

     Commentaries on Living 

     The Only Revolution 

     Krishnamurti to Himself 

     Krishnamurti’s Notebook 

     The Urgency of Change 

 

Two quotes of Krishnamurti that struck David were the following: 

    

     “God is when you are not. When you are, it is not. When you are not, love is. When you are, love is not.” 

 

     “The understanding of yourself is the ending of sorrow” 

 

     The meeting was a quiet and gentle sharing of mutual support and learning. 

 

DB 

Self-inquiry 

With Ralph Tiller and David Bruneau 

November 10, 2024 

At Metchosin location 

 

Seven people were present for this meeting sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada and held at the Metchosin location on a cloudy, grey day which kept us inside at the 538 Swanwick Road building. Ralph gave a short introduction to the proceedings and asked if there were any pressing questions that participants wished to share with the group. If not, he explained, we could choose a passage from the Krishnamurti work The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti for reading and discussion. Another suggestion was to watch a video of K being interviewed on BBC Television. One participant spoke up to say that since recently beginning to study Krishnamurti’s teachings in greater depth she had found herself in conflict with the values and ideas of her parents and family. This had become especially obvious while watching the US elections featuring Donald Trump and she had felt an urge to isolate herself and cut off from the society around her. How, she inquired, would Krishnamurti recommend we proceed in such a case? In response several participants brought forward the necessity, pointed out by K, to be sensitive and compassionate with others of different views. Such compassion could develop when a person took up the challenge of observing their own thoughts and feelings in their many small reactions to the life and people around them.  Such attention might bring forward a sense of love which could change the individuals and change the world. This idea was agreed upon by many of the group and some expressed that the dialogue had been helpful and enlightening. 

 

DB 

Realizing Presence 

3 Day Workshop with JC Tefft 

October 25 – 27, 2024 

Sponsored by KECC 

Online Event 

 

Ten people showed up for this three-day workshop with JC Tefft sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. JC began with some introductory remarks about what he would be covering in the three one-and-a-half hour sessions held online.   

JC invited us to join in, as we inquired together into the essential, underlying nature of:    

• The material universe and the intelligence of Light that governs material expression.   

• The functionality and limitations of the human mind that not only cultivates what has become a deeply rooted problem in humankind, but also veils the living truth of the ‘I Am-ness’ of conscious Being.     

• What Krishnamurti called the truth of ‘What Is’ when understood in the context of pure presence, pure awareness, and non-dual reality.   

  

Referencing Krishnamurti’s teachings throughout, JC shared testimony and insights into the nature of the illusion of separateness created by Mind, along with the nature of awakenings that serve to unveil the truth of What Is, as evermore clarity comes to light in the eternally present Now.   

  

JC/RT    

  

  

  

  

Self-inquiry 

With Ralph Tiller and David Bruneau 

Sunday, October 27, 2024 

Sponsored by KECC 

At the Metchosin location 

 

Three people were present for this Sunday afternoon meeting at the Gatehouse on Swanwick Road, the location for the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC. We began with a reading from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. The chosen reading was dated October 27, 2024 and was titled “Outside the Field of Thought”. The passage was mainly exploring the possibility of creating a change in oneself while remaining within the field of thought, which Krishnamurti maintained was not possible. For any real change the mind must realize that any change within the field is no change at all. Our discussion of the issue led us to look into the realms of Krishnamurti’s  explorations with nuclear physicist David Bohm. We brought forward for inquiry Bohm’s ideas about “proprioception” and awareness of the breathing, the body, and the need to be vigilant about attempts to achieve anything for ourselves as a centre of self interest. Attempts to expand ourselves were not considered to be beneficial, and needed to include an awareness of our motives and intentions. Or so we felt Bohm had implied. We spoke of Bohm’s approaches to dialogue, considered by all group members to be very practical and wise, and did our best to gain what wisdom we could on the subject. It was an interesting and valuable session. 

 

DB