Exposing Ourselves to Ourselves, April 21 – 23, 2023

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Exposing Ourselves to Ourselves 

With Jackie McInley 

April 21 – 23, 2023 

Zoom Online 

 

While Jackie was visiting us at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada, located in Metchosin, BC, she was most willing to facilitate a number of meetings both in-person and online. This particular offering consisted of three two hour sessions online and was attended by fourteen people, including staff as well as participants from various locations in North America. To begin the workshop, Jackie gave an opening talk on the nature of dialogue or group inquiry. She shared that her intention was for the participants to be directly aware, as the event unfolded, of what is happening in the present moment in their thoughts and feelings. She also invited the participants to question ourselves in a way that could reveal ourselves to ourselves or bring insight and understanding about how our consciousness is operating as we interact and relate with other members of the group. She then questioned what is “understanding” and how it is different from interpretation of what others are saying. This led to some sharing of fears about exposing ourselves and some discussion of the place self-images play in such experiences of fear. The sharing moved on to wondering what produces cohesion in a group and how we know that we are understanding each other. It was an interesting first engagement of the group with the process of dialogue. 

 For the second meeting there was an attendance of 16 people. The dialogue focused on a number of issues that were of primary interest to participants: 

  • Looking outside ourselves for help. Awareness of this tendency is a central aspect of Krishnamurti’s teachings and is deeply woven into the nature of many spiritual groups. It may be believed that the world is not enough to resolve our problems, so we look for assistance in many ways, from God, guru, other people, and so on. 
  • Can thinking solve the problems created by thinking? 
  • Dialogue is only intelligent when we are able to open to what is being said rather than arguing about who is more correct. This is dialogue rather than discussion. 
  • Are we entirely different from each other? Can the separateness be broken down? Do we need help in this enterprise? Are we maintaining a sense of separateness? 
  • Do we have to get rid of thinking or is it just necessary to expose the “me”?  
  • Thinking and the “me” cannot be avoided. Can we see the problem in the question? Is the seeing enough? 
  • What is “seeing”? 
  • The importance of interest. Am I interested in seeing the thoughts that create separation? Am I able to face what is happening right from the beginning? 
  • Our way of listening and our attachments to our own ideas. Is our sense of connection with each other actually a limited connection? 
  • Our need for outward validation 
  • The tendency to force others to see 
  • Looking into who or what I am is a fundamental activity 
  • What is left when my self-images fall away? 
  • The fear of being alone 
  • What is the urge to enter into the conversation, to assert one’s viewpoint? Can one stay with the feeling? Does this create an opening? 

 Many other questions were raised on the third day related to awareness and observation. A few of the participants asked if we are not missing something essential in the inquiry when we give thought the power to block the exploration? Are we not ignoring the presence of something beyond thought which is part of our capacity to see clearly? Could we call that “thing” (or no-thing) awareness without giving its power away to the label “awareness”? Can that awareness see the truth or falseness of our concepts? 

Participants expressed appreciation for the quality of inquiry generated by the group and supported by Jackie’s facilitation without her being a “leader”. It was a very interesting weekend.

 

DB 

Self-Inquiry, April 19, 2023

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Self-Inquiry

April 19, 2023

With Jackie McInley

At Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion, Victoria, BC

 

Ten people were present for this dialogue meeting with Jackie McInley who is visiting the Krishnamurti Centre in Metchosin for the month of April. She is facilitating a good number of events, both online and in-person, in town and out in Metchosin. The lovely new facility at Gorge Park has been booked for group meetings in Victoria.

As she usually does, Jackie gave an informative presentation about the nature of dialogue and its foundation in questioning our conditioned beliefs and ideas. Krishnamurti has spoken and written at length about the suffering and conflict created by our attachment to accepted concepts and beliefs and this has inspired the practice of inquiring into the truth or falseness of them, both on our own and in a group format. Jackie launched us into a very interesting hour and a half of sharing what each of the participants finds most significant in K’s teachings and in their own self-exploration. It proved to be a very challenging and revealing process of looking as deeply as we could into the structures of our own thinking, the possibility of being free of them, and what that might imply as we live our daily lives. The issue of instability of the self was investigated quite exhaustively, along with numerous related aspects of our experience of daily life and the challenges of such. We explored what we understand by letting go of the known and entering into the “Unknown”. It was a group inquiry with a great attention to the details of our ways of responding to our relationships both in the room and beyond.

DB

Self-Inquiry, April 16, 2023

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Self-Inquiry

With Jackie McInley

Sunday, April 16, 2023

KECC 538 Swanwick Rd., Metchosin, BC

 

This was our second meeting with Jackie at the Metchosin location and sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. She is visiting us from the UK and is in residence at the Swanwick Centre for the month of April. Nine people in total were present for the gathering in the Gatehouse. Cold and wet weather prevented us from meeting outside on the lawn.

As she usually does, Jackie gave a thorough introduction to the practice of “dialogue” as a means of exploring our ideas and understandings of ourselves and our lives. She explained the place of J. Krishnamurti’s teachings in our observation of ourselves and in our persistent questioning of beliefs and concepts that arise in the group interactions that unfold as we communicate about what is important to us and how we can gain wisdom concerning such highly relevant issues.

As the conversation became more focused on questions from the individual participants deeper questions and challenges arose from the group. One participant was very interested in how trust could develop in a group of people who hardly knew each other. Another wondered if it might be more fruitful to approach the question negatively as Krishnamurti often suggested. Could we ask what the impediments to trust might be, or how we create a lack of trust? In looking at how we create mistrust, perhaps a sense of trust might spontaneously arise.

The dialogue then turned to some personal sharings concerning the feeling of self-consciousness and the fear of being judged or criticised. It was acknowledged that most likely we all felt some of those uncomfortable feelings and Jackie pointed out that there was often a deep resistance to feeling the discomfort of fear and insecurity. Is it not necessary, if we are going more deeply into our authentic natures, to expose the more sensitive aspects of our personalities? Is it not necessary to clear the habitual responses that prevent us from responding to the world with love? When the focus seemed to turn towards the “self” and what the self could do, it was asked, “What is the self?” This led to the idea of ”Being” and its significance.

The session went on for over two hours and people seemed reluctant to bring it to an end. There seemed to be a deeply shared interest in the inquiry process and a positive anticipation of future dialogue meetings.

DB

Self-Inquiry, April 12, 2023

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Self-Inquiry

With Jackie McInley

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Gorge Park Pavilion, Victoria, BC

 

Ten people were present at the new building close to the lovely Japanese flower garden in Esquimalt Gorge Park off of Tillicum Road. We had gathered in order to engage in a “dialogue”, or group inquiry, aimed at coming to understand our own true nature and living more fully from the “truth” of that very nature. In practice the endeavour turns out to be largely an exercise in bringing forth the love within ourselves and engaging with others in our lives from that “place” of love or from “the heart”. It is firstly a challenge for the individual to realise himself or herself in a deeper way and to live a meaningful life of compassion and intelligence which can, at the same time, bring about a radical change in the way we relate with others and create our society. The teachings of Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti are taken as valuable guidance as we seek to understand and transform ourselves through careful observation of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Our life thus becomes a kind of meditation wherein we are looking and listening to ourselves and others and gaining insight into the workings of our minds and hearts. The insights can spontaneously change us and our world.

Jackie McInley from the UK is visiting the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC, for the month of April. While here, she is facilitating a series of dialogue meetings where people can come together to consider these issues and share the process of self-exploration recommended by Krishnamurti in his talks and writings while he was living (1895 – 1986). This meeting, as her meetings usually are, was begun with an explanation by Jackie of what she feels to be the purpose and the way of going about the project of self-observation that can awaken an intelligence in us which can guide our living. What we find in our own exploration, Jackie said, can be shared with others in a group situation in such a way that can bring greater insight and understanding of our “conditioning” and the possibility of freedom from that conditioning. This is not merely an intellectual exercise but is a direct seeing of the contents of our minds as they are revealed in our interactions with each other, in “the mirror of relationship”.

The session was about ninety minutes in length. As it progressed the participants gradually shared more and more intimate details of sensitive aspects of their inner and outer world and the issues and challenges that were most important to them. We went quite deeply into the workings of fear in our thinking and felt experience and came to see that most or all of us have basically the same psychological problems and challenges that we struggle with and would like to resolve if possible. Jackie skillfully invited every member of the group to share what brought them to such a meeting and what issues they were deeply interested in exploring and learning to deal with in an effective way. This was the third such meeting offered in the past couple of weeks and it seemed to indicate a real possibility of meaningful inquiry.

DB

Self-Inquiry Meetup, April 9, 2023

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Self-Inquiry Meetup

With Jackie McInley

Swanwick Centre Metchosin

April 9, 2023

 

After a long period of non activity at the physical location of the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centre was re-opened to in-person gatherings. Our first on-site meeting was held on Sunday, April 9, 2023 at the Swanwick Road location at 3 pm. The meeting lasted for almost two hours and was attended by six participants in total, all of whom showed their proof of vaccine before the meeting started. The session was facilitated by Jackie McInley, who is visiting the Centre from the UK for the month of April. Up to this time, Jackie has been facilitating meetings via the Zoom online application.

Jackie asked that each participant share something about their motive for coming to the meeting, which gave each person an opportunity to share some details about themselves and their interest in J. Krishnamurti’s teachings. These introductions took some time to complete but were very interesting to hear. Jackie questioned people further in a skillful attempt to draw them out and to stimulate a deepening of inquiry into the issue of who or what we truly are. This led to a penetrating questioning and exploring of people’s perspectives and understandings of themselves and the process of self-observation that became the central subject of examination in the dialogue that spontaneously unfolded. There was a depth of subtle inquiring and sharing of insights which felt quite profound as participants took up the challenge of looking at themselves within the context of what was being brought forward by the members of the group. We had a prolonged and in-depth discussion about the nature of intelligence which was very revealing and rich with valuable insights, It seemed that everyone found the conversation to be very interesting, relevant, and promising of further meaningful inquiry in future meetings.

Choiceless Awareness, Part 2

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Choiceless Awareness, Part 2:

Awareness and Transformation

With Cynthia Overweg

Zoom Session, April 8, 2023.

 

Cynthia joined us from Ojai, California, for this Saturday morning online session exploring the teachings of J. Krishnamurti in which he often spoke of “choiceless awareness”. For most of us, Cynthia suggested, choice is a normal part of life. And yet in another realm we could call “choicelessness” it may be possible for human beings to be free of conditioning and this could change the world. All problems arise from the centre, the “me”, and to see its ways we must be silently observant without judgement and without looking for a result. K has said that “when thought is free of time there will be a timeless transformation.”

What do we mean by transformation? Cynthia asked. Like tilling a field, she responded, transformation requires intelligent persistence, not casual awareness at odd moments. The “how”, if there is one, is in the seeing. Seeing what one is is the beginning of transformation for the individual and for the world.

As she normally does, Cynthia guided the group of twenty participants into a short silent period of watching our breathing and relaxing the body and mind. She then conducted a short experiment with images she projected onto the screen, asking us to pay attention to our responses and our naming of the images – whatever arose in our experience. It was interesting to notice the different qualities of sensation and thought that the mind created in its observation of the images.

Cynthia spoke of the importance of compassion or love, which arises in seeing through the misconceptions of the “me”. Choiceless awareness transforms us and without the compassion that arises with its application there is no chance of a new culture appearing.

The fundamental obstacle to self-transformation is fear, which is, as K said, what makes us accept our conditioning. Uncertainty creates fear, but all the mind can do about it is to be passively aware without any choice, just being with “what is”. Then the mind becomes quiet and the problem of fear can be resolved. Space to observe is essential. Transformation can only take place immediately and out of that understanding comes love. This, Cynthia said, is the essence of K’s teaching.

A one-hour presentation was then followed by half an hour of discussion and further questioning. Topics explored were:

– The way Krishnamurti kept bringing his listeners back to the actuality or humaneness of what is and what we are.

– How does it work that the individual affects the whole world?

– Is love an energy?

– Does compassion require being “nice”? Was K nice?

– What is the deepest level of human consciousness?

– Simple kindness with each other

– The light of one star has power

– The importance of seeing and being seen on the personal level

– Standing in another’s shoes (or moccasins)

– Is what K is talking about a “process” which unfolds in us?

– The need to break up our habitual patterns of living

– Being in nature gives us energy to experience something deeper than technology and mechanical life.

Some people commented that such sharing is like spiritual food for which they feel grateful. Although it may not be quantifiable, such group communication contributes to the quality of life within us and beyond us. Why does a flower bloom? There is perhaps no “why”, but a finer energy is working in the Whole and we are learning to listen and to see.

 

DB

Self-Inquiry Meetup, April 5, 2023

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Self-Inquiry Meetup

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Gorge Park Pavilion

 

This was the first meeting sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada to be held in the new Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion in Victoria. We gathered in the Boardroom, a spacious square room with large windows allowing in plenty of light and providing a lovely view of the outside world of trees, bushes, grass, and the Gorge waterway. It was a most conducive setting for a dialogue organised for the purpose of exploring the fundamental “spiritual” question “Who am I?” within the context of an interest in the teachings of the East Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, 1895 – 1986. The process of investigation was explained very clearly by Jackie, a visitor from the UK staying at the Krishnamurti Centre in Metchosin for the month of April and facilitating small group sessions for those interested in understanding what Krishnamurti said about self-knowledge and applying his wisdom offerings to their own journey of discovery.

In addition to Jackie and two KECC staff (Ralph and David), there were six participants eager to explore the kind of questions Krishnamurti had spent most of his lifetime investigating and inviting people to join him and each other in a potentially profound process of uncovering their true nature and capacity for living a life of wholeness and happiness. Renowned physicist David Bohm became very interested in Krishnamurti’s approach to life and involved himself with such looking and listening over many years of collaboration with K.

As the meeting moved forward, there was a certain amount of questioning as to the form the meetings, to be held weekly, would be taking. Jackie offered suggestions about the possibilities of looking at our experience of life with fresh eyes rather than as an already known story that we are repeating in mechanical ways which reveal nothing strikingly alive and new.

Jackie then focused on each of the participants with the question, “What was it that attracted you to a meeting such as this?’ It was very interesting to hear participants speaking of their life experiences and the challenges that had led them to the present moment along with their interest in looking within themselves for a deeper understanding of self and life. As the sharing progressed, Jackie dropped in various suggestions about what we would be doing in the meetings, including the “practices” of watching or observing ourselves and our reactions to what was being shared. Could we listen carefully and with great sensitivity to ourselves and to each other, and could we notice when we are not listening? “Listening leads the way” was one way of expressing the central principle in the group’s inquiry. There was some discussion of the question, “Is it healthy to reveal our disturbances and difficulties as they (are bound to) arise in the dialogue interactions?” It was agreed by all that such revelation of our “sorrow” could be very meaningful and it would be good if our hearts could be open to such an exposure. Such insight could, as Krishnamurti had said, bring a kind of healing or freedom which could be very significant.

Participants seemed reluctant to bring the meeting to a close and keen about those planned for the future.

DB

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The Power of Loving Awareness, March 24 – 26, 2023

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The Power of Loving Awareness

March 24 – 26, 2023

With GP Walsh

Zoom Online

 

GP Walsh has joined us for a number of years now either in person or online from Seattle to facilitate weekend retreats to which participants are welcome from anywhere in the world. Most join us online from Canada or the US. In this case there were a total of seventeen attendees for the three session workshop entitled “The Power of Loving Awareness”.

Each meeting began with a short guided meditation led by GP and focusing on some aspects of our true nature as pure awareness. The basic question being explored was “Who am I?” GP asked a number of questions which might stimulate insights about our true identity (or lack of it) and which often drew from the world of Zen Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta. Is Awareness without an agenda our true nature? Are we the self-aware space in which all experience happens? Is there a sense of gratitude for being here? Can anything be experienced outside of awareness? These and many other questions were shared by GP in order to encourage a kind of looking which was beyond opposites and essentially indescribable. Nothing is rejected in this kind of inquiry and we embrace both the “nothingness” and the “somethingness” of life. In practical terms, to ask what we are not is sufficient to end human suffering.

Over the three days GP explored a good number of the teachings of Buddhism, including those about dealing with fear and anger. In Buddhism and other similar teachings, including those of J. Krishnamurti, inquiry into the workings of the mind and heart brings about happiness. In Buddhism, right practice is necessary and brings us to Being (which is still perceived by something which has no attributes). The mind is not an enemy but, rather, just a bunch of thoughts made of an awareness which could be called “loving awareness”. Freedom is to be okay with whatever is present. Can my sorrows be allowed to be present? Can my humanness be allowed? It is all impermanent and there is nothing we can do to make things perfect. This is It!

GP’s discourses were both profound and yet beyond explanation and “knowing”. Truth is full of paradoxes and yet can be a beautiful Mystery. The answers to the questions and the Zen koans are found in BEING the answer and in the opening of “the Heart”, not in intellectual concepts. GPs pointings and the group discussions explored the broad and challenging territory of non-dual self-inquiry and the insubstantiality of any position being taken about the nature of things. Is there anything “out there”? We were challenged to examine our processes of projection and belief in the existence of a separate self. GP pointed us to the experience of delight in the loving engagement with the nature of life, with the impersonal and the personal dimensions, with being fully present with “what is” right now. This is the “Buddha mind”. No path was being prescribed. We are our own true path if we are genuinely looking and inquiring into our experience, whether it is “positive” or “negative”. Belief in any story creates suffering and the need to choose eventually falls away (or not). Some quotes from Krishnamurti and others highlighted what GP was speaking of, including his statement that “relationship is a mirror in which we discover ourselves.”

The third meeting ended with time for personal questions from the participants, who asked about the nature of faith, ritual, and the tendency towards self-abuse and self-hatred, and not doing what we know is right. GP emphasised compassion for oneself and others and curiosity about what is happening and how “danger” is perceived.

We can also ask “What is the most loving thing to do in this moment?”