Exploring Ourselves, March 19, 2023

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Exploring Ourselves

Sunday, March 19, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Zoom online

 

Jackie joined us online from the Krishnamurti Foundation of America property in Ojai, California. She will be moving to the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada outside of Victoria, BC, for the month of April where she will be available for various in-person and virtual events which will be listed on the KECC website (https://krishnamurti-canada.ca). Jackie opened the meeting by mentioning the value of the blogs written by David and summarising the content of the group dialogue meetings. The meetings have normally been taking place on the first and third Sundays of the month over the past year or so. She pointed to the usefulness of the short reports describing the unfolding of the meetings and the central issues explored. She then asked for a short period of silence. This is the usual way of beginning a meeting where the intention is to meditate on the nature of ourselves within the context of the teachings of J. Krishnamurti (without being reliant on his words).

After about five minutes of silence Jackie and others brought forth some pointed questions which were felt to be relevant to the kind of exploration being invited. One participant asked if any question or comment might be an interference. Is it possible to be together without having a motivation and pursuing some kind of need? This prompted Jackie to ask “What is the point of dialogue?” Is the purpose the uncovering of the human being as he or she actually is rather than as he/she would like to be? And are we looking for something in our inquiry? Some of the other questions that arose were as follows:

– What are we not noticing in ourselves?

– Can we bring the unconscious into our awareness?

– Can we listen even when there is a disturbance?

– If we follow what the mind (or thought) wants then are we looking at “what is”?

– Can we take up the invitation to be attentive to a larger truth than that of the mind?

– Why do we give importance to what thought is producing or the self expressing? Are we interested in looking into the issue or the process?

Further discussion brought us to an inquiry into the phenomenon of disturbance. Does feeling disturbed tend to bring a reaction of isolating ourselves? On the other hand, can we allow disturbance to wake us up? Can we look and listen as if for the very first time? Can we see when we are thinking unconsciously and our thoughts are creating disturbance? Can dialogue be a sharing of what is normally kept hidden? Why do we avoid this? One person offered that we tend to resort to easy and comfortable answers and solutions.

As a group we explored issues around the fear of entering into disturbance and the feelings of vulnerability that arise. Is the group ignoring the pain that comes up in exploring these kinds of issues? The experience of shame drew our attention for some time and its validity or non-validity. Is shame just a result of conditioning? How do we know what is right and wrong? Is there a sensitivity to right and wrong which doesn’t need the experience of shame? Can shame be a mechanism of appropriate correction of behaviour?

Krishnamurti’s suggestion that we be “choicelessly aware” was brought forward as a way that consciousness may shift from being mind-centred to heart-centred, which can be a significant shift in how we live. Can this bring into our consciousness a guiding intelligence? Finally, it was asked if dialogue is a way of avoiding the real issues or is it a real way of dealing with them intelligently?

DB

Exploring Ourselves, March 12, 2023

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Exploring Ourselves

March 12, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Zoom Online

 

Jackie joined us via Zoom from Ojai, California. At the beginning of the session there were 13 participants in total but a couple more arrived as the meeting got going. In her introductory talk, Jackie mentioned the value of David Bohm’s work on dialogue wherein he shared richly with Krishnamurti and others. In particular she found it interesting how he explored the quality of attention necessary to function in a manner that went beyond thought. What was the space of “not knowing” that Bohm liked to look into and which provided a sense of “shared meaning” in his dialogue meetings. How do we get into that space of “beyond thought” or attention? She suggested that a good beginning was the act of “listening”. Then there seemed to be an inevitable arising of an image or images and a giving of more importance to some images than to others. As a group we explored the factor of thinking that is beyond our conscious awareness but at the same time is creating our experience of life or reality. We are mostly unaware of our thinking process while it is inventing a “me” and guiding that “me” in its responses and reactions.

We looked into the issue of “Identification” and the creation of our identity, especially the role of memory as an abstraction which nevertheless determines much of our experience of reality. Jackie felt that the dialogue today was one of a great richness of discovery as we looked at the workings of thought and its creation of images, memories, and interpretations. Our images are mistaken for reality, which is a very serious matter! It is how we can end up killing each other. Krishnamurti and Bohm gave great importance to “thinking together” because it meant penetrating the illusions of thought so they are not believed to be worth going to war over. Does “thinking together” mean questioning our assumptions and finding a quality of freedom in the spaciousness of such inquiry?

Choiceless Awareness, March11, 2023

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Choiceless Awareness

With Cynthia Overweg

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Zoom Online

 

Cynthia joined us online from Ojai, California, the site of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America. She will be presenting a series of four meetings which invite an exploration of the theme of “Choiceless Awareness”, a central element in the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, and what he had to say about it. For this first gathering there were twenty-one participants, including interested seekers, facilitators, and support staff. The format of the sessions will be power point presentations and following discussion periods along with short periods of silence and listening to beautiful music in which participants will be encouraged to be grounded with feet on the floor and to be fully present with whatever is arising in the space of Awareness. The silent breaks offer an opportunity to integrate the words of Krishnamurti that have been shared as well as the words of wisdom that may have been shared by the group members.

The first session was entitled “Approaching Choiceless Awareness”. Cynthia asked “What is awareness without choice?” First there is awareness, a silent observation of “what is”, then there is choice, like and dislike, and interpretation of what is observed, including descriptive words or naming, with their conditioned ideas. Krishnamurti asks if we can be aware without choice, interpretation, and words. He asks us to look into the “mirror of relationship”. Seeing the workings of our minds in relationship, K says that every form of conditioning is dissolved. In the perception of what is there is freedom from what is.

Cynthia suggested that awareness and attention are synonymous. They both point to an observing of the “me” which spontaneously brings about a capacity for stillness and silence in the mind. In such stillness the “Immeasurable” can reveal itself and the human being can experience “bliss”. Other ideas shared by Cynthia were as follows:

– There is a relationship between relaxation and attention

– The mind cannot understand if it looks only at its judgements and opinions

– “Only when the mind is not self-concerned is there a possibility of bliss”. (K)

– “When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love” (Cynthia)

After an hour of sharing ideas and experiencing periods of silence the floor was open to questions, comments, and discussion. There were a good number of appreciations from the students along with questions exploring the topic of embodying awareness and the challenges involved with being simply relaxed and open. How can we have space to see what our thinking is doing without getting caught up in what is being observed? What is the connection between choiceless awareness and intelligent action? How do we find a balance between intensity of awareness and the need to rest? What is the difference between reacting and responding to situations? What is total attention and total energy? Can we be kind to ourselves as we observe? Is awareness sustainable or does it come and go?

Other interesting subjects explored to some extent were joy, adventure, Being and Becoming, and “generosity of giving attention”. The exploration will continue in the next three sessions. Information can be found on the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada website

Exploring Ourselves, February 19, 2023

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Exploring Ourselves

Sunday, February 19, 2023

With Jackie McKinley

Zoom Online

 

Jackie joined us from the Krishnamurti Centre in Ojai, California. There were a total of fifteen in attendance for the Sunday morning meeting. After the usual opening silent period, Jackie posed a few questions, focusing the attention of the group on the reaching for clarity in the exploration of ourselves, a clarity that seems often illusive. In this case, the endeavour involved looking at questions and issues such as the nature of “image” and “awareness”. Given that the human mind is generally strongly conditioned, Jackie asked what can interrupt our normal way of conditioned perceiving. Is sustained questioning the necessary action? Does it mean looking from a state of non-accumulation? Perhaps it is “doubting” that is the essential action that can generate something new in our consciousness. It was suggested that, rather than attempting to give answers, we could engage in ongoing questioning.

Ideas offered by participants included examining the “mirror of relationship” concept put forward by Krishnamurti in his talks and writings. The idea of image as a “representation” of reality espoused by another spiritual teacher was suggested as a possibly useful way of looking at the thought process. This was in turn challenged with the question, “Can we question our representations?”

Further exploration generated such questions as “Can we all question together?”, “Are we afraid to doubt?”, and “Can we love the responses to our questions rather than judging them?” One participant commented that he felt the sharing had become very fluid and had moved beyond the naming of our experience. Another offered that we may have entered into a state of “choiceless awareness”, another term often used by J. Krishnamurti. It seemed that this was a good place to bring the meeting to a close which might also be a new beginning.

Know Thyself, February 10 – 12, 2023

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Know Thyself

February 10 – 12, 2023

With Kathryn Jeffries, Ph.D

Zoom Online

 

Kathryn joined us from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where she is a Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Education. She is the author of a number of publications including Awake: Education for Enlightenment and Wide Awake: Anatomy of Awakening. She is a certified facilitator of “The Work of Byron Katie” and has studied the teachings of J. Krishnamurti in great depth. While introducing herself to the workshop participants and staff, Kathryn mentioned that conducting a workshop online was a new experience for her. There were twelve people present in total for this event.

Kathryn spoke about her vision of self-inquiry, which for her is a movement beyond abstraction to a way of knowing beyond thought. There are two aspects to it: 1) identifying what we are thinking and believing in a given moment, and 2) questioning the beliefs and conclusions that thought has produced. Rather than attempting to solve problems, it is more a question of seeing how the problem is created by our thinking and thereby accessing a different state of mind. In order to demonstrate the process of questioning our thoughts, Kathryn made use of the methods developed and taught by Bryon Katie. These essentially involve writing down our concepts and then investigating them in an organised manner which often leads to profound insights about ourselves and meaningful shifts in how we are seeing the world and other people. Over the three days of the workshop, we experimented with Katie’s mode of inquiry and dealt with the queries about the process which naturally arose as we engaged with our own minds and our desires for understanding of others, ourselves, and the inquiry process itself. There was a good deal of discussion about the similarities and differences between Krishnamurti’s approach to self-knowledge and that of Bryon Katie. We engaged with processes of self-inquiry which offered opportunities to see ourselves freshly and in revealing ways in the “mirror of relationship” provided by the questions and also central to the “meditation” recommended by Krishnamurti. Both K and Katie assert that self-inquiry is all we need in order to come upon a meaningful sense of who or what we truly are and to live from that realisation of our nature.

Kathryn’s presentations were very useful in showing us an effective way to combine the perspectives of Krishnamurti and those of Byron Katie in deepening our understanding and “skill” in looking at ourselves.

DB

Exploring Ourselves, February 5, 2023

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Exploring Ourselves

February 5, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Zoom online

 

Thirteen men and women were present for this Sunday morning meeting. Most were regular attendees but it seemed quite interesting that one new member of the group was originally from Nepal and had Tibetan roots. He was welcomed warmly into the dialogue environment and seemed to be quickly at home with our style of self-exploration. He had apparently studied Krishnamurti’s teachings to a significant degree and was able to converse easily on the subject of self-knowledge. It soon became clear that we were focused on a deep exploration of the aspects of human conditioning which create an attachment to certain beliefs, assumptions, and ideas of what is necessary in our thought and behaviour. As usual, Jackie led the group by questioning any assumptions that arose and was willingly joined in the endeavour by everyone present. One of the participants asserted that he questioned everything he thinks and he appeared to find no argument there. The issue of the “observer” and the “observed” was proposed as being perhaps the central habit of thought creating conflict and confusion. It was said that “experimentation” is necessary in order to go beyond what the mind says is necessary. A crisis may need to happen in us before we can clearly see the harm done by the division between the “I” and the world. We may need to face the fact of psychological death.

The inquiry moved into the issue of listening. What is the quality of our listening to each other? Can we see or hear what is being said or can we see the impediments to deeply listening as they arise? Are we interpreting what is being said rather than conversing in a state of clarity? Can we listen to ourselves at the same time we are listening to others? Is our listening revealing things or obscuring them? Can we observe without judgement or without “intention” in the form of an agenda? How does an interest in finding out fit in? It was suggested that seeing what thought is doing weakens its “drivenness” and dissolves its tendency to become solid. The result may then be a greater spaciousness and openness. As we moved along we were regularly challenged by Jackie, our facilitator, to keep questioning all conclusions and assertions of “knowing”. This seems to keep the energy of the group and of the dialogue from getting bogged down with an acceptance of ideas that may be less than fully true or supportive of freedom. There is a sense of digging tentatively – and yet possibly more deeply – into the nature of reality and the consciousness of the human being (which is us).

DB

Exploring Ourselves, January 29, 2023

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Exploring Ourselves

With Jackie McInley

Sunday, January 29. 2023

Zoom online

 

Jackie joined us from Ojai, California, to lead us skillfully through this Sunday morning meeting. The dialogue was attended by sixteen people, including Jackie and KECC staff, Ralph and David. There were a number of participants new to sessions at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada but they seemed to have no trouble blending harmoniously with the flow of the dialogue and its way of inquiry into the nature of our experience as human beings.

Jackie began the meeting with some questions and concepts that laid out to some degree the structure and unfoldment of our explorations. “Do we feel free,” she asked, “to share whatever is going on in us? Is there a sensitive listening to each other? Do we have ideas and images about others and about ourselves?

The subject of fear came up in the conversation, as it often does, with some examples of fear in life situations and the need for action. Some fears were considered to be abstract and some more real, some more physical and others more psychological. How often do we avoid looking directly at our problems and what is it we don’t want to look at? Can we face the actual state that is present in our consciousness? Without any relief, what happens? Without a solution, what happens? Are we in danger of being destroyed?

The issue of identification with thoughts was brought in, along with the duality created by such identification. Are they even “my” thoughts, it was asked. What assumptions are mixed in with our thinking and with our pure seeing? What do we really know to be true and do we really know anything? What is a result of insight and what of thoughts and assumptions? Is the “freshness” of our seeing something to do with its “truth” (as Krishnamurti has written)? What happens when we hold a question without giving an answer?

The meeting came to a close with a period of silence

DB

Meeting Life, January 20 – 22, 2023

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Meeting Life

January 20 – 23, 2023

With Mukesh Gupta and Ann Engels

Zoom online

 

Mukesh joined us from Agra in India and Ann from Belgium in order to form a strong team which provided a loving and sensitive environment for a group of eleven inquirers to explore the topic of “Meeting Life” for a period of three days. Each day offered a couple of hours of contemplation in a large space of silence, awareness, and love that Ann invited us to create together. Each day she guided us in an opening meditation which immediately brought a sense of spacious silence. Mukesh then asked us to be simply aware of our experience in the present moment. Can we meet this moment’s reality with a silent stillness that implies meeting everything in ourselves and in our experience?

Usually we are meeting life from our past memories and projections, Mukesh pointed out. Is the quality of this “meeting” limited or are we meeting life from the wholeness of our being, with all our senses? Can there be listening from the space of silence and attention? If there is, then whatever is false will fall away and what is true will remain. The mind is naturally quiet when engaged in looking and listening. No force or suppression is needed. We are simply aware of how thought is creating “noise” and this awareness brings a spontaneous silence and a seeing of what is arising. Whatever arises passes away like a cloud in a blue sky but the sky remains as it is.

Is it possible, Mukesh asked, to see the futility of effort and conflict? Can the noise be understood in clear seeing? He spent a little time describing the process of thought which creates conflict and noise and the significance of naming our experience in the pursuit of happiness or desire. Mind is pursuing its own idea of happiness depending on conditions, but what is it that is searching for happiness as a seeker? Are we creating a separation? Understanding ourselves is essential. It requires inner silence and awareness beyond thought and “ego” as a noisy mind cannot meet life in any new way. To be aware of this fact brings peace.

After a five-minute silent break we continued with questions and discussion. Many interrelated perceptions were shared and the reality of the “separate self” was questioned, The topic of Silence was looked into from numerous angles and its existence in the here and now was acknowledged and given value. In silence the desires of the mind can be seen and dissolved. The energy of silence may even invoke that same energy in others and the truth of this was reported to be felt in the group.

The theme of the second day was Awareness. Again, there was a lovely guided meditation with Ann and a talk by Mukesh. Some of the significant differences between thought and awareness were explored and time spent with their many implications. The limitations of judgement and belief in “good” and “bad” were looked at and the presence of attention and awareness right from the beginning of self-inquiry were suggested. We explored the desire to change the way things are and the problems it generates. After examining awareness from a number of viewpoints it was expressed that it acts without goal or motive and is, in fact, a kind of “deep love” with a transformational quality.

About half way through the session it was suggested that we break into smaller groups. This option was reported to create a greater intimacy and depth in the investigation and it was employed again on the third day of the workshop. After the breakout sessions the whole group reconvened to share the experience.

The theme of the third day was “Love”. There was a sense that we had prepared the ground for such an exploration and were perhaps able to enter it more “skillfully” than in the first hours of the workshop. Ann read some passages from Rumi and Krishnamurti which seemed right on target and led to fruitful “meditation”. The quote from K was as follows: “Can all that is not love be washed away? If we don’t know what to do, then do absolutely nothing…. then there is love.” This quote stimulated a rich discussion of the factor of “not knowing” in the unfoldment of self-knowledge. There were long silences and a quality of stillness in the group as the meeting moved on through the days. As Ann said in her concluding thoughts, the weekend was “a beautiful, slow sharing of awareness and love.”

DB

Exploring Ourselves, January 15, 2023

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Exploring Ourselves

Sunday, January 15, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Zoom Online

 

Jackie facilitated this online meeting from Ojai, California. There was a total of eighteen people present for the two-hour session which ran from 10 am to about 12:15 pm. A number of the participants were new to dialogue and others had attended other dialogue gatherings but not with our group and not with Jackie, who therefore outlined some of the principles of dialogue to get us started. She pointed to a central element of dialogue and self-inquiry in the fact that the human mind is conditioned, which makes the study of it quite challenging. Instead of being driven by the conditioned mind, is it possible to give it space to emerge and reveal itself, to not judge it but to look at what it is and to share what comes out? Can we look at the activities of the thinking mind without overly analysing them or adding further thought, which only keeps us in an endless loop of thinking? Is it not more fruitful to engage in seeing, perceiving, and direct understanding? Are these separate or are they the same? Some group members introduced the necessity to explore the reality of fear and specifically the fear of death, dissolution, and the ending of the self.

Some interactions amongst the group brought in the issue of the “I” and its responsibility for the desire to be “right” or “safe” and “secure”. The identification with the “I” was considered to be a major cause of psychological disturbance in a multi-faceted way. As we examine ourselves, what is being revealed and what is not being revealed? What is seen and what is not seen? Do we have a choiceless observation of ourselves and an ongoing learning? How can we be aware of ourselves when the self is interfering in the questioning itself? What is authentic observation? Does the observer begin to replace observing and can there be a shift from the observer to observing (without the “me”)? Such questions were the stimulus for focused looking and listening. Participants contributed interesting questions and insights throughout and thereby created an atmosphere of curiosity and penetrating perception. It seemed we were not easily ready to come to the end of the meeting. Many seemed to be inspired to carry the energy of the gathering into our daily lives.

 

DB

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