Self Study Meeting, October 3, 2021

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Self Study Meeting

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Zoom Online

Twelve people in total were in attendance for this Sunday morning meeting. The focus of the Self Study Meetings is to explore selections from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. For this session the selections were the February 22 – 28 entries grouped under the title “Good and Evil”. The material covers more than just the issue of good and evil and, more specifically, raised questions about Krishnamurti’s ideas on the topics of “awareness” and “attention” and their relation to goodness.

The meeting began with a guided meditation on “total awareness without effort”, a common theme with K. The participants then had plenty of observations and questions about awareness and attention. A number of us admitted that we probably do not know what “total awareness” actually is, or what Krishnamurti means by it, which led to an interesting discussion of varied aspects of the issue. It was suggested that using such words as “total” might create a sense of something to be achieved or something fantastic that is beyond our usual experience. Different possible meanings of the term were explored and the significance of “not knowing” was also looked into in a lively group discussion that bordered on argument at times when people were interrupted while speaking. There was some interesting dialogue about the importance of questions, going beyond questions, and the need to provide answers or not.

At the end of the meeting the facilitator (DB) asked if those who had found value in the dialogue would raise their hands. Everyone still in the meeting (a couple had left early) raised their hand. Sometimes the interactions in this group are quite challenging to moderate but it seems participants still appreciate the opportunity to discuss these matters with others.

Krishnamurti’s Notebook: A Retreat with Javier Gomez Rodriguez

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Krishnamurti’s Notebook

With Javier Gomez Rodriguez

September 24 – 26, 2021

Zoom online

 

Javier joined us online from the Netherlands for a three-part retreat exploring J. Krishnamurti’s writings as published in the form of Krishnamurti’s Notebook. The meetings were attended by twenty-two or twenty-three people in each case. Each of the three sessions was 1 ½ hours in length and consisted of a talk by Javier followed by some time for questions, comments, and inquiry. The book reveals details of K’s experience that he didn’t often discuss in his public talks and dialogues and is thus more personal and intimate than usual. Javier began with an introduction to the work that was first published in 1976 and describes some of the painful “process” K endured for many years along with more ecstatic experiences of ”benediction” and joy seemingly arising on a regular basis in K’s consciousness.

The issue of K’s engagement with “meditation” and the forms it took, along with some of the unusual phenomena experienced, were discussed in the context of his teachings which normally gave less detail about such matters. The question of awakening kundalini energy was touched on as an explanation of his “process” but then the focus shifted to K’s insistence that we need to face the facts of our lives, the suffering and the desires, without escaping from them. This releases a huge amount of energy which he felt was necessary in order to enter the realms of “truth” beyond the thinking mind and its projections and to contact the dimension he called “the other.” Consciousness must be emptied of its content. We must ask ourselves if we are addressing the fact of division and conflict in our lives. According to K, his meeting the reality of “death” freed him from the reality of thought. He spoke thereafter of the flowering and dying of thought and its expressions such as fear and loneliness.

Javier discussed some of the similarities between K’s experience and the traditional path of Christian mysticism, the importance of humility as a virtue in both approaches, and the central element of “seeing” for Krishnamurti. Seeing requires sensitivity, which is the essence of affection and compassion. Javier broke down the conditions that K seemed to feel were essential for “regeneration” to take place in human consciousness and for “creative energy” to be a reality in our lives.

– Simplicity of being

– Passion or total energy

– A sensitivity to beauty beyond thought and feeling

– Love and its immensity

– Awareness of the dimension where time is not predominant

– A capacity to wander freely beyond time and space – or openness to the “other”

The three sessions were a combination of talks by Javier along with opportunities to ask questions and to explore issues arising in the consideration of K’s spontaneous sharing of his insights and sensitive perceptions. Javier ended with a few readings of lovely passages from the text, which was followed by some appreciative feedback from participants about the quality of the retreat. It was hoped that Javier would offer further explorations and dialogues in the near future.

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group Meeting, September 19, 2021

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group Meeting

Sunday, September 19, 2021

Zoom online

 

There were eleven participants in attendance for this monthly meeting. Three group members had informed us prior to the meeting that they would not be able to attend and one other did not show up. We began with a period of quiet sitting, being fully present with whatever was arising without naming it. In the silence of an attentive mind the subtle movements of thought and the associated feelings can be seen and this seeing can have an impact on the consciousness. The intention for the meeting was to explore the topic of fear based on our own personal explorations since the previous meeting in August and, if time allowed, to look into the chapter entitled “Fear” in the Krishnamurti text The Urgency of Change. After the initial meditation participants were invited to share their discoveries regarding the source of their fears and the connections between thought and feelings. There was a great willingness to delve rather deeply into various aspects of fear as each one experiences them and to share them in a way that stimulated some meaningful sharing and insight. We touched on the issue of “emptiness” and the resistance to it, as well as the tendency of thought to project negative ideas onto the unknown. The conversation flowed harmoniously as people respectfully listened and expressed their insights and questions.

The richness of the sharing was such that the whole meeting was taken up with exploring the specific discoveries of the participants in their process of self-study. It was decided that we would visit the chapter on fear at our next meeting and perhaps choose a further selection to look into if time allows. There were a number of appreciations shared at the end of the session acknowledging the depth and value of the group communication.

A New Mind and Heart: The Ultimate Relationship

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A New Mind and Heart: The Ultimate Relationship

With Cynthia Overweg online

Saturday, September 18, 2021

 

Cynthia joined us from Ojai once again on a Saturday morning to continue the series entitled “A New Mind and Heart,” an exploration of J. Krishnamurti’s teachings. There were seventeen of us in attendance, all included. Cynthia began with the statement that the ultimate relationship is a unity in silence. “The mind and the heart are one,” Krishnamurti says, and “to live in this world sanely there must be a radical change of mind and heart.”

“What is relationship?” Cynthia asked. Krishnamurti taught that “relationship is a process of self-revelation in which one discovers the hidden causes of sorrow. This self-revelation is only possible in relationship… to live is to be related, and it is only in the mirror of relationship that I understand myself.” K kept turning the attention back to ourselves.

Cynthia interspersed the talking with periods of silence and full presence while listening to meditative music such as Tibetan bowls. She quoted Krishnamurti extensively along with her own understanding of the teachings. Points she made included his saying that the world is you and you are the world. Our problems are global problems and conflicts exist in all our relationships. Self-understanding requires earnestness and persistence. There is no guide – only you and your relationships. We are responsible for our experience, an assertion that often brings up some questions in people’s minds. In what sense is the statement true?

Cynthia guided the group in looking at and discussing together a number of issues. If relationship is tethered to the past, to memory, its movement is limited and brings suffering. The fog of conditioning distorts our perceptions. We explored the mind’s creation of images, with the division and conflict involved. The seeing of the “me” as it arises in thought, without praise or blame, makes a discovery out of every encounter and is the door to love and the “Immeasurable”.

Krishnamurti gives great importance to our relationship with the natural world and we were invited to be aware of this in ourselves and perhaps thus diminish the widespread human destruction of nature. The silent mind has a different quality of energy which can wipe away the past, and this matters in our world. Cynthia ended with her favourite quote from K: “When I understand myself I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.” The presentation was much enjoyed and appreciated by the participants.

The Art of Observation with Mukesh Gupta, September 12, 2021

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Meditative Self-Inquiry: The Art of Observation

With Mukesh Gupta

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Zoom Online

This was the first session in a Fall series on “Meditative Self-Inquiry” to be presented by Mukesh. Each session will be two hours in length with a portion being assigned to breakouts into small groups. There were thirteen participants including the presenter and two staff. After a short silent sitting, Mukesh introduced the meeting by saying that the art of observation is a very important aspect of Krishnamurti’s teachings. What is usually dominant in our daily lives is past memories and the thoughts associated with them. These are useful on one level but they tend to be active even when not needed. Psychological thought – such as comparing ourselves with others – is not useful; it creates division and conflict. Why, he asks, is thought so powerful, even though limited?

As soon as we pay attention, Mukesh pointed out, there is a different kind of energy that is not a part of the thinking process. This quality of attention is important in terms of self-transformation and is available at any moment. Real listening is this quality of attention. Nothing can block this observation which happens in a still mind. This attention reveals what is false and what is true. In this observing there is no judgement and no active “centre” or “me”.  We can pay attention to whatever is arising. Can we be attentive to inattention? This is the first step. Freedom is to see our conditioning as it arises. It is not a reaction and there is no effort in it. Things arise in consciousness, flower, and die: it is a natural process.

There were a number of questions from the attendees. Should our conditioning be kept somehow in abeyance? Is it possible not to use thinking in our response to what arises in us? What prevents this quality of observation and attention? In dialogue can we enter into states of beauty, love, and compassion beyond thought? These questions were then taken into smaller groups for more intimate exploration. After forty minutes everyone returned to the main group and continued with further discussion and closing words. The meeting was felt to be insightful and of value.

Self Inquiry and Nonduality with Hillary Rodrigues, August 27 – 29, 2021

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Self Inquiry and Nonduality
With Hillary Rodrigues
August 27 – 29, 2021
Zoom online

A long-time contributor and friend of the Krishnamurti Centre, Hillary was welcomed back to present a three day online workshop exploring the teachings of J. Krishnamurti in contrast to modern and ancient nondual teachings which have been attracting a great deal of interest in recent years. Sixteen people were in attendance for the event. Hillary began with the essential issue he wanted to consider with us: the possibility of having a transformative realization that is more real andexperiential than mere knowledge, which has its own place. Over the three sessions of 1 ½ hours he went into the history of nondualteachings such as Advaita Vedanta and the Upanishads in the Hindu tradition, including the teachings of Shankara, Buddhist teachings such as Zen, and modern offshoots such as Ramana Maharshi and current teachers such as Rupert Spira and Adyashanti. He then led an investigation of Krishnamurti’s teachings along similar lines and where there were at least apparent differences and emphases. Along the way we touched on various questions of identity, knowledge, and awareness,as well as some of the paradoxes that arise as the mind attempts to understand something which essentially cannot be grasped through thought. When asked to guess at the source of a number of quotes from different spiritual teachings it became apparent that it is in many cases difficult to distinguish between them.

When it came to looking at Krishnamurti’s expression of self inquiry, we spent some time exploring his approach to being with pain and
suffering. K gives great emphasis on not moving away from our suffering and not creating a duality between the observer and the observed or the “me” and the “other”. It is our movement away from “what is” that is the problem in that it creates a duality which results in conflict. When we stay with “what is”, it changes. This change leaves no residue and there is a transformation. These ideas were explored, sometimes very seriously and sometimes with a sense of humour and lightness which did not detract from the depth of the inquiry and the resulting sense of freedom and uncaused joy felt by some. Hillary’s integration of academic skillfulness and logic, along with his depth of direct realization of thatwhich he speaks, created a space where it was possible to touch at least a somewhat different dimension of consciousness. We are grateful for his ongoing participation in the life of the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada.

A New Mind and Heart: Beyond Violence with Cynthia Overweg, August 21, 2021

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A New Mind and Heart: Beyond Violence
With Cynthia Overweg
August 21, 2021, Zoom Online

Cynthia will be presenting a new series of explorations into the
teachings of J. Krishnamurti, continuing her “New Heart and Mind”
offerings on the third Saturday of each month for the rest of the year.
This presentation was entitled “Beyond Violence” and was attended by a
total of seventeen people, all included. Cynthia began by emphasizing
the significance given by Krishnamurti to the challenge of dealing
skillfully with human violence in our daily lives on both the individual and
the social levels. She reminded us that Krishnamurti said “the mind and
heart are one” and there is a need to understand and live this truth as we
seek to understand ourselves and our relationships.
Krishnamurti spoke of both physical and psychological violence. He
pointed out that we must find the source of violence and how it operates
in ourselves. This involves looking at our fears and observing the
interconnection of violence, fear, and authority. At the core, as long as
the “me” exists there will be violence, even if very subtle. Various
aspects of violence were discussed and a crucial question was posed.
What is a person to do when he or she sees the situation? How do we
change a violent world? It was suggested that we must change within
ourselves so that we resolve our fears and can live free of conditioning.
One of the many K quotes shared by Cynthia was “the art of seeing is
the only truth.” Learning to see is the core of freeing ourselves from
conditioning. This requires and in turn produces a quiet mind. Learning
happens instantly and, at the same time, demands a lifetime of work.
Cynthia’s talk was interspersed with short periods of silence with
appropriate musical accompaniment in order to bring the attention to
present-moment observing. After about an hour the meeting was opened
up to questions and discussion. There seemed not to be a big need for
analysis and thought, so there was an atmosphere of quietude in the
group, with a few more relevant K quotes added. Cynthia ended with her
favourite quote (which is her own): “When I understand myself, I
understand you and out of that understanding comes love.” It was
another lovely “meditation” with Cynthia.

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group Meeting, August 15, 2021

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Zoom Online

     Nine participants attended this month’s gathering, with a few alerting us they would be involved with necessary activities and unable to be present. The meeting began with a guided meditation exploring the quality of attention to the “outer” and the “inner” suggested by Krishnamurti in his talks and writings. We then focused on the chosen readings for the month, beginning with the chapter entitled “Dependence” near the end of the Krishnamurti book The Urgency of Change. K enters into a discussion of the topic with a “questioner” and brings up the issue of attachment and resistance. We alternatively read passages from the text and then explored the questions, observations, and experiences that group members were moved to share related to their own study of the chapter. A dialogue took place that was quite alive and seemingly not without some conflict, which was absorbed into the movement of the inquiry. We looked at the issue of attachment to objects, to ideas and concepts, as well as to people and relationships. This involves possessiveness in different forms.

     Krishnamurti points out in the chapter that, although attachment gives rise to various problems and to pain, the solution is not to become detached. Neither attachment or detachment brings the freedom that we feel is necessary for living without division and the conflict of opposites. Both are forms of resistance. What is necessary is a flow of life like a river without any boulders. It was suggested that each of us must do the inquiry into our true nature that dissolves the barriers to the natural “flow” and awakens a life of harmony. These truths were explored and expanded in a number of ways by the participants, sometimes with a sense of resonance and sometimes less so. It was suggested that we can be in a continuous process of looking, listening, and learning about ourselves, and that our interactions can be fuel for the seeing and insight that is the essence of that process. It was asked if we can be both individuals and, at the same time, a “part” of an undivided reality. Although the ideas may have been expressed in slightly different words, these were some of the issues we investigated and which seemed to be valuable to explore. It is not easy to describe precisely all the elements of such a meeting that is alive and spontaneous.

     We had planned to look into the chapter headed “Fear” because of its close links with the “Dependence” chapter, but there was not enough time to do so. It would probably be appropriate to tackle the “Fear” chapter at our next meeting in September.

July 21st Westcoast Stillness Within Meetup – Nisargadatta (virtual gathring)

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Posting a few notes from the meetup last month:

A handful of us got together on July 21st for a virtual exploration of Nisargadatta Maharaj’s key discoveries about the nature of self, existence and reality. The concepts were challenging yet somehow also familiar to each of us in different ways. This practice of exploring our direct experience with curiosity and an open mind, is something that Krishnamurti celebrated – suggesting that: [i]In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself[/i].

For ten or so minutes, we listened to https://krishnamurti-canada.ca consisting of a series of quotes from Nisargadattta’s book I Am That, and then explored whether/how these concepts resonated or felt aligned with our current experience.

The quotes were somewhat like koans, and for me, once the mind stopped stretching to grasp, there was a sweet echo of something known – once the seeming ‘knower’ melted into its own futility. A few of these quotes follow – included as an invitation here now to sit with each one for a few moments before reading the next:

[center][i]“You are beyond the experiencer, ever unborn and ever deathless.”
“What comes and goes has no being.”
“The Absolute precedes time; the Absolute is.”
“Both the subject and the object exist in you, but you are neither.”[/i][/center]

We followed our debrief/sharing with a practice called Group Awareness, sinking in to our source of awareness even more fully.

Thanks to the group for showing up, and leaning into their own direct experience in such a powerful way! And thanks to Krishnamurti Centre of Canada for their support for these meetups.

P.S. Feel free to chime in if this topic resonates in any way…

The Ending of Time, July 22 – 25, 2021

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The Ending of Time

July 22 – 25, 2021

Zoom Online

 

This four-part workshop was presented by Mukesh Gupta from Varanasi, India, over four days. The focus of inquiry was the text The Ending of Time, a collection of conversations between J. Krishnamurti and renowned physicist Davi Bohm in which they explore in a number of meetings the possibility and importance of ending psychological time or ending the effort to become something one is not. Including the facilitator and staff, the event was attended by nineteen people.

Mukesh began by introducing the book and the relationship between Krishnamurti and David Bohm. He also explained that the material discussed in the text was very challenging and demanding, perhaps likely to bring students to a point of “not-knowing” or feeling unable to move in any direction towards meaningful answers to the questions raised by the two dialoguers. This, he said, may not be a bad thing at all. Mukesh made it clear that he is always learning about these deep issues and is not to be considered an authority.

The first question raised in the text is whether mankind at some point made a mistake in its understanding of life and has been suffering ever since from the results of it. After some inquiry, it was seen that the origin of the problem may not be so important but, rather, the mistake that thought is making every time it conceives of life, the world, and the self in terms of duality and separateness. The mistaken belief that we are all separate from each other and from the world Is the basis for our psychological suffering. This is not rational thinking; it creates division and conflict in all areas of life. K, David Bohm, Mukesh, and presumably the rest of us, are asking whether this false division in our thinking can be seen clearly and thereby dissolved. Thought could then take its right place in our lives.

Over the four days of the workshop a number of interrelated questions and issues were explored in addressing the core issue of going beyond the psychological self and its constructs or beliefs. Can there be an understanding or insight into the nature of thought and from that a living in freedom from fear and conflict? This was explored from different angles in smaller groups and the whole group together. And then there was the question raised by K and Bohm as to whether there is a “Ground” which is beyond the self and even beyond the ‘universal mind”. This seemed to stretch our capacities of comprehension but possibly awakened a sense of intensity in the inquiry. Can there be a depth and intensity of listening to another and to oneself that can open a door to that which is beyond the limited egoic self? When thought is silent at its core, then another form of intelligence may be able to act within our daily existence and a flowering of a life without division and conflict may take place. This does not happen through control and effort but, rather, through observation and insight.

It was a very interesting and “hopefully” fruitful exercise in dialogue and inquiry and we thank Mukesh for the dedication required to create such an experience. Thanks also to the participants for joining as co-creators of the happening.