Archive for category: Event Summaries

A New Mind and Heart: Awakening to Inner Freedom

With Cynthia Overweg

Saturday, April 17, 2021.

Zoom online

 

This was the third of four presentations by Cynthia Overweg from Ojai, California, exploring the teachings of J. Krishnamurti and inspired by his statement that the world is in such a crisis that we need a “new mind and heart” in order to effectively meet the challenges facing us. This particular session was focused on “Authority and Fear”, both very central issues in K’s teachings, and was attended by 25 people in total. Cynthia’s format is to share a number of quotes by Krishnamurti and then speak of each one. Later in the meeting she opens the floor for discussion and dialogue. There are also a number of breaks for tuning in and relaxation, which are both essential in appreciating K’s approach to self-knowledge and inquiry. Central to the process is the seeing of our psychological reactions to what life presents. We may have to see the reactions many times before they fade away. Connections were made between our self-understanding and issues that the Covid pandemic provokes in us. What K suggests in terms of observation and being with our experiences can bring about a different quality of attention and awareness in which our problems may be resolved or dissolved.

During the discussion segment of the meeting a number of questions arose concerning love and fear. There are many kinds of fear, including the fear of losing love. And what is love? Seeing the fear ends it in that moment if we are not identified with it. There is no formula or technique, but compassion for ourselves and others can arise when we are able to stay with the fear. Love may then be a sense of total union. For Cynthia, a key statement (of K’s) is the following:

“When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that arises love.”

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Zoom online

For various reasons three of the regular group members were unable to attend the Sunday morning meeting online. There were ten of us present, which was enough for a lively discussion of the chapter in The Urgency of Change entitled “The Seeker”. Picking up where we had left off in our February meeting, we investigated some of the challenging questions raised in Krishnamurti’s inquiry with the “questioner” in the book. The first question we took up was about our capacity to receive “the immensity” of that which is beyond thought and beyond the seeking of the egoic consciousness. The exploration touched on the resistance of thought to silence and stillness, which Krishnamurti deems essential for self-discovery and which, he says, are far more important than our usual activities of thought. We cannot do anything to create love, but there is another kind of action which opens our “minds” to the beauty and immensity of that state or experience. What that “action” is and what are the obstacles thrown in by the thinking mind or “ego” were perhaps considered to be the most significant issues needing understanding or insight, and the energy directed towards such inquiry seemed to be of value and worth.

In the next meeting we will look at the chapter entitled “Organization” and explore the ways in which thought creates division. Perhaps we can get a sense of what it means to transcend such division with its inevitable conflict.

Meditative Self-Inquiry with Mukesh Gupta

Saturday and Sunday, March 13 and 14, 2021

Zoom online

 

This was the second in a series of four presentations by Mukesh on meditative self-inquiry. The weekend events feature a talk on the Saturday followed by a dialogue on Sunday further exploring the material covered in the Saturday session. This weekend the focus was on “the awakening of intelligence”. Each of the Saturday and Sunday events were attended by 16 people, all included.

Mukesh began the meeting with a short meditation inviting participants to be fully attentive to all that is arising in their awareness. He then asked the question “Do we live in an intelligent manner?” Our human history is one of almost constant war and our way of thinking creates division and therefore conflict. Human thought does not operate with intelligence. According to Krishnamurti, the mind must be silent for intelligence to function. There must be a listening, a watchfulness, which brings in an energy that can discover what is false and what is true, that is an energy of love and not of the self. It is an openness which sees the nature of the observer, which is available to all, and which is already present. We only have to listen to it and observe without interference from the past. This energy of seeing and listening is not conditioned; it is a learning about ourselves. If we are not watching and listening, the very noticing of that fact is awakening intelligence. Thought has a place, but we must see the danger of unexamined images and beliefs. This seeing is available to us without cultivation. Lack of awareness (ignorance) is the cause of suffering but the studying of ignorance brings freedom, love, and compassion.

After a forty-five minute presentation the meeting was opened to questions from the participants to which Mukesh responded in his usual skillful way. Some suggested reading material, mostly on the subject of the awakening of intelligence, was distributed for contemplation prior to the Sunday meeting,

The Sunday gathering began with quiet meditation experimenting with awareness. The group was then split into four smaller units, which allowed for some intimate discussion of the nature of intelligence. Finally, we shared again in the full group format. Appreciation was expressed for the opportunity to inquire into Krishnamurti’s teachings within a group context, which provides a useful mirror for seeing ourselves.

Living the Non-dual Understanding

Online Retreat with Burt Harding

February 26 – 28, 2021

 

Burt Harding from Vancouver has become an annual presenter at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in recent years. On this occasion, his three-day retreat was entitled “Living the Non-Dual Understanding” and was attended by 16 people, including Burt, his assistant Suzy and two KECC staff. Each session was ninety minutes in length and included a talk by Burt as well as time for questions from the participants and responses from Burt. Suzy was very helpful in encouraging Burt to expand upon his ideas and in asking relevant and useful questions about the material.

Burt began on Friday by sharing an “out-of-body” experience he had in 2007, when he felt a total of fear and a powerful presence of love. He added a couple of additional profound happenings that provided deep insights. He then spoke in more detail of the reality of who or what we really are – awareness – and of the need to examine and face the illusions of thought that tell us we are separate beings who are destined to die. Suffering is the result of believing we are separate entities and the resulting fear of our emptiness and impermanence. Fear is not wrong, he said, but is, on the contrary, a teacher pointing to love, our essential nature.

On the second day, Burt spoke of “the four unknown facts of reality” about which he wrote a book some time ago.

1/ Our true nature is an unbounded, perfect energy that contains all the wisdom of the ages. It came to Burt to call it “Emptiness”, but it is the opposite of a void.

2/ For humans our greatest fear is of emptiness, but when we go into it the fear dissolves and the apparent emptiness turns into love.

3/ All problems are healed by forgiveness. Forgiving ourselves and others brings us ever closer to our true nature as love.

4/ A key is to trust the “I Am” or Beingness and not to believe our thoughts which tell us there is something wrong or lacking. Discomfort arises when we identify with the personality. We can see it’s causes, say “Thank you” to it, and it will release.

 

Burt went into further aspects of the four facts on Saturday and then delved further into the subject of forgiveness on Sunday, when he spoke of the practicalities of forgiving ourselves and others and the need to do so with all the little judgements that arise in our daily lives. He related his points to some quotes by Krishnamurti about love and the quiet mind. Participants were able to ask questions and make comments when a desire arose to grasp Burt’s sometimes challenging ideas fully. It seemed that most were very satisfied with the retreat experience and grateful for the opportunity to engage in such a learning process.

Truth is a Pathless Land: Exploring the Core of J. Krishnamurti’s Teachings

With Mukesh Gupta online

January 21 – 24, 2021

 

This series of four online events was designed to examine carefully the essential elements of Krishnamurti’s teachings as he described them himself in a short written document requested by his biographer Mary Lutyens and entitled “The Core of the Teaching”. It was first published in 1983. The text is included in a small booklet which includes “Truth is a Pathless Land”, the speech given by Krishnamurti on the occasion of his dissolving of the Order of the Star on August 3, 1929. Twenty-two people were present for the first presentation with Mukesh Gupta, a number that remained almost exactly constant throughout the four sessions. Mukesh joined us online from Varanasi, India, presented the text to the group, and went through it with accompanying commentary based on his own deep study of K’s teachings. The format for the four meetings was very similar, beginning with about a fifty-minute talk with screen sharing of the text and spontaneous exposition of the material. The talk was then followed by a question and answer period of about forty minutes. Some of the questions addressed in the first talk and Q & A were the following:

– What is Truth? Why is there no path to it? K denies the tradition of a path. Truth is neither a thing nor an object.

– The human being must understand himself, the contents of his mind, which he can discover in the mirror of relationship.

– Observing the contents of the mind is different than thinking about them, labelling, judging, evaluating, and making an effort to change the contents. Observing is simply watching from a silent mind without an observer.

– The causes of our problems are the images created by thought which divide man from man. Images are an attempt to find a security which does not exist.

– The search for security only causes insecurity. Attachment to images creates division and conflict. This fact must be observed and the danger of it clearly seen, then a letting go can happen. Direct seeing is the key.

A variety of issues and questions related to the opening points shared by Mukesh – and to further ideas presented in each session – were presented and explored over the course of the four sessions. The talks were clear and insightful and the participants’ questions were penetrating and significant in eliciting many important and central aspects of the teachings. There was a sense of practicality in the questions and responses, with an intention to grapple with K’s teachings in a meaningful way. The sessions came to a focus on the last day when Mukesh presented a quote that he felt contains the whole of the teachings: “Total negation is the essence of the positive”. He explored the statement with the participants in some depth and emphasized that “passion” is necessary in the inquiry into the nature of ourselves. His closing words were to the effect that it is important to be simple in our exploration and not to get caught in words and concepts or in measuring ourselves and our progress.

We are grateful for Mukesh’s dedication and skill in creating this retreat and in making Krishnamurti’s teachings more available and understandable. We look forward to further presentations he will be giving in the year ahead.