Self Study Meeting, November 1, 2020

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Self Study Meeting

Sunday November 1, 2020

Zoom online

 

Eleven of us joined this Sunday morning meeting via Zoom. Our focus was the study of the July readings from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. The entries were excerpts from K’s teachings on happiness and suffering: how to access the former and be with the later in a creative way. After a guided meditation exploring awareness and the split between the observer and the observed, followed by an interesting discussion of participants’ experience and understanding, the group entered into an exploration of the readings. Everyone had significant contributions to make to the dialogue and many expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to meet and discuss what Krishnamurti says about the aspects of self-knowledge emphasized in the readings.

Self Study Meeting, October 18, 2020

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Self Study Meeting

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Zoom online

 

We had sixteen people present for this meeting. The usual format of the group is to start with readings from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti and to discuss what insights and questions have been awakened by the study of the readings assigned for that specific gathering. Usually participants have spent time at home with the material. In this case the readings were a selection taken from the July 9 – 29 entries in the text, which largely deal with being fully present with suffering and sorrow.

We began with a guided meditation focusing on being aware of the habit of thought to split into an “observer” and that which is observed, a central aspect of Krishnamurti’s teachings and the prescribed readings. The participants silently followed the meditation to a point and then some began to respond verbally to what had been presented. There was a lively engagement with ideas surrounding the duality created by the mind, as well as other aspects of suffering covered by K in the readings. The conversation spontaneously generated itself in such a way that material from the text was hardly mentioned. After two hours of dialogue it was hard to wind down the momentum and bring the session to an end. One could certainly say that the participants were involved and interested in the investigation.

Meditative Self-Inquiry with Mukesh Gupta, October 17, 2020

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Meditative Self-Inquiry with Mukesh Gupta

Saturday, October 17, 2020

Zoom online

 

There were twenty people in attendance, all included, for this presentation by Mukesh Gupta, who was himself in Varanasi, India. The title of the talk and dialogue was “What Prevents Us from Living Fully Now?” Mukesh began, after a short silent meditation, by pointing out that our life is made interesting or not so by the thinking mind and its intercession into our experience. Thought gets in the way of being fully present in the moment, but asking questions about its activity can invite the life force to become more available to us. Can we live without the baggage of the past, the “me” and its stories? This requires total attention to the past as it arises in us. Can we watch the whole process of thinking? It may then lose its strength to dull our experience and create conflict and struggle in our consciousness. This attention, which the Buddha also recommended, is timeless, open, and loving. It is the essential thing that is needed. “Can we live with this quality of attention?” Mukesh asked of us.

After a half-hour presentation, Mukesh opened the floor to questions and comments. A few perceptions were shared by group members and then the sharing turned to the issue of losing a loved one to disease and death, an actual fact in the lives of a couple of the participants.. Mukesh led the discussion by asking, “Can we be fully alive in this moment, no matter what the future may bring?” In fact, psychologically, is there any such thing as the future? Can we die to the past and the future and allow a greater Intelligence to respond to the challenges of life rather than trying to meet them with thought? Perhaps we will see that everything that happens is a blessing.

It was another quality session with Mukesh, with appreciative feedback from the participants.

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group, October 13, 2020

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Zoom online

 

Five participants were able to attend this weekday meeting of the group which has now been functioning for nine months. We have been using the Krishnamurti book The Urgency of Change to focus our inquiry and to keep us close to K’s teachings as we explore our own consciousness. The meeting started with a reminder that there are at least two levels at which the dialogue can be taking place. The first is the level of intellectual understanding, which is often where people begin and which is probably necessary. K has pointed out that the teachings come alive in the moment to moment attention we give to the movements of thought that are creating our reality. This is a second level of engagement in dialogue wherein we are choicelessly aware of our processes of thought and feeling as we interact in relationship with each other. This awareness can open a space for insight and the experiencing of a state of being less identified with thought and more free to simply “be”, with access to the qualities of Beingness such as peace, joy, and love. The dialogue progressed within that context and seemed to be quite effortlessly grounded in Presence and cooperative exploration.

The chapter of “choice” for the meeting was “Morality”. K makes the distinction between social morality, usually motivated by fear, and authentic “virtue”, which is spontaneous compassion and love emerging from our understanding of ourselves and the patterns of the “self”. Questions such as “What is goodness?” and “What is the true flowering of the individual?” were also part of the dialogue. We touched briefly on the topic of the next chapter, “Suicide”, and will probably continue to explore it further in our next meeting. The participants in this meeting expressed an appreciation of the quality of attention that we had been able to bring forth, which in turn created enjoyment.

Self Study Meeting, October 7, 2020, On Meditation

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Self Study Meeting

October 7, 2020

Zoom online               Present: 9

This was the make-up meeting for one that had to be postponed on October 4 due to technical difficulties. The topic was meditation in daily life, which was introduced by Mukesh’s presentation on Saturday and also through readings from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. Participants had read the December 22 – 31 selections from the book ahead of time and were well prepared to discuss what they had read. Nine people were present for the online gathering which began with a guided meditation looking at the mind’s capacity to be quiet and at rest when nothing is required from it. Participants reported an interesting variety of insights into the nature of thought’s habitual need to be in movement. This led seamlessly into an investigation of what had seemed most interesting and significant in the readings, with an exploration of various aspects of “meditation” as Krishnamurti approaches it. Time and timelessness, effortlessness, emptiness, self-understanding, the need for energy and “hard work” were some of the topics explored. Participants seemed to be very much present and interested in the ongoing inquiry. It was shared by some that Krishnamurti sometimes appears to contradict himself from one statement to the next and it was suggested that we need to look for ourselves and make our own discoveries without depending on any authority to give us answers. In fact the questions may be more important than any answers.

Meditative Self-Inquiry with Mukesh Gupta, October 3, 2020

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Meditative Self-Inquiry with Mukesh Gupta

Saturday, October 3, 2020

Zoom online

 

This was the sixth of eight presentations by Mukesh on various aspects of Self-Inquiry, with an emphasis on J. Krishnamurti’s teachings on the same subject. In total there were 23 participants for the online session which was broadcast from Varanasi, India. This presentation was entitled “What is Meditation in Daily Living?”

Mukesh started the meeting with a ten minute guided meditation in which everything was allowed to be just as it is. He then spoke about the emphasis of traditional meditation on concentration and setting aside set times during the day. “Is this all there is to meditation?” he asked. Krishnamurti has a different approach, which stresses the understanding of the meditator, which brings freedom from the “meditator” or “self”. And what is understanding? Is it thinking and gathering knowledge about oneself? Krishnamurti’s approach is, rather, to watch ourselves as we are, to be “choicelessly aware”, which empties the mind of its content and supports the flowering of love and joy. Without love and compassion there is no meditation, and, as Krishnamurti said, “as long as there is a meditator there is no meditation.” Complete attention in daily life is meditation.

The meeting was then opened up to sharing from the group, which inspired a fuller exploration of the themes presented. Some of the issues discussed were the following:

– Dying to the past every day, every moment. The past is images and psychological memory.

– Non-resistance and surrender

– The power of attention to burn away attachments

– Being fully present with “what is” without conditions

– Awakening to our ignorance

– Dealing with memories by giving them full attention. If we do not identify with a memory it loses energy and fades away

 

Deep appreciation for the presentation was expressed by some of the participants, who reported understanding meditation in a more profound way than ever before.

The meeting ended with some silent sitting during which it was suggested we follow any thoughts from beginning to end.

 

 

Self Study Meeting, September 20, 2020

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Self Study Meeting

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Zoom Online

Twelve of us showed up Sunday morning to explore the topic of the “quiet mind”. Participants had prepared for the meeting by reading and contemplating selections from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti (October 20 – 31 entries). These daily meditations focus on the same subject and explore various issues and challenges involved in coming upon a stillness of mind in ourselves. The main point made by K is that such stillness naturally arises when we are interested in learning about ourselves and it is deepened by our self-observation, awareness, and attention.

The session began with a guided meditation looking at what is preventing the mind from being quiet as we sit in the present moment with nothing that needs to be done. The discussion was then opened to a sharing of what participants had found significant in the readings as well as other issues that had emerged for them. Some questions and challenges with the material were brought forward and points of view offered, sometimes producing opposing ideas about what Krishnamurti says and what he means. It was pointed out that what is most important is our own direct seeing and understanding, and also that we may not always agree with each other in particular interpretations. There was a good deal of sharing and inquiry and an apparent appreciation of the experience of coming together to share the investigation of Krishnamurti’s teachings and the understanding of ourselves.

Can the Mind Ever Be Quiet? with Mukesh Gupta, September 19, 2020

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Can the Mind Ever Be Quiet?

With Mukesh Gupta

September 19, 2020

Mukesh joined us from Varanasi, India, for another in a series of online presentations highlighting key aspects of J. Krishnamurti’s teachings. There were 23 participants in total for the afternoon meeting via Zoom. Mukesh began with a summary of the current state of most people’s minds, which contains a significant amount of disorder. Disorder creates a wastage of energy. Thought tries to solve the problems that it itself creates in its lack of awareness. Thought creates fear and then it is afraid to die, to come to an end. There is a deep fear of being nothing or a nobody, of not achieving. This constant self-concern creates a small world in which we are neurotically searching for security. Mukesh pointed out that we must look into the mechanisms of thought rather than trying to control them. The “I” who would control thought is thought-created but does not realize this fact and therefore lives in contradiction.

The question of what is a silent mind was then approached. Mukesh suggested that some of its qualities are that it does not suffer, is not identified with the images of thought, or the “me”, when it is not necessary. Being aware and watchful slows down the mind and breaks the identification with images, the source of our suffering. Quietness in the mind is a product of interest in observing and the understanding that comes from such choiceless awareness.

Questions were invited from the audience and a lively discussion took place which clarified a number of issues, including a question about the difference between thought and pure seeing where there is no seer distorting the perceptions. It was another skillful presentation by Mukesh which was apparently appreciated and enjoyed by all present.

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Zoom online

Five members of the group were able to meet for this online session on a Sunday afternoon. The Krishnamurti book, The Urgency of Change, has been used as a focal point in our self-inquiry process for these meetings, and for this gathering we put our attention on the chapters entitled “The Religious Life” and “Seeing the Whole”. In the first chapter K states that “freedom from the known is truly the religious life” and goes into this idea in more detail during the chapter. After a short silent sit, participants contributed their impressions and questions resulting from their reading and contemplation of the text and there was an engaged sharing of experiences, understandings, and insights. Some of the impacts of our religious conditioning were explored and each person was invited to express their sense of what constitutes a religious life in the true sense of it.

Some time was spent on the material in the second chapter, with a slight shift of emphasis to looking at the way we perceive and observe in a whole way. Discussion of both chapters explored the occurrence of fragmentation in our thinking and the belief in our sense of separateness. Other aspects of awareness and self observation were raised and explored. At the end of the session it was proposed that we change the time of our monthly online meeting to twelve noon subject to checking with group members who were absent. The meeting ended with some minutes of silence in which it was suggested we note what quality of feeling and presence had been generated by the sharing and inquiry

Self Study Meeting, September 6, 2020

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Self Study Meeting

Sunday, September 6

Zoom online.

The focus of this meeting was the January 1 – 15 entries in The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. The subject matter of those readings was Looking, Listening, and Learning, which made their exploration a fitting follow-up to Mukesh Gupta’s presentation of the previous day. How we observe ourselves and our lives is a central component of Krishnamurti’s teachings, so it felt very worthwhile to look as deeply as possible at what he says about it in these chapters. Six of us were present for the session, which was perhaps in competition with a beautiful sunny day in the world outside.

David began with a reading of the January 1 entry, which served as a guided meditation on listening to everything at once. K suggests that such listening initiates a change in ourselves which comes without effort or volition and invites a depth of beauty and insight. Listening to the movement of one’s inner life was included in the meditation as a key aspect of this kind of awareness. Participants were then invited to share what had struck them in reading the selections from the text, and this led to a sensitive exploration of some of the issues touched on by Krishnamurti. In a couple of cases participants had found the material confusing and some time was spent in looking into the apparent contradictions, which then seemed to be resolved.

Those present seemed to have a few differing orientations towards some issues, such as the significance of “belief” in their lives. This stimulated some inquiry into the meaning and importance (or the lack of it) of belief in one’s “spiritual” life and perhaps brought an element of conflicting views into the discussion. This is a not-uncommon component of group dialogue and can be of value in learning about our habits and tendencies of thought. Some participants expressed appreciation of the meeting afterwards.