UVic Stillness Within Virtual Meet-up with Canela Michelle Myers on June 20th

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The meet up with Canela Michelle Myers was our first ever virtual meet up. Technically there were no surprises (whew) and we had a nicely rounded out group taking part mostly from the local community, and a few from further abroad such as the UK.  All in all, there were about 15 people who took part and asked some really evocative questions.

Of course Canela’s approach is often founded on being fully present with what is and that includes being present with our own internal experience of discomfort, anxiety or other emotions.

We had a wonderful sharing from Canela and many of those who took part found themselves often pointed back toward their own inner teacher of direct experience. In some cases Canela asked one key question:  from spaciousness, being with this discomfort, can we say yes to this experience?  is there love here? Or can this become love if we sit with it in wholeness?

Krishnamurti once said:  “You can only be afraid of what you think you know.”  This in some ways was apropos for our time together with Canela.   A few members were looking into reactions to recent world events or – more intimate sources of anxiety. Canela’s gentle invitation was to put knowing aside, and allow the light of truth to shine through… by simply noticing without judgement. For many, this is the true spirit of self inquiry!

Thank you to the KECC for supporting this event!

Self Study Meeting, June 21, 2020

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Self Study Meeting

Sunday, June 21, 2010

Zoom online

Six of us were in attendance for this Sunday morning online session. Our focus was the February 16 entry in The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. The selection is entitled “Action Without Idea”. The entry is just one paragraph in length but it is rich with significant pointers to truths that are at the core of Krishnamurti’s teachings. In several ways he asks us to go beyond the bundle of ideas which is the “me”. The mind may then be silent and in a state of experiencing. “Then one shall know what truth is”.

We began with a short guided meditation, read the text, enjoyed a few minutes of silent contemplation, then opened the discussion to an exploration of what participants had found remarkable about the passage. There were quite a number of questions and comments from all the group participants and the dialogue was penetrating and meaningful. This was confirmed by the feedback at the end of the session. The intensity of presence generated in the group created a sense of clarity and a sensitivity of awareness felt by the writer when taking a walk outdoors after the meeting.

Self Study Meeting, Sunday, June 7, 2020

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Self Study Meeting
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Online

Five of us met via Zoom online to explore The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. We have been moving slowly through the entries in the text for some months now. The selection for this gathering was the February 15 entry entitled “Direct Observation”. Participants agreed that the ideas presented here by K are very much at the core of his teachings. He points out that, if we stay with the fact rather than moving to its opposite, we eliminate in one stroke the conflict of the opposite, the struggle between what is and what should be. The mind is then “completely concerned with what is and with the understanding of what is.” The energy is liberated to face the fact. K also touches on issues of a dull mind, control, suppression, and other questions.
After a guided meditation and a sharing by group members of their responses to the chapter, we discussed the depth and meaning of the passage. Everyone had beautiful and profound perceptions to contribute to the conversation and expressed great appreciation for the opportunity to join together to investigate such meaningful issues.

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group, May 27, 2020

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group
Thursday, May 27, 2020
Via Zoom (online)

This was an extra meeting for those in the Urgency of Change Dialogue Group who wished to have some contact beyond the one scheduled monthly meeting. It was a beautiful sunny day, which may have created less likelihood of large attendance at this early evening session. Four of us were present to explore the last half of Chapter 2 in The Urgency of Change by J. Krishnamurti. The chapter is entitled “Is There a God?” Krishnamurti discusses the subject of belief and illusion, what is left when there is no illusion, the sacredness of “what is”, the changing nature of the observed and the observer, and then moves with the “questioner” into the nature of love. The focus on “God” shifts to an investigation of love wherein K states that love is when “you” are not.
After some initial silence we read through the second part of the chapter together and discussed our impressions, insights, and questions stimulated by the passage. We explored what is involved in accessing the sacredness that K speaks of and the state of love that is so important in resolving our human problems. There were many heart-felt expressions from the participants and a sense of direct and concrete experiencing of what was being inquired into. It seemed that the opportunity to have the extra time together was greatly appreciated by each participant.
Next month’s “extra” meeting will be focused on Chapter 4 in the same book, The chapter is entitled “How to Live in this World”

Self Study Meeting, May 24, 2020

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Self Study Meeting

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Via Zoom

A group of five attended the online meeting on a Sunday morning. After some technological challenges with logging in to the meeting we settled in with a guided meditation on being present and aware. After the meditation and before reading the passage selected for study from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti, some spontaneous discussion started up, much of it related to the reading that had been done in advance of the session. The conversation was obviously relevant and interesting to the participants as it went on for some time with contributions from each group member. The topics of resistance to emptiness and the fear of being nothing were looked at from different angles and were considered to be a highly significant aspect of Krishnamurti’s pointings and our own life experience. The dialogue was rich and engaging.

Towards the end of the session we read over the selection from the text, February 14, and acknowledged that exploration of it had been pretty well covered in our sharing. All attendees expressed an appreciation of the opportunity to meet and talk over issues that are meaningful and important to us. It was a small gathering but one of quality.

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group Meeting, May 10, 2020

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Online Meeting

Although we were potentially in competition with Mother’s Day activities, the majority of group members showed up for our afternoon online meeting. Nine of us were present for the two and a half hour session which focused on material in the first chapter of the Krishnamurti book The Urgency of Change. The first half of the chapter had been explored during the previous meeting, stimulating extensive discussion and therefore slow movement through the text. Resuming the reading of the chapter quickly provoked numerous observations that had arisen for participants in their own reading and self-inquiry process concerning the nature of perception, awareness, naming, the psychological “me”, insight, and thought. Also worthy of noticing was the process of the dialogue itself and how each one of us was interacting with the movement of thought and attention as we shared our ideas and understandings. There was appreciation on the part of some that we could come together in this way and talk about issues that are seldom looked into or investigated in any depth. At the same time there was the experience for others of impatience and frustration with the sense that the discussion was overly conceptual or caught in revolving thought patterns. It seems sometimes to be challenging for most of us to suspend our sharings in the centre of the group and look at them together without moving to conclusions or fixed viewpoints. Our communication can therefore be accompanied by a thought-generated energy which prevents resting as awareness or Being. The difficulty in staying in touch with the capacity to “simply be” at the same time that we communicate with each other can then create a sense of incompleteness or lack of wholeness. This in turn can feel frustrating. It’s worth noting that David Bohm mentioned this phenomenon in his writings on dialogue. Frustration and conflict are, he says, a natural part of the process and should not be avoided. The group should continue to move through the obstacles, looking at how we might be contributing to the limitations being experienced, and exploring how a greater presence and attentiveness might be possible. There can be great learning in staying with “what is”.

Self Study Session, May 3, 2020

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Self Study Session
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Online Meeting

Continuing with our online format during the Coronavirus pandemic we met at 11 am via Zoom. Seven people were present for the meeting. Our springboard for self-inquiry and dialogue was the February 13 entry in The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti entitled “Meeting Life Anew”. After outlining how beliefs separate people and cause great conflict and confusion, Krishnamurti asks if we can be entirely free from all beliefs, so that one meets life anew each minute. This capacity of meeting everything anew is the truth, he states. Then there is no barrier of conditioning between oneself and that which is.
After a silent period with some guided meditation, participants shared their impressions of the reading and explored their challenges and insights with regard to the material. A number of problems were presented which group members responded to in interesting and creative ways. The exploration went on for the full two hours scheduled and was a rich and engaging dialogue.

Krishnamurti Study Session, April 26, 2020

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Krishnamurti Study Session
Sunday, April 26, 2020

This was the second online meeting of the K Study Group. Nine people participated in the two-hour session, logging in from as far away as Dubai and across Canada. This group has been using The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti as a stimulus for inquiry into the nature of our own consciousness and the possibility of freedom from the limitations of the egoic self. The text for study this week was the February 12 selection entitled “The Screen of Belief”, wherein K discusses belief as a way of escaping from the fact of what we are.
We began with a guided meditation on being aware of our thoughts, images, feelings, and sensations. We read through the selection, had a short period of silence, then participants were invited to share what had impressed them about the reading. There were many deep and penetrating observations about the passage along with questions about more personal issues causing confusion and lack of clarity for participants. The conversation spontaneously flowed into investigating some of the points in the chapter before tackling the personal issues shared. There was a focus on the central significance of noticing, or being choicelessly aware of, whatever arises in consciousness and the power of such awareness. It was acknowledged by most at the end of the session that, although not by any means all of the personal issues had been addressed, there was a sense that, through the inquiry, an energetic shift had taken place which produced a greater ease, peacefulness, lightness, and joy as well as a quality of attention which was more sensitive and aware of the wholeness of Being.

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group, April 23, 2020

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group
Thursday, April 23, 2020

This was the second online meeting for this group. It was organized as a response to those participants seeking further connection beyond the one monthly meeting initially planned. On a Thursday evening seven members of the “Urgency” group logged in for the Zoom gathering at 7 pm and continued until 9:00. The focus was on Chapter 2 in Krishnamurti’s book The Urgency of Change, entitled “Is There a God?” We began with a guided meditation on being fully aware and present in the moment with our thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. Can this awareness function without naming the experience, or can it at least include being aware of the activity of naming produced by thought? The meditation moved into noticing any split being created by thought between an “observer” and the “observed”. What happens when this duality of thought is seen?
The chapter in the text begins with the questioner asserting that if there is no god then life is meaningless. He asks if he can know God and reports that the advice given is always that one must believe; then one will know. Krishnamurti asks whether belief is necessary at all and suggests that learning is much more important than knowing. As in the previous chapter of the book, he looks closely at the difference between the word and the actual thing. He expresses clearly the effects our beliefs have in conditioning our consciousness and creating division between human beings. As we explored the text participants shared their observations and experiences related to the concepts being discussed, which led to a rich and animated sharing and inquiry. It was emphasized that while inquiring into the ideas in the chapter it was also important to be watching our own reactions and responses. In this watching, the learning that K mentioned at the beginning can be taking place. It was mentioned by several participants that knowledge has a kind of dead quality to it, whereas learning is alive and vital, new, fresh, and direct. This is perhaps what gives meaning to our lives. These insights and observations were mixed with occasional disagreements and challenges which did not cause hitches of any great significance in the flow of the dialogue. We might take note in the future of what happens when opinions are expressed as being truths.

We progressed to about the half-way point in the chapter, with no sense of hurry to travel any particular distance. We will take up the rest of the chapter in the late May meeting. Our next “Urgency” group session will take place on May 10 and will go back to our study of Chapter 1, “Awareness”.

 

The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group, April 12, 2020

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Group
Sunday, April 12, 2020

This was the second meeting of this group and the first one conducted online. The expected number of participants did not materialize but nine of us logged in for the two and a half hour session. The group is focusing on the study of J. Krishnamurti’s book The Urgency of Change as a platform for studying ourselves and the activity of self-inquiry. This meeting we explored the first chapter of the book entitled “Awareness”, wherein, in discussion with Alain Naude, K lays out some of the fundamentals of his teaching.
As there were a number of new members, the meeting began with brief introductions. After the sharings, it was pointed out that the act of listening itself, almost regardless of the content, was a kind of meditation which could invoke a different quality of awareness. David then led a guided meditation inviting full attention and presence and asking us to notice if thought was creating a division between an observer and what is being observed. The question was asked, “What happens when the division is noticed? Again, is there a different quality of attention or awareness?”
We then began to read the chapter a paragraph at a time, pausing to allow for comments, questions, observations, and insights to be shared in the group. The participants were fully engaged in the dialogue and generated a sense of shared meaning as we explored the questions and responses that arose. The interest in the inquiry was such that we covered less than half the chapter’s contents and will continue with the remainder of the first chapter next meeting. Participants expressed appreciation for the opportunity to come together in this way and to share the exploration of Krishnamurti’s pointers and our own discoveries.