Emptiness Moving In Emptiness

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Emptiness Moving In Emptiness

Today’s session was a loving contemplation by Rupert Spira on what he called homoepathic yoga. With closed eyes, we were guided to go deeply into the boundaries between us and others and us and objects. Once we did that it became apparent that there actually are no such boundaries. Reality is not two things. It is pure, infinite knowing.

When we relaxed and moved down into our own Being—as Rumi said—down and down and down until wider and wider rings of awareness envelop us—we find peace. We find peace because we are that peace.

If suffering arises in our relaxation process, we can bypass it and go directly to the I AM. That is where profound, lasting peace lives.

Krishnamurti sums it up beautifully in The Book of Life. He says,

So meditation is a process of freeing the mind from systems, and of giving attention without either being absorbed or making an effort to concentrate.

 

 

Reflections from the UVic Meetup: Is the World an Illusion?

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Eight of us gathered at UVic recently to consider the challenging question:  Is the World an Illusion?  We looked at this from three diverse perspectives including Rupert Spira, Krishnamurti and Robin Cinmatra. 

Rupert Spira, in a short extract from “The Belief in a World Made of Matter” pointed out some important nuances in how we ‘see’ the world around us… and a flaw in the assumption that the world can exist outside of consciousness.  It was tricky!  We explored his proposal that the science of matter needs to be upgraded to reflect the field of consciousness in which all perceived matter arises, and the possibility that perhaps the observer and the observed are not dividable (K. proposes this as well).  We were left questioning our senses and thoughts about the seemingly solid world around us.

 We also looked at Krishnamuriti’s pointing about how we can know reality or truth… A few of his quotes were examined:

All the things that thought has put together – literature, poetry, painting, illusions, gods and symbols – that is reality for us. But nature is not created by thought.

Can the mind, the network of all the senses, apprehend, see and observe truth?

Psychological time is the invention of thought, which we use as a means of achieving enlightenment. Is such time an illusion? Is truth measurable by words? Truth is timeless, thought is of time, and the two cannot run together.

Without love, without compassion, truth cannot be. I cannot go to truth, I cannot see truth. Truth can only exist when the self is not.  J. Krishnamurti

 It was an interesting notion:  if the self or the mind is trying to look at the world around us as it will always be interpreted through the biases or filters of self.   Thinking of seeing not through the sense of self is something that the group had many perspectives on.  We did some looking…  and had some fun asking the question:  is there a self that can be found when we turn awareness towards our inner world?

 The final video clip was an excerpt from the short film:  Nothingness = E(MC)2  A Film About Nothing and Everything (Non-Duality)

This snapshot explored the mystery of knowing what this world around us is, emphasizing that any perception of the physical world around us must be dualistic given that the seeing establishes a subject/object.  Robin proposes a paradox that objects must also be ‘nothingness’.  It was very interesting and picturesque – but challenging… We discussed oneness, whether the perception of a self is similar to the perception of objects in the world, and admitted that a mind based knowing might need to be surrendered in favour of curious wonder if we are to truly know anything at all! 

 Thanks for a great discussion this month, and thanks to KECC for their support for these meetups!  The April meetup at UVic will be showing:  Eckhart Tolle:  Through the Eyes of Krishnamuriti, exploring evocative passages from Krishnamurti’s journal.  Come out if you can!  Details in the KECC Calendar.

Exploring Awareness, April 7, 2019

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Exploring Awareness
Sunday, April 7, 2019
At KECC

Three participants attended this afternoon meeting designed to invite them into an experiential exploration of what it means to be aware. We began by listening to a short introduction to meditation by Eckhart Tolle, who focuses on being fully present with our thoughts and feelings as well as with our inner sense of being and our surroundings. This was followed by a clip of Eckhart’s partner, Kim Eng, guiding us into a mode of sensitive attention to the sounds and sights of nature, including our own bodies and minds, but without labelling what we observe. She also suggested asking the question, “Who is aware?” from time to time during the observing. After the audio guidance, we went outdoors for a twenty-five minute walk on the beautiful property while continuing to be engaged in this type of looking and listening. The experience was very enjoyable in itself, especially with the lovely cherry blossoms in full bloom, and was also found to be very supportive of looking at the movements of thought and feeling in oneself with an unusual sense of spaciousness and non-identification. This produced a relaxation in which there was a heightened sense of our natural and effortless beingness.
The morning and afternoon sessions combined, for those who were a part of both, to awaken a peaceful and joyful quality of awareness.

Krishnamurti Study Session, April 7, 2019

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Krishnamurti Study Session
Sunday, April 7, 2019
At KECC

The entry for January 9 in J. Krishnamurti’s book entitled The Book of Life was the material for exploration in this Sunday morning session at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. The title of the entry was “To Learn, the Mind Must be Quiet.” Six people were in attendance. The session began with a reading of the text, followed by five minutes of silence. Then we went around the circle of participants and each of those who wished had the opportunity to share a perception, insight, question, or other comment. We then opened the sharing up for spontaneous dialogue starting with a more in-depth investigation of one of the comments. This format seemed to inspire participation by all the group members and it was felt that we went quite deeply into an actual experience of what K was pointing to as he spoke of discovering “the new”. There was inquiry into the possibility of seeing the limitations of thought, which can naturally make thought less predominant in our experience and the sense of freshness of perception and feeling more obvious. There seemed to be a movement “beyond” the known.

Love is the Answer Retreat with Burt Harding, March 22 – 24, 2019

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Love is the Answer
A weekend retreat with Burt Harding
March 22 – 24, 2019 at KECC

Burt Harding joined us from Vancouver for the sixth consecutive year to present a weekend retreat, this time called “Love is the Answer,” on the subject of self-realization and learning to live as our true nature. He began on the Friday evening with an introduction to the topic and its central importance for happiness and well-being. He suggested that realizing that we are love is the solution and effective response to every human psychological and spiritual problem. Burt quoted J. Krishnamurti’s statement that “love is the ending of time” and explored the meaning of it with the group of sixteen participants. He led us in an ice-breaking exercise involving looking into the eyes of others in order to sense the connection or oneness between us all. He also guided the group into a meditation observing thoughts and coming into the peace of the “I Am.” A brochure written by Burt and entitled “The Greatest Secret” was distributed and formed the basis for much of the discussion and inquiry over the weekend. Again, the main focus was on love as the essence of what we are.
There were seventeen participants for the Saturday session. After guiding us in some breathing and bodily movement with affirmations, Burt led the group in a number of different meditative and connecting exercises, inviting us into a state of relaxation and total awareness, using awareness for healing and for travel out of the body, and working with fear. There was an extensive discussion of subtle questions regarding how we look at ourselves, who or what we really are, and what is meant by non-duality. The afternoon also included a video introduction to the life and teachings of J. Krishnamurti with Alan Anderson as well as a BBC interview with K which many retreat participants found very interesting.
The rest of the weekend was spent exploring our true nature and the meaning and significance of Emptiness, which Burt puts at the centre of what is true in life and in ourselves. In group discussion he went into details and fielded questions and perceptions from the participants. The simplicity and purity of Emptiness rightly understood is the place we can actually rest in Being and happiness. There were more guided meditations, further exploration of Emptiness, Silence, Love, and Stillness, and how we let go into these beautiful qualities of Being. The schedule allowed time for rest, talk, and walks on the lovely property. Delicious food was provided by Glenrosa Restaurant. The weekend seemed to be a rich experience for all and each took something with them to sustain the art of being in the course of daily life. Feedback from Burt regarding personal issues of individuals was no doubt very helpful. He summarized by saying that real growth comes from finding out who we truly are and being it.

Krishnamurti Study Session at KECC, March 17, 2019

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Krishnamurti Study Session
Sunday, March 17, 2019
At KECC

This Sunday morning session at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC, was attended by five participants. The Krishnamurti text for study at present is The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti. We are moving through the book at the pace that occurs spontaneously in the meetings, which is usually very slowly. One page of “meditations” often stimulates a depth of inquiry that keeps us exploring for a couple of hours. In this case the entry was for January 8 and was entitled “Look with Intensity.” K points to the fact that we rarely look or listen with our full attention because we filter our looking through what we already know and it is therefore not fresh and new. “If one can listen to something with all of one’s being, with vigor, with vitality, then the very act of listening is a liberative factor.”
The group discussion provoked by the text material was quite alive and interesting, opening up to include a range of related points of inquiry. It seemed to be enjoyed and appreciated by all.

UVic Meetup: Krishnamurti on Love (part 2)

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Stillness Within meetup – Krishnamurti on Love (Part 2)

We continued at the February meetup to reflect on K’s “Freedom from the Known” chapter on Love.

The chapter continued from the previous month’s explorations of what love is not… with Krishnamurti emphasizing that some expressions that we tend to think of as love often involve personal attachments, expectations, judgements or a need for validation. Some examples of this include: romantic love, parental love, love of country, death and grieving (lost love) or a need for strengthened self-identity.   K. invites us to consider what love could be if there’s no attachment.  Is it possible that love can only be fully experienced with the diminishment of self?

As the group explored the chapter more fully, we wondered if the truth of love in K’s eyes was more aligned with our own experience of pure awareness, of seeing the world and those around us without judgements, filtres or internal needs or wants…  The quote below seemed to get to punctuate our discussion quite nicely!

“Love is something that is new, fresh, alive. It has no yesterday and no tomorrow. It is beyond the turmoil of thought. It is only the innocent mind which knows what love is, and the innocent mind can live in the world which is not innocent. To find this extraordinary thing, which man has sought endlessly through sacrifice, through worship, through relationship, through sex, through every form of pleasure and pain, is only possible when thought comes to understand itself and comes naturally to an end. Then love has no opposite, then love has no conflict….

But you don’t know how to come to this extraordinary fount – so what do you do? If you don’t know what to do, you do nothing don’t you? Absolutely nothing. Then inwardly you are completely silent. Do you understand what that means? It means that you are not seeking, not wanting, not pursuing; there is no centre at all. Then there is love.”

J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From the Known

Krishnamurti study Session, March 3, 2019 at KECC

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Krishnamurti Book Study Session
March 3rd, 2019
KECC

In David’s absence this session was facilitated by Rick Mickelson, whose report follows.
In Attendance—Seven participants: Rick M, Rick R, Bill, Laurie, Angelique, Katherine, and a woman staying in the Gatehouse who did not sign the Guest Book.
Today we read the passages from J. Krishnamurti’s text The Book of Life for January 6th (Listening Without Effort) and January 7th (Listening to Yourself). These meditations sparked profound sharing in the group, covering many topics which included:
1. Resistance—Why do we resist doing what we must do?
2. Listening—How did K’s words transmit shifts in the quality of our listening today?
3. Meditation Practice—Why are both formal and informal meditational practices helpful to us in our ongoing search for experiential truth?
4. Truth—What is truth and how do we listen for it?
5. Spiritual Authorities—How do beliefs in the teaching of authorities like Billy Graham or Catholic priests lead us astray; that is to say, lead us away from our own experience?
6. Addictions—How is it that seeing the whole process of our addictive behaviors leads to the “falling away” of harmful habits, compulsions and obsessions?
We opened the meeting with a few minutes of silence then took a tea break at the mid-point of the session. We added another period of silence as the clock approached 1 pm and then ended the meeting. It was announced that David will be back for the next scheduled K Book Study

The Infinite Field of Pure Knowing

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Report for the Rupert Spira Session—February 10th, 2019.

In this chapter, Rupert advises us to be knowingly the open, empty, luminous space of Awareness in which all experience arises.

He makes a critical distinction at this point—the difference between thinking and experiencing. Thoughts tell us that a separate self exists and is made out of the belief and feeling that I, Awareness, am identical to the body and the mind. Experience, on the other hand, reveals a unified field of Awareness which is itself aware. All experience is just pure knowing, vibrating within itself, taking the shapes of thinking, sensing and perceiving. From its point of view, Awareness never becomes or knows anything other than itself.

In conclusion, Rupert says, “Be, know and love that knowing alone.”

As Krishnamurti states in, The Freedom Of The Known, “…there is no freedom…(until all the layers of our consciousness)…are understood through awareness.

 

Krishnamurti Study Session, February 3, 2019, at KECC

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Krishnamurti Study Session
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada

The session was facilitated by Laurie Sthamaan in David’s abscence. Her report follows. “Three of us met today to read the meditation (Jan 4) “Listening Without Thought” in J. Krishnamurti’s The Book of Life. We had a most lively and invigorating dialogue, going into it deeply, together, listening and learning. We inquired if the brain can see the movement of thought, including the ongoing intense suffering that is the human condition, and open to the aliveness that is love, which is beyond the brain, the illusion of the “me”, and which can cause transformation.”