Archive for category: Event Summaries

Exploring Awareness
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada

The Sunday afternoon session was attended by three explorers of the self. It began with an audio talk by Adyashanti in which he points to the fact that awareness and presence are always available if we just shift our attention from the objects of perception to that which is aware of them. In the acknowledgement of what is already here there can be a falling away of seeking and a coming to rest as stillness and silence of the mind. This state beyond duality is difficult to describe but can be directly known with a simple looking which does not require thought or analysis.
Following the audio, David led the group into a forty minute meditation investigating the nature of awareness in a number of ways, including looking without any labels or concepts about it. There was then a fairly short but interesting discussion of what was seen and experienced during the talk and guided meditation. The session was very much enjoyed and felt to be of value.

Five Day Retreat with Scott Kiloby
“Embodying Awakening”
November 23 – 28, 2018.

We were fortunate to have Scott join us for the fifth year running, this time for a five day intensive retreat exploring his Living Inquiries method of self inquiry. Scott is the founder of the Kiloby Centre for treatment of addictions in Palm Springs, California. A total of twenty-two people were in attendance for the retreat, which began on a Friday evening with a talk on the topics of “awareness, awakening, embodiment, readiness, and inquiry.” Scott pointed out the skills can be taught but readiness cannot. He questioned what stops people from doing the self inquiry work and suggested a number of factors, always emphasizing the need for each one of us to look for ourselves. Resting as awareness is the basic practice, whereas his other techniques are to be used when resting is not easily accessible. He led us in a guided meditation exploring the presence of awareness. Other talks throughout the retreat focused on describing his inquiry methods, some of which were new since his last visit, the nature and trajectory of “awakening”, the need to learn skills for working with our conditioning, contractions in the body, the challenges of the embodiment process, trauma and how to work with it, and addiction. Interspersed were sessions working with the inquiries experientially and practicing them so we could do them on our own after leaving the retreat. There were a number of practice sessions in pairs with participants facilitating each other. This produced some deep work and insights. An assistant was available for private sessions if desired. All the work was supported by the basic practice of resting in and as awareness, which involves recognizing that awareness is our essential nature. From there we can observe everything that arises in and as awareness without taking on the belief that we are those phenomena, without identifying with the thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Scott mentioned that his work is in essence very similar to that of J. Krishnamurti, and participants familiar with Krishnamurti’s teachings experienced the Living Inquiries to be an effective way of applying K’s teachings in a very specific and practical manner.
Other activities over the five days included plenty of Q and A opportunities, a Krishnamurti video, time for self-reflection, walks, and sharing at meal times. Spontaneous conversations took place in the unstructured periods. Meals were provided by catering from Glenrosa Restaurant and Toque. By the end of the retreat there was a strong sense of unity and affection amongst the group members – a direct result of the honesty and authenticity of the sharing and working with the sometimes difficult issues of our human experience. It was an opportunity much appreciated and valued by all the participants. It is a great joy and a privilege to have Scott at our Centre and we look forward to his return at about the same time next year to continue with the exploration of awareness and its embodiment into all aspects of our life experience.

Chapter 22—The Essential Unity Of All Experience

Today’s session can be summed up with the following words from the chapter: The mind, the body and the world are not three different objects that are seen or known; rather, they are ways of seeing or knowing. That is to say, they are three different ways of knowing the same reality and that reality is Awareness, or Pure Knowing.

In the audio tape, Rupert led us into contemplations meant to show us how our many experiences of separateness are really illusions. All we have to do is dig deeper into those experiences. As we penetrate our real experiences, the multiplicity and diversity of objects in the world start to lose their hold on us. Pure Knowing takes the shape of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling and, as a result, seems to become a world, but never actually becomes or knows anything other than itself. Once we dwell in our true nature we can come back out into the illusory world and participate in it—but we have been transformed and that transformation will impact everything we do and see from that point on.

Love then shows up in relation to people and animals and beauty in relation to objects in that world.

We approached the question: “What hinders us from moving into the world from a base of Awareness” with intensity, searching for answers. Many insights were drawn from this discussion and more will follow as we move to strengthen our community with more meetings, communications and retreats.

Rupert has revealed that the mind is only our current thought and that thought can be dropped immediately to reveal our true nature: the innocent, empty expanse of Awareness. Krishnamurti affirms this in today’s quote:

The mind that is learning is an innocent mind, whereas the mind that is merely acquiring knowledge is old, stagnant, corrupted by the past. An innocent mind perceives instantly, it is learning all the time without accumulating, and such a mind alone is mature.

 

Krishnamurti Study Session, October 21, 2108
Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada

Three participants were in attendance for this Sunday morning session at the Centre in Metchosin. The chapter of study was the Q & A section entitled “On Triviality”. The question posed to Krishnamurti was, “With what should the mind be occupied?” In response K states that conflict is brought into being when we focus on what should be rather than what is. As soon as we establish an ideal we start struggling and our minds become occupied with trivialities—ambition, envy, gossip and cruelty. Since the mind itself is based on memory and time, its very nature is trivial and self-centered. The way to transform the mind is to understand how it works and recognize its activities. In this process of becoming aware of the mind, it becomes quiet. Out of that quietness a creative state arises that facilitates transformation.
The group shared how the world appears to rob us of time and reduce our minds to only trivial matters. Our lives are then lived like we’re moving on a hamster wheel and the faster we run the more trivial and crazy it all gets. We talked about our experiences of a quiet mind and how the silence generated in this state becomes the foundation of a creative life.

Exploring Awareness
Sunday, October 8, 2018
KECC

This afternoon session was attended by four of us. We began with a meditation guided by David on the topic of being with emotions. Participants were invited to notice any emotion or sensation that was present and then to observe any thoughts about it that were taking place. Possibly thought is actually creating the emotion or feeling in the body. What is it like to let thoughts fall away and to be with the sensation without any naming, labelling, or evaluation? As we moved slowly along we were invited to notice, as Krishnamurti suggests, if there is an “observer” separate from what is being observed, and what happens when this is noticed. Perhaps the duality can dissolve and a sense of unity or non-division can be “felt.” Participants reported some very interesting insights when we shared our experiences.
A guided audio meditation with Adyashanti was played as a second exploration. It focused on allowing everything to be exactly as it is. Again, participants shared some interesting perceptions that arose during the meditation, especially with Adya’s question, “Is there anything you are not allowing to be as it is?” The participants all had differing experiences in keeping with the experimental nature of exploring one’s awareness. An enjoyable afternoon.