Archive for category: Event Summaries

The Direct Path to Peace and Happiness
Weekend Retreat with Rupert Spira
December 8-10, 2017

This weekend retreat involved a video presentation of a retreat given in Amstersam in March of this year. The nine participants who attended our retreat were able to immerse themselves in the teaching and guidance provided by Rupert Spira, well respected teacher of Advaita Vedanta practice, on the subject of self-inquiry. The sessions included guided meditations and explorations of the nature of awareness and the significance of realizing it as our true nature. There were also plenty of questions from his audience that were brilliantly responded to by Rupert. He gave some simple and effective direct ways of bringing attention to awareness and its unlimited, unbounded nature. Participants remarked that his clear and precise mode of communication makes what he is pointing to very comprehensible and available.
Two short videos about Krishnamurti and his teachings were shown on Saturday evening: an introduction by Professor Alan Anderson and a BBC interview with Bernard Levin. Both are excellent and instructive presentations. A guided meditation was led by David Bruneau on Saturday evening. The weekend also included time for walks and quiet contemplation as well as opportunities to dialogue within the group and share informally. Delicious meals were provided by Pearson College. The chance to meditate without distraction on the truths of such beautiful teachings and to benefit from the good company of other contemplators was much appreciated by all.

Krishnamurti Study Session
Saturday, December 2, 2017

Five participants engaged in reading and discussion of Q & A # 20, “On the Conscious and Unconscious Mind,” in J. Krishnamurti’s book The First and Last Freedom. As the chapter begins, K soon dives into an elucidation of how the thinking mind is always moving between the past the the future and is never actually in the present. Thought is always reacting from its own conditioning, which is the past, and can never respond totally to the present challenge. K asks if we can ever be totally free from conditioning and asserts that, based on his own discovery, it is indeed possible. He indicates that if we can be aware of the interval between two thoughts and fully enter that interval, then there will be liberation from conditioning and a silence that has no causation.
The group considered each paragraph of the text with focused inquiry into what was being said. We were able to go to a depth of exploration only possible, it seemed, because of the consistent engagement of all group members in a quality of looking and listening which has produced a certain subtlety of perception and a sensitivity to the movements of the self. There seems to be an increasing capacity to be choiclessly aware of the play of consciousness and to expose its ways to light of seeing.

On Remembrance Day, eleven members got together to watch and reflect on a recently released Eckhart Tolle talk. The talk focused on the tendency for human beings to derive a sense of purpose from jobs, accomplishments, appearance and roles. Eckhart pointed to an inner awareness as a path to experience a deeper truth beyond the surface expressions and illusory identity. For many, a collapse or shedding of this constricted sense of self identity is possible with a relaxation into the present moment (being aware of breath, sound, one’s sense of aliveness, or simply sitting and being aware of the gaps between our thoughts).

The group enjoyed a debrief after the talk – with a range of individual reflections. One person had never seen one of Eckhart’s talks and really enjoyed his clear and fun way of expressing. Others felt that some of the content was pertinent to their current experience (e.g. a suggestion of not seeing each action as a stepping stone to get to an ultimate goal but rather a complete experience in and of itself).

As I listened, after having heard many many of ET’s talks, it seemed that rather than connecting on a mental level, stillness was invoked, (even some level of disinterest in the words pouring out). It left, perhaps, more of a non-mind based connection – to Eckhart, to the group, and to the infinite unknowable richness of being. Having meditated for years and years on a solo basis, this opportunity to commune with others from a spacious connection adds richness that warms and possibly even ignites something previously undiscovered.

I would have liked to sit in silence with Krishnamurti, to ask him what could not be conveyed in words (he often seemed so frustrated when the words weren’t ‘landing’ with his audience)… But if there really is no real division, no time, no space, I suppose K’s insights are in the field of our beingness now – closer than close!

Thanks again to the Krishnamurti Centre of Canada for hosting the meetup this month!

Inquiry Sunday
November 5, 2017

Our morning session, attended by five people, featured a video of Gangaji on the topic of “Unravelling the Knot of Suffering”. It was made in 2002 but the subject matter was timeless in looking at the basic causes of suffering and the remedy for the condition. The issue of suffering was approached in a few different ways but the essence seemed to be the attachment to an identity as a separate self who has to defend and protect itself from the apparent threats continuously presented by the impermanence of life. Gangaji’s interactions with people made the topic relevant to daily existence and her pointers were clear and useful. Our group engaged in some discussion which looked at some of the key points made in the video and how we understood them and found them applicable to our own experience.

In the afternoon we watched some new videos combining excerpts from Krishnamurti’s teachings with images from other Hollywood-style movies and beautiful scenic shots. It seems the idea was to appeal to the new generation of media-oriented youth who would relate to the more updated way of presenting K’s teachings. In discussing the material some ambivalent feelings were expressed and pros and cons to the presentation style were looked at. It was asked if K himself would approve of such attempts to make his teachings more ‘modern’, but of course he is not here to answer.

Victoria Krishnamurti Event
November 3, 2017

The subject of this month’s meeting at the Church of Truth was “What is Meditation?” Five people took part in the session which began with a handout from the book Freedom from the Known by J. Krishnamurti. Meditation is described as “to be aware of every thought and every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. And out of this awareness comes silence.” After reading the whole handout the group was guided by the facilitator into a meditation as suggested by K. This was followed by another guided meditation on the “inner body” and the sense of Being as recommended by Eckhart Tolle. As a group we then reported on our experience of the meditations and how they could be integrated into our daily awareness “practice.” There were very interesting sharings by the participants.
We then moved on to a viewing of three short video clips by Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle, and Rupert Spira, all on the topic of meditation. The common thread was that meditation is a state of being rather than a “doing,” and this was expressed beautifully by the three teachers. During our closing discussion everyone acknowledged an enjoyment and significance in their experience of the evening.