Archive for category: Event Summaries

Meditative Self-inquiry with Mukesh Gupta

June 19, 2024

at KECC Metchosin

 

Nine people in total were present for this meeting with Mukesh Gupta at the lovely Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion on a Wednesday afternoon I have had a great deal of trouble filing this report due to technical problems so wish to submit only a short report for the moment. Perhaps I will add to the report later once I get the hang of the computer.

 

We began with a short period of quietness connecting with our “Presence” and “deeper silence” as Mukesh called it. He then gave a short introduction to the principles of Meditative Self-inquiry as he understands it. He then read a passage from The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti which he recommends for our personal study of K’s teachings. The passage spoke of the necessity of self-knowledge for transformation. We must know ourselves as we are, not as we would like to be. We must be free of all beliefs, ugly or beautiful, and it is about understanding ourselves – not Krishnamurti.

People described their experience of self-knowing and how it has been meaningful to them in dealing with their conditioning and with the sometimes painful process of learning and unlearning. We spoke of the desire of the self to survive and the consequent attempts to control life, which creates a good deal of suffering. We discussed how people’s ways of being are fundamentally alike, seeing which can bring forth greater compassion and empathy. We also wondered whether we are just the surface qualities of our being or is there something in us beyond the contents of our consciousness.

The session ended with a lovely silence, which seemed like a good way to end.

 

DB

Self-inquiry with Mukesh Gupta

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

At Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion

1170 Tillicum Rd., Victoria, BC

 

Eleven participants in total were present for this meeting with Mukesh Gupta at the Gorge Park Pavilion on Tillicum Road in Esquimalt. Mukesh began the session with a silent sit of five to ten minutes. He then said that it was always a good idea to review the basic principles of self-inquiry, one of which is the exploring of deeper aspects of our nature (or what we are). This, he explained, involves our entire being – our heart, our mind, and our senses. In self-inquiry there is no fixed goal to be reached. We join together to explore ourselves without authority or hierarchy in a relationship of friends. We are not in any rush to find an answer to any particular question or to apply past knowledge to our uncertainties. It is more that we are opening to a silent space wherein any problem can be faced. There is a slowing down of our thinking; affection and love are the ground of the journey. It is a sacred space for exploring together in a compassionate presence. A deep listening is needed, along with a suspension of reactions. Anyone can share a question or issue which the group can then explore. We are not interested in judging each other.

One group member asked how we can best stay present when we are badly triggered and tempted to go into a reaction. It was suggested that it would be helpful for there to be plenty of space for everyone to contribute to the conversation. Any belief in “what should be” was deemed to be counter-productive to meaningful dialogue. Also, if individuals can find a capacity in themselves to trust that the group’s interactions will turn out to be supportive as the communication unfolds, then that would probably be helpful to the flow of sharing. There would be space for reactions, and this would create less argument along with less fear of losing both inner and outer space.

As we talked together, we realised that there was a beautiful silence in the room being shared by the whole group. It was a suitable time to bring the meeting to an end.

DB

Self-Inquiry with Cynthia Overweg

May 29, 2024

At Gorge Park Pavilion

Victoria, BC

 

Nine people were present, including staff, at the Gorge Park pavilion in Esquimalt for a dialogue meeting sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. Cynthia began the event with a reading from a Krishnamurti Foundation of America newsletter which featured a question asking ”What is the cause of our confusion?” The questioner wondered if we are actually looking deeply and completely at ourselves when we approach the “practice” of self-inquiry. And do we ever listen totally to each other? One of our group had an inquiry which he felt to be related and significant for him in his own desire for self-understanding. He asked if people in the group could describe what is meant by the word “ego” and what Krishnamurti might say about it. There followed some discussion of the way in which most human beings give greater importance to themselves than to the self of others and how such self-importance can cause conflict and even war in the world.

Cynthia read a passage from The Book of Life: Meditations with Krishnamurti in which K spoke of the significance of listening, which, he said, effortlessly brings about an extraordinary change in us which has great beauty and depth of insight. What happens, Cynthia wondered, when listening starts to happen in us? One participant offered that there is an immediate awakening of interest, which creates a different space between the dialoguers. It was offered that Krishnamurti spoke somewhat of feelings which had a reactive and emotional content but seemed to give more significance to feeling as a sensitivity and “presence” or “attention”, a kind of global awareness which might well include a flavour of kindness such as that displayed by the Dalai Lama. Also included would likely be an awareness of one’s judgements and resistances.

The meeting was brought to a close with a period of silence and some casual conversation before heading out of the building.

DB

Krishnamurti and Modern Nondual Teachings

With Hillary Rodrigues

May 24 – 26, 2024

Zoom online

 

A long-time contributor and friend of the Krishnamurti Centre, Hillary, formerly a professor at the University of Lethbridge, was welcomed back to the Krishnamurti Educational Centre to present a three day online workshop exploring the teachings of J. Krishnamurti in contrast to modern and ancient nondual teachings which have been attracting a great deal of interest in recent years. Twelve people were in attendance for the event. Hillary began with the essential issue he wanted to consider with us: the possibility of having a transformative realisation that is more real and experiential than mere knowledge, which has its own place. Over the three sessions of 1 ½ hours he went into some of the history of nondual teachings such as Advaita Vedanta and the Upanishads in the Hindu tradition, including the teachings of Shankara, Buddhist teachings such as Zen, modern offshoots such as Ramana Maharshi, and current teachers such as Rupert Spira, Adyashanti, Mooji, Eckhart Tolle, Joan Tollifson, and Francis Lucille. Hillary emphasised that he was not so much making a comparison between the different teachers but was, rather, presenting triggers which might stimulate our own “seeking” or inquiry. He then led an investigation of Krishnamurti’s teachings along similar lines and where there were at least apparent differences and emphases. He made use of the short summary called “the core of the teachings” which K himself shared with Mary Zimbalist when requested by her.

In examining the various teachings, Hillary asked four questions concerning each approach which might reveal interesting perspectives:

1) What is the problem?

2) What is the goal?

3) What are the methods employed?

4) What are the obstacles?

For example, when addressing “the problem”, Rupert Spira seems to have considered that the main problem is that, given our essential nature is happiness, why is it not experienced all the time? Eckhart Tolle maintains that most of us have a superficial understanding of who we really are and Joan Tollifson says that the idea that we are an

encapsulated unit is the basis of our suffering. For Adyashanti, we have deceived ourselves such that we do not experience our divinity. Krishnamurti starts not with our divine nature but rather with our conditioned self which is not experiencing freedom or the unchanging awareness that Mooji suggests is our true nature. For K, we must see that there is actually no division between the observer and the observed, the thinker and the thought. The division is an illusion. Pure observation brings an insight which in turn brings about a radical mutation in the mind.

Along the way we touched on various questions of identity, knowledge, and awareness, as well as some of the paradoxes that arise as the mind attempts to understand something which essentially cannot be grasped through thought.

When it came to looking at Krishnamurti’s expression of self inquiry, we spent some time exploring his approach to being with pain and suffering. K gives great emphasis on not moving away from our suffering and not creating a duality between the observer and the observed or the “me” and the “other”. It is our movement away from “what is” that is the problem in that it creates a duality which results in conflict. When we stay with “what is”, it changes. This change leaves no residue and there is a transformation. These ideas were explored, sometimes very seriously and sometimes with a sense of humour and lightness which did not detract from the depth of the inquiry and the resulting sense of freedom and uncaused joy felt by some. Krishnamurti’s emphasis on nature was rare and his communication with scientists like David Bohm was unusual for his time. His message was global.

Hillary’s integration of academic skillfulness and logic, along with his depth of direct realisation of that which he speaks, created a space where it was possible to touch at least a somewhat different dimension of consciousness. We are grateful for his ongoing participation in the life of the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. He will be available at the Centre in the months to come.

DB