Please be advised that the blog post on this topic that was entered yesterday was discussing the teachings of Rupert Spira. We held a meditative session at Swanwick and listened to a Spira audio. Then we discussed it. The key ideas are not mine, but rather Spira’s.
Rick Mickelson
The key points–
Victoria Krishnamurti Event
Friday, April 7, 2017
Our first Friday night session at the Church of Truth was quite successful. Five of us watched a couple of clips of Krishnamurti speaking at Brockwood Park on the subject of death and then formed a circle for some group dialogue. Three of the participants were new to Krishnamurti, and all found the material and the discussion of great interest. They were also intending to attend events at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin. In the videos, K spoke of the illusion of being a separate consciousness and the limitation of the thought-constructed sense of a “me”. Can we die to our attachments and our sense of being a separate, isolated entity? Out of the act of dying, love makes itself known. The participants had a good deal of pertinent input for exploration and discussion.
We looked at a Rupert Spira video addressing a question about the fear of dissolution. His approach was slightly different than Krishnamurti’s, but everyone felt the two were complementary and valuable in our inquiry into the meaning of living and dying.
Krishnamurti Study Group
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Three regular inquirers met on Saturday afternoon to continue looking at the Questions and Answers in The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti. We completed the reading of the section “On Suffering” and engaged in a pointed dialogue stimulated by the material. K points out that any resistance to suffering or any attempt to escape it only maintains the state of consciousness that produces suffering. We looked deeply into this issue from different perspectives and all felt it was a significant exploration of this very essential subject.
Inquiry Sunday
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Six people were present for the morning session of our Inquiry Sunday. We looked at a video interview with Gilbert Schultz, founder of the Urban Guru Café radio show. Gilbert was being interviewed by Richard Miller on his own show called NeverNotHere. The topic was non-duality, what it is and what its vision of life entails. Richard was adept at raising interesting questions for contemplation and the conversation provided excellent material for our own group discussion and inquiry. Everyone expressed a great appreciation for the material and the group interaction.
For the afternoon session there were four participants. We watched a couple of clips of Krishnamurti responding to written questions from his audiences at public talks in Ojai and Brookwood Park. The questions touched on the issues of being hurt in childhood and how to deal with such hurt as well as a question about the capacity of thought to be aware of itself at the moment of its arising. K went into the issues of the self image and the possibility of awareness within the appearance of a thought in such a way as to provoke some in-depth looking and dialogue in our small group.
It felt like a day of meaningful inquiry with a sense of an ongoing deepening of the understanding.
Krishnamurti Study Group
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada
Our selection for study this session was from The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti, Q & A #7 “On Suffering”. The reading and discussion focused on a number of issues such as the difference between pain and suffering and the nature of suffering itself. The emphasis was on exploring psychological suffering rather than just physical pain. Is it the resistance to an experience that is responsible for the experience of suffering? Is the identification with thought and the limited mind the significant factor? Is the true nature of the mind limited or unlimited? We looked into the possibility of a spaciousness arising in the mind which can contain whatever is arising in our experience and be the ground for the flowering of love. The eight participants were fully engaged in the looking and listening, the sharing of questions and insights, and the felt sense of something beyond the limited mind.
Self Inquiry and Inner Transformation
Weekend Retreat with Ravi Ravindra
March 10 – 12, 2017
For the fifth consecutive year Ravi Ravindra offered a weekend retreat at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. A Ph. D and former professor of physics and philosophy, Ravi resides in Halifax. The retreat opened with a public talk on Friday evening at the Centre in which Ravi addressed the question “What is essential for self inquiry and transformation?” Eighteen people in total were present for the meeting. He spoke of the need to be receptive to the subtle energies and levels of reality that may ordinarily be overlooked. Where are we focusing most of our energies and how can the mind be quiet to receive subtle impressions and insights? Meditation was suggested to be very helpful in this regard. It involves a process of “coming to zero,” or a cleansing of our conditioning. In this we need to go beyond the words of any teaching and contact the reality being pointed to. Teachings are fingers pointing at the moon.
Twelve people attended the rest of the weekend. There were guided meditations on the breath, listening attentively to music, small group interactions around some quotations about self transformation, and a great deal of discussion with the whole group. Topics explored were the need for self study and some of its dangers: it can lead to despair on the one hand and fantasy on the other. Ravi pointed to “direct perception” as being essential. Whatever I become aware of in myself changes in its quality and relationship with me. It was postulated that in order to know the divine we must become the divine. Interesting issues related to culture and self inquiry were presented by Ravi, noting that the Eastern religions and the Abrahamic traditions emphasize very opposite characteristics of the human being, the universal and impersonal vs. the personal and unique. This has profound ramifications in how the societies function and humans interact.
Also included was a short video on the life and teachings of J. Krishnamurti, which was new to some of the participants. Delicious food was provided by Pearson College and we thank Ravi for making another visit to our Centre.
Victoria Krishnamurti Event
Sunday, March 12, 2017
This month’s topic for the Church of Truth meeting was “What is Freedom?” Four of us attended the session. We began with a couple of short clips of Krishnamurti speaking on the subject of study and then formed a circle for group inquiry and exploration. It was emphasized that speaking from our own experience would make the discussion most interesting and relevant as we looked at what freedom means to us and what are some of the challenges to living in freedom. The quality of inquiry was high and the subject became alive in the sharing of our understandings and questions. We came experientially to the point that freedom is beyond words and concepts and transcends the duality of observer and observed.
A video of Rupert Spira was planned to follow the tea break but time had run out and the session was concluded. Future sessions will be held on the first Friday of each month from 7 pm to 9 pm.
This month’s Spiritual Inquiry Meetup at Church of Truth focused on relationships and consideration as to how we relate to one another. A number of talks were profiled featuring Krishnamurti, Scott Kiloby and Rupert Spira. There were seven who joined in for this discussion and each brought a different perspective to bear on the topic. A few of the key messages that surfaced follow.
We tend to relate to one another based on projections we have about each other – our ideas about who our partner is, or stories about their motivations or actions – this prevents a true seeing of one another. We are only seeing what our mind is creating about the other, rather than the true person. K. suggests that a deep questioning of those assumptions, and a deeper seeing is possible when mental projections fall away.
Much of the discomfort and suffering associated with our relationships has to do with ‘under the radar’ needs that we are subtly trying to have met through our partners (e.g. for validation, worthiness, recognition or power). Kiloby emphasised this and encouraged us to become deeply self-aware of these areas of tension and rather than covering them up or avoiding them, trying to allow ourselves to fully meet these internal areas of fear, stress or anxiety.
The group had a lively discussion – including strategies for listening and truly being with each other, as well as committing to meeting conflict head on to enable mutual solutions (rather than leaving residual frustrations for a future time). Of course there also was a question about whether we truly are independent individuals and what relating might be like if all exchanges were born from an experience and deep knowing of inherent one-ness.
It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Thanks to Robert Keegan for facilitating the gathering.
Saturday February 11th
The February Stillness Within Meetup was a great chance for seven of us to get together and enjoy a recently released video talk by Eckhart Tolle called The Voice Inside Your Head. This talk was somewhat introductory, as it was given to employees in a large company, many of whom were not familiar with Eckhart’s teachings.
The highlights of the talk included:
Eckhart talked about some practical strategies for developing a conscious awareness of this broader field of beingness that can even go far beyond a sense of self. He described using a simple breath awareness practice, noticing fully as each breath comes in and out. He also described a practice of sensing body aliveness or scanning, starting with the feeling of life in our hands and feet. Finally, when we have more experience, we may be able to allow the thought process to even subside for periods of time. Through these practices, we may begin to widen our aperture of seeing and sensing, such that identification of a finite self becomes less and less dominant… we see ourselves only as part of wholeness.
It was a lovely session, followed by a group awareness meditative practice which all seemed to enjoy.
Thanks to Krishnamurti Centre for hosting us once again.