Weekend Retreat

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  Awareness In Daily Life January 22 – 24, 2016    This weekend retreat was designed to invite as much as possible a concrete experience of living as non-dual awareness. It was facilitated by Lynne Walker and David Bruneau, both of whom have been working at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada for some years and exploring the challenges of living with awareness and self-knowledge. A good deal of silent looking and listening was the foundation of the retreat, whether sitting quietly, walking in the beautiful environment, eating meals, and even talking. There were five guided meditations leading us into the contemplation of the qualities (or lack of them) of pure awareness and Beingness and six silent meditation periods as well as longer silent periods over the weekend. There were a good number of handouts for contemplation taken from The Book of Life by Krishnamurti and pertinent to the focus of the weekend. The eight participants watched three videos of Toni Packer speaking about looking, listening and meditative inquiry, a video of J. Krishnamurti speaking in Ojai entitled “Watching the Activity of Thought”, and selections from a Mooji satsang which deal very directly with the issue of “keeping” the sense of our true nature that we have experienced during a focused retreat.  Mooji challenges us to “leave everything” for a moment and realize that which is beyond thought. This complimented a quote from Krishnamurti that “meditation is not only constant self awareness but also the abandonment of self”.     Participants reported a wealth of insights and meaningful experiences over the weekend and an appreciation of the opportunity to spend time in a  meditative space where real looking and being was possible. It is intended that more of this type of direct looking and inquiry be included in the programs at the Centre.

Krishnamurti Study Group

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Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, January 16, 2016   A small group of three were present for this session. We were reading from chapter 10 in The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti entitled “Fear”. The participants were regular inquirers who immediately jumped into the topic at some depth. We looked closely at how thought tends to move away from what is happening in the moment and to objectify ourselves and our experience by creating images. Underneath the movement of thought in the psychological sense is a fear of emptiness or ego dissolution. We explored various aspects of this in our current experience and entered into a sense of discovery, insight, and awareness of the dimension of “being”. A very interesting and fruitful meeting.

Victoria Event

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Victoria Event Sunday, January 10, 2016 The monthly meeting at the Church of Truth was attended by nine people. We began with a short video of Krishnamurti speaking on love from the Evelyn Blau series Beyond Myth and Tradition. He asked a number of questions about love, inquiring if love is pleasure or desire, and what the difference is between pleasure and enjoyment. The group read a handout from Freedom from the Known and had a discussion about the contents of what had been heard and read. We spent some time exploring the power of attentive listening and being fully present as a doorway into a state of non-duality and love.     After a tea break we watched ten minute video clips of Eckhart Tolle and Scott Kiloby speaking on relationship and the fallacy of expecting another to make us happy. Eckhart was humorous as well as profound and Scott brought up some very interesting points about loving all of our experience rather than just the positive feelings. Again, the participants engaged in some lively communication and the feeling generated in the room was one of peace and unity.

Inquiry Sunday

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  Inquiry Sunday January 3, 2016 The morning session was a showing of an interview with Peter Dziuban, author of Consciousness is All, conducted by Chris Hebard of Stillness Speaks. Chris does an excellent job of drawing out his interview subjects in ways that highlight their teachings in a clear manner.  The talk with Peter, as previous ones with Rupert Spira and Scott Kiloby, had the quality of an experiential exploration or meditation which was alive in the moment and more than an merely intellectual conversation. Peter went into the nature of awareness from the perspective of awareness itself, which he says is the only true perspective. Thought’s perspective creates a world of relativity which is not actually true. The pointing out of the limitations of the relative point of view and the truth of the “absolute” perspective beyond duality has the potential to shift the attention into a clearer seeing of things as they are.  There were only three of us at the meeting but we engaged in dialogue in the time remaining after the video. In the afternoon the same three participants watched a couple of short videos on Krishnamurti speaking on the subject of Love. We then read through a handout of selections from the book Freedom from the Known, again on the topic of love. He speaks of love as being both personal and impersonal, and explores such issues as attachment, the difference between pleasure joy, passion without a motive, and the transcending of the self. We continued with an interesting discussion following the video, encompassing a number of issues and questions. Altogether, it was an interesting day of inquiry enjoyed by all.

Krishnamurti Study Group

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  Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, January 2, 2016 Four of us, all very regular participants in these K study sessions, met to continue exploring chapter ten in The First and Last Freedom. The reading of the text quickly stimulated some dialogue about the subject of fear in relation to Krishnamurti’s words equating fear with the desire to live in a particular pattern. Some interesting questions arose about the issue and in looking into them we entered a shared state of consciousness where there was freedom from the projections of thought and a falling away of all problems and conflict. It was agreed that the quality of presence and attention in the group inquiry  had enabled a shift into a stillness and silence of mind in which pure being beyond thought was the predominant experience.  

New Beginnings Non-Duality Weekend

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The New Beginnings Non-Duality Weekend was timely for many who attended.  After the festive season gatherings, hosting, visiting, eating and shopping, the event was a welcome chance to unplug and restore.   There were 28 people in total who attended over the two days, from three different Meetup groups (New Beginnings Non-Duality group; the Stillness Within group and the Victoria Spiritual Inquiry and UVic group).  A number of teachers were profiled as part of the program, including Francis Lucille, Eckhart Tolle, Jim Newman, Lisa Cairns, Rupert Spira and Mooji.   Also, J. Krishnamuriti’s work was highlighted during the weekend, through the sharing of K. Quotes, as well as a K. reading/inquiry discussion.  This informative session, facilitated by David Bruneau, lead to some very engaging exploration of the nature of effort, fully being with ‘what is’, and the role for ‘self-inquiry’ and group based inquiry.  The weekend drew out common threads in many non-dual teachings.  These include the following key concepts: –   That we are all interconnected expressions of ‘oneness’ (Advaita means ‘not two’) –   That the mind or egoic sense of individuality is essentially an appearance or illusion – as opposed to our true nature –   That life is ‘living’ us rather than the other way around (e.g. We may think we have consciousness but actually everything is occurring within consciousness) –    We are not “thinking” thoughts – rather, they arise and then we witness or ‘claim’ them as our own –    The ego is built of many concepts.  Once we see through these concepts – the power of the egoic self is loosened. This is the basis of “Self-enquiry.” Of course, in the spirit of K.’s message, we are encouraged to examine and reach our own discoveries in relation to these notions. Those attending the weekend also enjoyed a sampling of iRest Yoga practices (an inner body type of awareness yoga); Headless Way awareness experiments; and a live skype session with Jim Newman which left the group with much to ponder (Do we choose? Are we already perfect and complete?  Can the end of suffering be as simple as seeing ‘we are this’, a grand infinite happening?). A panel based discussion of the non-dual experience resulted in the exploration of attendees’ perspectives on volition/influence, the soul, choice and the possibility of a non-local experience of self/existence. Rupert Spira and Eckhart Tolle recorded talks punctuated the weekend with informative sharing on presence, allowing, and the source of our beingness. Thanks to co-facilitators, Robert Keegan and Passia Pandora and also to volunteer presenters Jim Newman and Rosalind Taylor.  Thanks also to Ralph Tiller for coordination of overnight guests, and to the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada for the generous use of the facility and for making available Krishnamurti’s written and recorded material.    

Krishnamurti Study Group

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  Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, December 19, 2015 We continued with the study of Krishnamurti’s The First and Last Freedom at the centre in Metchosin. We began in the middle of chapter ten, on the topic of fear, and immediately entered a deep sharing of what it has meant to us to go beyond self or have the self dissolve. The fear that can be involved in relation to such a happening was looked at and explored. The discussion was quite direct and relevant to each one’s interest. Four participants were in attendance for the session. We will continue with chapter ten in the next meeting.

Rupert Spira Weekend Retreat

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This was a weekend based on a retreat in Amsterdam last spring. We showed five videos which included guided meditations and talks by Rupert as well as his responses to questions posed by the Amsterdam retreat participants.  We had our own group discussions and time for quiet contemplation and walks in nature. The wild, windy weather made the outdoors more dramatic than usual. Between seven and eleven people were in attendance for the various sessions over the weekend. Rupert explores the nature of awareness as our fundamental identity and points to the direct non-objective experiencing of that awareness. He suggests the most helpful question we can ask ourselves in this connection is “Am I aware?” Being aware that we are aware is the “highest meditation”. He explores this in detail and goes into the implications of such an awareness in a way that always invites us to come back to our present moment actual experiencing. On Sunday we showed an interview between Krishnamurti and Bernard Levin for the BBC. It is a lively and challenging interaction between the two.      Those attending found the presentations very clear and powerful, which led to some interesting and animated dialogue within the group. The material invited us all to look at ourselves and life in a way which challenges and reveals false assumptions we may have be carrying due to conditioning and the prevalent world view or consentual reality. Rupert’s pointings were felt to be radical and effective for the participants and the retreat was considered to be very enjoyable and significant.

Weekend Events

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Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, December 5, 2015 This week we were studying chapter ten in The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti.  The topic of the chapter is fear, and K looks at different aspects of it while pointing to the central factors which create and maintain fear in us. One of these is the desire for security, with its various offshoots and expressions. As long as we are looking for security there will be fear. The group was encouraged by the reading and the importance of the subject to enter into a serious discussion and inquiry. Four people were present for the session. Inquiry Sunday December 6, 2015 In the morning session we showed three interviews with female presenters at the recent Science and Non-duality Conference in San Francisco. Mukti, Emmet Miller, and Tami Simon all gave very clear and interesting answers to questions asked about their viewpoints and work with people. The main topics covered were embodiment of our understanding, the “yoga of non-duality”, and the nature of suffering and the separate self. The emphasis given to being in touch with and including the body as a portal to greater awareness and authentic living was very refreshing to hear and was much appreciated by the four participants. In the afternoon we watched a dialogue between Krishnamurti and David Bohm entitled The Future of Humanity.  Five people listened to the discussion about the limitations of thought and the oneness of human consciousness.  We stopped the video several times to allow for group discussion of what was heard. The subject matter was challenging for some and a little frustrating for others, but it certainly stimulated inquiry and questioning.

Stillness Within Meetup – Eckhart Tolle talk: Welcoming Life

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For the November Stillness Within meetup gathering, there were 9 of us who enjoyed this final talk from Eckhart Tolle’s 2014 Australian retreat.  The talk explored the tendency for life to be in constant change and strategies for meeting particularly challenging times head on.  These can be potential opportunity for deeper states of awakening. Many of us, upon returning from similar retreats, find our days shifting quickly away from ‘being’ in stillness, to a lot more ‘doing’ and thinking (another type of doing).  The challenge, Eckhart notes, is not to lose that deeper rooted dimension of being as we move through our work and home lives.  This can be even more challenging when we’re faced with difficulties.  Eckhart noted that many of us are prone to a subtle resistance to challenge.  This is based on an underlying belief that there shouldn’t be problems.  He quoted the Road Less Traveled noting that “life is difficult” and that if you know that it’s difficult, and are accepting of that, it’s the end of suffering.  Of course, I wasn’t the only one in the group reminded of Krishnamurti’s openly shared secret – that he doesn’t mind what happens. Later in this talk, Eckhart emphasized that in his experience, everything is connected to the totality – an emergence of ‘what is’.  Eckhart talked about his own journey into greater and greater inner being, noting that there appears to be a direct link between one’s depth of beingness and our impact on the world around us.  We each contain the totality, a microcosm of the infinite…. Eckhart suggests that Humans, like a ray of sunlight emerging from the sun, can begin to remember our historic origin, and then also, find the experience of ‘self’ fading out, coming to know self only as one consciousness, a direct and eternal emanation of source (some use the term God).  When humans are aware of this inseparability from source, we can also begin to create in many new ways (Eckhart used the term ‘lucid living’), beginning to discover the dreamlike nature of existence, and finding a new dream and even a ‘new earth’ being birthed through us.