Archive for category: Event Summaries

  Inquiry Sunday November 1, 2015 For the morning session we presented some videos of Scott Kiloby in which he speaks of his “Living Inquiries” and guides listeners through an experiential journey of them.   The inquiries are designed to work effectively with addictions of all kinds, including addiction to thoughts, images, and sensations.  They look into our sense of deficiency in a way that can dissolve it at its root.  Scott will be giving a retreat later this month at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre and we felt this would be a good introduction to his work.  Only four people showed up for the event but those present enjoyed the material very much and engaged in some relevant discussion about it.  We look forward to the coming weekend with Scott. In the afternoon we showed a movie about J. Krishnamurti entitled “With a Silent MInd”.   It is an excellent feature length movie which manages to create a real sense of what K was talking about all his life.  There is a good deal of archival film footage of his younger years as well as excerpts from talks and interviews as his life progressed.  The many interviews with people who knew him give some in depth and rounded views of his work, including the challenges and difficulties of it.  Participants expressed a great appreciation for the film and were interested in further study of K and his teachings.

For “no apparent reason” I found myself taking part in the monthly dialogue circle at the KECC in Metchosin this past Sunday afternoon. As I was a newbie, I listened attentively to the various explanations as to how these dialogues were being conducted according to guidelines set down by David Bohm. The dialogues are not a forum for expressing ideas as much as exploring what true insights arise and questioning the meaning they might have amongst the group’s participants. And how the richness of deeper truth could only be found in the silence between the words. What immediately came was, that this is the very basis for our “Headless” face-to-no-face communication. The next thought was to simply remain consciously headless and be the Space or Capacity for the group…including this Robert character. A number of words seemed to ding or niggle at Robert’s non-dual sensibility, like… choice, intention and agenda and I wasn’t sure if any response might be forthcoming. It is always fascinating to hear all the various perspectives coming out of this One space. And, being without any expectation or “apparent agenda” all of these perspectives are seen as emanating from the Void and all are true! I say “apparent” agenda, as even being the Space can appear to infer an agenda. But the question always comes back to “who is choosing? And “who’s intention or agenda is it?” Once the falacy of a separate ‘me’ was seen, there seems to have been a relinquishing of any “personal” responsibility for whatever seems to happen in Robert’s life story – his thoughts, choices and actions. Of course, if he appears to hurt someone’s feelings or become entangled in any kind of conflict, regret might arise, but certainly not guilt or blame. Emotions of all kinds can and do appear but they are not taken on board. Instead they are ‘placed’. They belong to the little guy in the mirror. He seems to have his own programmed agenda.     

On Monday, six friends of Victoria’s Non-duality Meetup group, gathered in the great room of the main house. Richard Lang (The Headless Way), skyped in from London UK and we had a great time consciously being the Space or Ground or Container for whatever appeared on display…the room, the furniture, the ‘others’ and the big screen TV with Richard’s animated face on display. Richard took us through the four stages of life… The Baby – who is boundless and doesn’t yet know itself as a separate ‘thing’ in a world of other separate things. The Child – who has begun the process of “thing-ing herself into believing she is what everyone tells her she is…a small limited self. The Adult – who has completely bought into being a separated identified human ‘thing’ in a world of billions of apparent ‘others.’ The Seer – who has turned around and “Seen” her original emptiness while simultaneously being the Space or Ground from which all the “apparent things” seem to manifest. Richard then walked us through some of the “Headless Experiments” – experiential, non-verbal, physical ways of pointing and “Seeing” who and what we really, really are. Everyone “got the point”, so to speak, that there is no hierarchy of Seers or any so-called Enlightened Ones who can see the emptiness at our centre any better than anybody else. We then gathered round the kitchen to enjoy a nice light lunch, lovingly prepared by Shannon, and shared our individual ‘take’ on the experiments. After lunch we watched a short video of an interview with Alan Rowlands discussing his experience with J Krishnamurti when he taught piano at the Brockwood Park school in the UK. David facilitated an experiment in sound using Tibetan chimes and finally Shannon took us through the closing “headless circle.”

The September Stillness Within Meetup featured a recent video from a talk given by Eckhart Tolle in Australia where he spoke about the balance between being and doing – the collection of activities that form our work, hobbies, social and practical existence. A few pointers stood out for those who came out: Many mundane activities such as folding laundry or driving, can be opportunities to allow the spacious sense of ‘less thought’ and even a profound beauty within the openness – rather than the incessant stream of thinking we tend to default to. Finding many small moments of stillness – amidst the activities of each day, we can begin to find a deepened awareness emerging within stillness in many life settings. In my own case, having shifted my ‘practice’ away from formal meditation in favour of day to day moments of stillness, the message resonated with me. But it’s funny – the stillness or spaciousness is somehow the opposite of emptiness… A Krishnamurti quote I stumbled across seems to be speaking from a very similar perspective on the mind’s tendency to habitually cycle through thoughts: “As long as the mind is seeking to fill itself, it will always be empty. When the mind is no longer concerned with filling its own emptiness, then only does that emptiness cease to be”. JK Thank you again to KECC for hosting our first fall Meetup.

Inquiry Sunday Sunday, October 4, 2015 A small group of three gathered on Sunday morning to listen to a CD by Adyashanti on the stages of awakening.  He began by saying that in fact there is no linear path and the process will be different for each individual while still containing certain universal features.  The seventy minute talk was followed by a group dialogue out on the lawn.   It was felt by one participant that Adya was making things more complicated than need be, whereas the other two considered the points made to be interesting and of value, even if not strictly necessary for them to hear.  One person said that listening to the talk was a confirmation that all is well in the way the journey is unfolding for him. In the afternoon three video clips were shown of Krishnamurti speaking on death and dying to the self.  He pointed out the necessity of dropping all attachments if one is to be truly a free human being.  A very interesting discussion followed  with the four participants exploring what was said in the videos.  We also went into the question of love and attachment and whether it is possible to live without attachment in the midst of daily life, family obligations, relationships, and work commitments.  Again, it was agreed that these questions require ongoing looking and listening, which can bring insight and discovery.