Archive for category: Event Summaries

The Stillness Within Meetup enjoyed another in the series of talks given by Eckhart Tolle during a recent Australian retreat. There were a number of themes: People really enjoyed Eckhart’s description of his experience with differing expressions of stillness (he shared that sometimes it is more in the foreground and then at times in the background when performing certain tasks) The theme of seeking satisfaction was a focus for much of the talk. He emphasised the value of not needing circumstances to be a certain way in order to feel at peace – i.e. there is a direct relationship between suffering and our expectations of the world around us – as well strategies that might help ET also described how awareness of our deeper beingness can become a path toward a natural dissolving of the egoic self… with presence and acceptance of each moment fully Ultimately, he expressed his understanding that what remains is free of the individualized self and instead, we can come to know our true identity as the flowing source of all existence Krishnamurti provides an added perspective that seems to resonate closely with Eckhart’s message: “Silence comes when thought has understood its own beginning, the nature of itself, how all thought is never free but always old. To see all this, to see the movement of every thought, to understand it, to be aware of it, is to come to that silence which is meditation, in which the ‘observer’ never is”  J. Krishnamurti Ten of us enjoyed the video and discussion afterward. Thanks to KECC for hosting us this month.

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.

Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, October 3, 2015 This group meets regularly to study texts by J Krishnamurti.  Currently we are exploring The First and Last Freedom, chapter 9, entitled “What is the Self?”  Only three people took part on this occasion but we felt that the group inquiry was deep and valuable.  We were able to sit outside in the lovely surroundings.  A couple of topics were brought up  as being of particular interest and the session was spent exploring these.  The first was a question about the nature of insight and involved an investigation into the difference between thought and insight or seeing.  The second question was concerning why we are not able to simply and peacefully be at rest.  What is it in us that creates the urge to move away from the present moment?   Why are we often not content to just be?   It was suggested that, in addition to looking into them in a group context, the questions could be held in one’s awareness as an ongoing inquiry in one’s life.

Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, September 19, 2015 A small group of three gathered to explore the second half of chapter 8 in The First and Last Freedom.  The subject was “contradiction”.  Krishnamurti says that the essence of contradiction is the desire to be something and the inevitable resistance to being “nothing”, which is what we truly are.  He explores this idea and others in some depth and invites us to see it clearly and directly within ourselves rather than as an abstract idea which may not be correctly understood. The group discussion related to the text was quite focused and profound.  Participants are finding this book to be very relevant and helpful in stimulating inquiry and insight.

Inquiry Sunday Sunday, September 7, 2015 The morning session included a video of Bentinho Massaro, a young spiritual teacher, being interviewed by Chris Hebard on his Stillness Speaks program.  Chris does an excellent job of drawing out the teachers he dialogues with and the video was felt to be very interesting by the six people attending.  Much of what he said was similar to Krishnamurti’s teachings and also there were interesting differences which were felt to be complimentary rather than contradictory.  The six participants engaged in a lively discussion of the material viewed and expressed their enjoyment and appreciation of the event. In the afternoon we showed two fairly short video clips of Krishnamurti speaking on freedom.  The first was from the Evelyn Blau series Beyond Myth and Tradition, and the second was a part of a Brockwood Park question and answer session in 1980.  The question asked of K was “What is Freedom?”  He went into it in his usual step by step fashion, challenging the audience to inquire for themselves into issues of attachment and belief which prevent the realization of freedom in one’s life.  We then had an excellent group discussion, beginning with looking at the barriers to freedom in our own life experience. The seven participants were all engaged in the lively sharing and exploration.