Archive for category: Event Summaries

    Weekend Retreat at the Centre Living as Meditative Inquiry August 21 – 23, 2015 This weekend retreat was led by Ashwani Kumar, Professor of Education at the Mt. Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  In the opening session on Friday night, Ashwani jumped right in to serious inquiry by asking the group if they experience that the mind is in a constant struggle to become something or achieve something.  What is the mind seeking, and is it strengthening itself through all this busyness and activity?  It was clear from the start that Ashwani has a great clarity and passion when it comes to investigating the nature of thought and feeling, and that he wanted to stick only to questions that are real and relevant for the participants.  This was very welcome and refreshing for most of us most of the time.  The evening session, attended by ten people, was concluded with a guided relaxation and awareness exercise which was effective in relaxing the body and making self observation more easy and available.  Eleven people were able to attend the Saturday sessions.  We began with a review of what had been done the previous evening and reports from everyone on their experiences.  We then entered into further exploration of struggle and self observation in which there were a number of viewpoints and understandings communicated by different people, with Ashwani always emphasizing that the most important thing is to look for ourselves and see what we find.  The morning ended with some movement and relaxation.  In the afternoon we started with an exercise writing down whatever came to mind for ten minutes without any editing.  The results were not shared but the participants reported various “interesting” experiences.  Then for half an hour we were to follow every thought that arose and stay with it until it was felt to have completed itself entirely.  This is something recommended by Krishnamurti and was found to be powerful in penetrating into the thought process and seeing its nature more deeply.  After discussion of the exercises we were asked to take quiet time until lunch in order to be with ourselves and allow space for reflection and insight. Saturday evening was time for open dialogue during which some deep questions and issues were looked at.  Ashwani brought in the idea of an “existential insecurity”, which is not a psychological issue but, rather, a force of cleansing and transformation in all human beings if they are in touch with it.  There was much debate about this and it was questioned if there might be a better name for it, like “the flow of life”, which would have no negative connotation.  This writer later wondered if Krishnamurti’s term “the flame of discontent’ might be pointing to the same reality.  Whatever it is to be called, I found the exploration of this possibility fascinating and most relevant as it is something I’ve been aware of my whole life.  The night session was completed with a “gibberish” meditation which was new for most but was found very effective in releasing energy and bringing about a quiet mind. Sunday began with a discussion of what had happened the previous night, followed by a powerful Krishnamurti video on “The Beginning of Meditation” from a 1978 Brockwood talk.  There was quiet time until lunch and a chance to enjoy the lovely property.  After lunch Ashwani led another relaxation exercise, followed by group dialogue until the end of the retreat.  The whole weekend was one of focused investigation into the self and experiential learning about the “practice” of ongoing meditative inquiry.  An excellent and valuable weekend!               

  Six of us took part in watching a recent Eckhart Tolle talk on August 8th, which focused on discovery of the essential beingness that supersedes our experience of the self. A key message was focused on:  realization of who we are in essence, beyond the person.  Mastery of life involves moving towards living in two dimensions simultaneously – the form based existence being in balance with pure beingness.  We each have the capacity to effectively balance being and becoming (e.g. practicing stillness/surrender with pursuing goals – such as a career, education etc.)  The key is being able to orient to the present moment in small ways through the day, and over time, deepening that awareness of the present moment as our foundation.  He notes that a balance between being and doing actually changes the nature of the doing – doing can be informed by the being… and a drive towards ‘compulsive doing’ can slip away.  The starting point for this balance is the allowance of more space (allowing moments of non-thinking – which can become more frequent as we begin to release our identification as our ‘stories’ or thoughts). The group members each shared some key messages that resonated with us, and one member shared her perspective that Tolle’s message linked very closely to a recent Krishnamurti-based retreat that she attended where Dr. Hillary Rodrigues emphasized similar teachings from K.  For example, choiceless awareness of all our senses can come very naturally to us, including our inner sense of self and thought. Releasing identification or association with the mentally fabricated self and becoming more acquainted with the space in which thoughts arise can help us to see the truth of this for ourselves.  It’s always interesting to see how closely K’s teachings resonates with a number of current day teachers. Thanks all for making this another enjoyable afternoon of discovery, and thank you to KECC for their support in hosting this event.    

It was my sincere pleasure to attend Dr. Hillary Rodrigues’ retreat this past weekend. The retreat was called “Why Not This?”, and we explored this question from a variety of angles. Hillary’s facilitation style is really quite special—he speaks from a place of deep and diverse knowledge, and the clarity and dynamism with which he speaks is powerful and illuminating. As I’ve been studying the similarities between Vedanta and Buddhist traditions, as well as Krishnamurti’s teachings, it was also refreshing and exciting to hear Hillary tie these all together in such an intelligent manner (while also pointing out some apparent differences). So, why not this? Why is this not enlightenment? Why don’t we experience this moment as being a perfect expression of the Absolute? Could it be that this, being what is—which includes everything in the present moment—is not anything less than what these mythical spiritual ideals point to? Why do so many of us seem to have such a difficult time being present? Why are we not content with this, just as it is? Personally, I understand that past conditioning gets in the way of what some might call “ being present”. The past lives in us, governing various levels of how we relate to others, the world and ourselves. As I walked down to the ocean during one of the experiential exercises that had us contemplating the question, “Why not this?”, I saw how the past was present in my mind and body, as a feeling of not being connected to my surroundings, or even to myself for that matter. Sometimes even when our minds seem relatively quiet, old stories can be bubbling beneath the surface, creating underlying tension, anxiety, or a general inability to fully relax into what is. I observed this in myself during that exercise. Later, Hillary said something that struck me, saying something along the lines of, “Maybe what is also includes the seeming disparity with what is?”. And this is the truth of the matter, isn’t it? No matter how we’re feeling, how unenlightened or enlightened, how joyful or sad, can we just be with that? Because whatever our current experience is, that’s what is! Krishnamurti often talked of the opportunity for transformation in not moving away from the fact of what is, not being swept up by the movement of the psychological self. Of course, any effort to not be swept up would also be a psychological movement rooted in and perpetuating inner division, so perhaps a simpler way of interpreting such a message might be, “relax, and meet every experience with purely observational, non-judgmental, choiceless awareness”. The thing is, just as Buddha nature is said to be our true nature, and the Self in Vedanta is said to be our true self, choiceless awareness—which connects effortlessly with what is—is also our natural state. In Buddhism, all phenomena are said to be inherently selfless, and the same can be said about choiceless awareness in regards to how we experience all phenomena. The fact is that we are naturally choicelessly aware of all our senses, including our inner sense of self and thought. It’s only because we mistake ourselves for the mentally fabricated self that we believe and seemingly experience otherwise. Getting acquainted with the space in which thoughts arise can help us to see the truth of this for ourselves; an interesting question to ask ourselves is, “Who, or what, hears thoughts?” Does that presence exercise choice, praise or condemnation? Does it make any effort to be what it is? All psychological movement, including apparent movement away or towards what is, is a form of effort. What we are though, the truth of our being in this very moment, is not something that comes about by way of effort, it simply just is. Another angle Hillary discussed was the “neti, neti” approach found in many Vedanta teachings. This is a way of negating any phenomena that arise in experience as containing any inherent self or as being absolute expressions of reality. There are some similarities here to the teachings of no-self in Buddhism, but teachings in Vedanta state that once you have swept away all the delusions rooted in wrong identification, your true Self—being the one and only Self of all selves—alone remains. From this angle, we can ask, “Why not this?” Hillary also shared many great quotes from Krishnamurti on what is, and the division and conflict created by moving away from what is to what is not. It was a very powerful retreat for me. Hillary is an amazing facilitator, and it was really nice to reconnect with some folks whom I met last year as well as a few new people. The combination of high quality facilitators and high quality participants make these retreats very special events for me. Thanks to Hillary and all the beautiful participants for making this event truly special, and to Ralph and KECC for bringing Hillary here and making these events happen. 

Bill B. asked if I could share his recap of a recent Krishnamurti study group, below.  Thanks to Robert for sharing his notes as well… Last Saturday afternoon, four of us got together to read from “The First and Last Freedom”. Krishnamurti talked about the great importance we put on knowledge, and how it adds to our feeling of certainty and security. We also sometimes substitute belief for knowledge, creating a mental model of the world, based on assumptions, fears, and desires that are not always based on truth. K. mentions that the desire to be secure, to be certain, causes us to place immense value on knowledge. The question is asked: “Is it possible for the mind to be free from knowledge and belief?”. He also notes that this is the true path to freedom. The group acknowledged that anything new that we see is filtered through the distortion of our memories and beliefs – therefore it cannot truly be seen. K. suggests that a mind in that state can never have true peace. Krishnamurti is relentless in his approach to inquiring into thoughts and actions, and especially how the mind creates its own world. Some of our conversation went beyond the concepts in the chapter but were intriguing nonetheless. We discussed how it can be seen that even the mind or thought is not personal – but rather universal to all apparent people. And that it seems to create an earth… trees… mountains and people, just like a virtual reality game that we are all playing. But on closer investigation by scientists, it has been discovered that there really isn’t anything physical at all. Nothing solid really exists as a stand-alone entity – including bodies, planets and stars. One member thought that Thich Nhat Hanh put it nicely when he described a flower as having emerged from earth, water, soil, sun and consciousness. In fact, each flower is made completely of non-flower elements… thus, whatever we see around us, including ourselves, all are essentially emerging and part of the oneness. Another member brought up that these discoveries show clearly that all there is to a body or world is the impersonal sensing of it by the apparent small ‘m’ mind. Underlying that: as Awareness we are also the screen that seems to be hosting this ongoing parade of appearances. A key takeaway point for some of us was that as our beliefs and mental constructs fall away, we begin to notice this Awareness – being less distracted by the ideas that tend to float by, or the myriad of beliefs or images we have projected onto the screen.