AWARE LIVING CAFE, FEB. 3/24

/in /by

 

There were 16 international Aware Living Cafe attendees who registered for this second Zoom meeting in the series of six on K’s Book Of Life. There’s a growing, friendly communication in the group of regulars and new comers who share their keen interests in deepening understanding. The topics of Belief and Becoming (from ‘February’) were robustly explored, with occasional readings from the BOL We started with comments about “All Conflict, all Becoming, is disintegration” and that, as K has stated, “Insight is not to be found in the stream”…In resting in an openly simple silence – like watching while sitting on a sandy bank beside a stream – one is free to let the flow of all the known ‘normal’ thoughts and sensations, distractions, beliefs, conflicts and confused feelings gently pass, come and go. The fact that all Beliefs are false was also explored and that, to perceive the truth requires the understanding of the false.

~ James Waite

Exploring Ourselves, February 4, 2024

/in /by

Exploring Ourselves

  • With Jackie McInley
  • Sunday, February 4, 2024
  • Zoom Online

Jackie joined us from the UK for this online meeting in which we intended to learn about ourselves within the context of the teachings of J. Krishnamurti. In order to do so, K recommended a certain quality of attentiveness. As Jackie explained, the “old brain” may or may not be capable of such attention. Can we face the fact of our own selfishness? Can we give of ourselves and go beyond the usual focus on ourselves? And what happens when we give attention together, as a cooperative endeavour in which none of us knows any more than anyone else but we each bring our awareness of the moment.

As far as the actual procedure goes, we start with some quiet time then allow some space to see what arises and how we would like to share it. Jackie likes to encourage participants new to the group to share any questions they might have, so she probed a person who had not previously been in dialogue with our group. He did his best to present his question, which was to do with the nature of an individual and the process of “individuation”.

The “new” group member touched on the issue of going beyond the separateness that thought seems to create. If individuation is an illusion then what wakes us up from such an illusion and what keeps the illusion intact? Group members had various contributions to the inquiry, which led to a discussion of “knowing” and “not-knowing”. The experience of entering a state of not-knowing was talked about and the terrifying aspect of such exposure to the “Unknown” was acknowledged by most of the group. It was agreed that there is no ultimate safety in knowing or the known. Can it be seen that trying to find security in the known is a false search and is limited by our conditioning, which gives the known a certain safety value which it in fact does not have. Such orientation can easily cause conflict and must be completely negated, it was suggested.

Jackie suggested that there might be a “communication breakdown” in the group dialogue and some time was spent attempting to see the nature of the problem – with limited success. There was some disagreement about the approach that was being taken to “exploring ourselves” and further investigation appeared to be necessary.

DB

AWARE LIVING CAFE, JANUARY 20/24

/in /by
There were 12 Aware Living Cafe Zoomers, most were repeated, all were greeted,   🙂 The themes from K’s Book of Life were Authority and Self-Knowledge. Each was presented by a selected full page reading and robustly discussed. The fact that authority prevents learning, that “A mind that is acquiring knowledge is never learning” was deeply explored with its ramifications that, indeed, memory is one’s authority and pattern maker that filters and personalizes experience; that one is burdened by the things learned and stored in memory (habit/conditioning) and never free unless and until one directly sees this limitation.
Regarding self-knowledge, we variously explored and deepened real self-knowing, sans the limitations of supposed conceptual and therefore separative knowledge, and the fact that there can be no self-knowledge  without awareness of one’s being in relationships. Indeed,  in reality, there’s perpetual change  and that is a ‘mirror’ for one to see how one actually is responding moment to moment in a relationship. The session went over time, and it was agreed by all that they wanted to continue with the next one in two weeks.
Regards,
James Waite

Exploring Ourselves, January 21, 2024

/in /by

 

  • Exploring Ourselves
  • With Jackie McKinley
  • Sunday, January 23, 2024
  • Zoom Online

Twelve people in total were present for this Sunday morning dialogue session with Jackie, who joined us via Zoom from the UK. Jackie began with some pointers about how to make use of a dialogue meeting. She said that dialogue is mainly about speaking and listening, both at a depth which is “accessible to everybody”. It is not a search for something we can take away and use in our lives. Rather, it is an ongoing “waking up” or “seeing” which opens up as we go. It can be very helpful if we can express ourselves clearly and slowly enough that we can follow what is being shared.

As is usually the case, we began with some quiet time. This allows space for any questions or observations that may arise and for any significant unresolved problems to reveal themselves. The first issue that arose was a question about how we can approach Krishnamurti without depending on him for answers. Do we repeat K’s words and make them into theories, or is a direct seeing into the issue possible? Is thought looking at thought or is there something beyond thought looking at thought or “aware” of thought? One participant expressed frustration with the seemingly slow process of going around in circles with such questions. Was the frustration a fact to simply “be with” or could we immediately go beyond the frustration? There was a good deal of discussion of such points, which could have been experienced as hard work or creative discovery – or some of each.

Closing remarks emphasised the central importance of the action of “seeing” as we inquire into the structures of our consciousness, either in group inquiry or on our own. We will be meeting on the first and third Sundays of each month until further notice.

DB

Aware Living Café, January 6, 2024

/in /by
Aware Living Caf’é
January 6, 2024
with James Waite
Zoom online session
There were 12 attendees for the entire 90  min. Zoom. The “Book of Life” themes were Listening and Learning, with full page readings from each. There were two kinds of listening discussed: listening casually, externally, through conditioned mind filters, and listening from aware observation of  this internal traffic, thereby seeing the filters and in so doing, actually hearing the whole of what is being said and perhaps responding appropriately. Learning too, was addressed and discussed as only occurring when one sees the prejudices in ‘already knowing’ and the need to be empty of opinions and conditioning that poses as knowing when in fact one does not know and there is no knower.
The session ended with discussion around the pointing that life is a living, changing, unknown that one may, in awareness,  move with harmoniously, if listened to and understood with an empty, freshened mind from moment to moment.
JW

Exploring Ourselves, January 7, 2024

/in /by

Exploring Ourselves
January 7, 2024
With Jackie McInley
Zoom Online

 

Ten people in total were in attendance for this Sunday Morning online meeting. We began with some questioning of what kind of awareness Krishnamurti was talking about for so many years. Was it an awareness without a controller? Was it self-consciousness, or something different? Was it beyond self-consciousness, with a quality of freedom, mystery, or an inexplicability? Can it be “understood”? Is it separate from the body or one with it? Is it separate from thought? Are thought and conditioning the same? If there is no thought can there be conditioning? Is it possible to speak from the depth of consciousness or is thought always creating some element of conflict, usually without realising that it is doing so? And how do we see what thought is doing in us? There is so much projection in our thinking that conflicts are often not seen with any clarity, for example in family dynamics.

There were some questions about our approach to these issues. Are we having some insight or just thinking? Is there partial insight or full insight? Can we slow down the inquiry so we can see the insecurity of our thoughts? What about the uneasy feeling we have as we get closer to the sense of not knowing, of touching the unknown? In the experiential domain, can we stay in our vulnerability and feel the stresses that arise as we explore ourselves? Jackie asked the interesting question “What is the true sense of peace?”

Other participants wondered if we ever truly wake up or are we most often in a dream state. Are we caught habitually in various assumptions? Can we see that we are never really a victim and, if not, how is it missed? Is sadness “mine” or is it a universal phenomenon? If we sense that much of our experience is common and shared, does that bring us closer to other humans?

Sometimes the dialogue seemed to create that sense of shared meaning.

DB

Self-inquiry December 3, 2023

/in /by

Self-inquiry

December 3, 2023

With Jackie McInley

At 538 Swanwick Rd. in Metchosin

(the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada)

 

Thirteen people in total were present for this, the last meeting with Jackie on her present trip to Canada. She picked up on a subject that had been looked into during the previous meeting in Victoria: the idea of the “mask” and if we are functioning with or without one. How authentic are we in our moment-to-moment interactions with each other?

Once the idea of the mask had been re-introduced we sat for five minutes or so in silence. There was a comment that it was nice to have such a quiet beginning. Then Jackie gave her usual short introduction to the dialogue and responded to a few inquiries about what is allowed in it. Anything is allowed, she explained. We can talk about and explore anything we wish to, but it usually is more meaningful when we focus on some issue that has some weight for us. A spontaneous silence came upon the group for some minutes, at which point one participant took the risk to expose his mask by sharing some of the insecurities and anxieties that were commonplace for him in his daily life and the self-definitions that went along with those feelings. He ended by summarising his ideas about himself with the words “I am a loser.”

Another participant challenged the first by asking “Why, then, does the mask continue to exist?” Various members of the group contributed ideas about the dynamics of group interaction. “Is it common to project a mask in such a situation? Does everyone feel insecure when speaking out in front of a group? It was suggested that Krishnamurti is offering an alternative experience in that he is speaking of a process of self-observation that can be applied to any life situation. Such a close watching of one’s responses can bring in a fresh perception of oneself which involves a continuous learning about oneself and a questioning of the habits of thinking that are determining one’s experience. Such observation can create a space in oneself where a kind of freedom is revealed. The session concluded with what seemed like a satisfactory feeling of peacefulness and harmony.

DB

Self-inquiry, November 29, 2023, with Jackie McInley

/in /by

Self-inquiry, November 29, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion

Victoria, BC

 

Ten people were present for the penultimate session of this visit to Canada by Jackie. She will be missed. Her skill in reflecting back to the group what its members have expressed and suggesting directions we could move to deepen our inquiry has made her facilitation extremely effective and valuable. To begin this session, Jackie brought forth the phenomena of the “lone wolf” and that of The Hundredth Monkey in the behaviour of certain animals in nature. She mentioned that human beings display similar patterns, which have been taken by scientists such as David Bohm to offer “hope” that we could find ways to cooperate and live in a greater state of harmony than we have up until now. One group member asked at this point if there was fear in the group and a self-protectiveness which might prevent a working together on the part of humanity.

Another participant asked if we have an understanding of how to deal with fear when it arises. How can we transcend fear when it appears? Can fear sometimes be an impetus for a healthy response to life situations? Can we “go through” our fear, and do we in fact actually have any choice in the matter? Is there a fear that actually is us, without separation, and without it being “my” fear?

We asked whether the source of fear is thinking, especially the generation of the “I” or “me” thoughts which form our identity. Is there a “me” which is creating the fear? And along with that, is there a motive for getting rid of fear, which keeps us caught in fear? Can there be a “seeing” of what is going on without a drive to find a resolution? Can there be a seeing with our whole being? These and other questions kept our attention for the full time of the meeting and then we had to draw it to a close.

It seems that our dialogue meetings have progressively taken on a sense of cooperative harmony and exploration that brings us together in a real search for truth and, perhaps, even love.

 

DB

Self-inquiry, November 26, 2023

/in /by

Self-inquiry

November 26, 2023

With Jackie McInley

At KECC Metchosin

 

Eleven people were present for this Sunday afternoon meeting at the Swanwick Road location for the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. The session was facilitated by Jackie McInley, who is visiting us from the UK and lending her passion and skill with group dialogue to assist our attempts to engage in meaningful discussions or “meditations” about the nature of self-exploration and self-discovery. Without being an authority, she “leads” the groups in looking into questions about ourselves and about life as we are experiencing it. As the setting is one where people have an interest in what J. Krishnamurti has said about such matters, the subjects of “study” are usually related to self-knowledge and insight into our own nature, both as individuals and as members of the human race. Sometimes the investigation takes a turn into unexpected directions, but these often turn out to be interesting in surprising and challenging ways, which was the case in today’s session.

When the attendees were asked what they would like to discuss, one participant introduced a topic involving the keeping of secrets and the creation of a disharmony when such “secrets” were held within and not shared with the group. On the other hand, it was pointed out how such secret behaviours that one may have engaged in, when shared, can break down barriers and promote a greater sense of communion and cohesiveness within the group. Some group members felt that such sharing might be “dangerous” in that others may have strong judgments about the behaviour described. In such cases conflict and division might result from a lack of trust in the results of such sharing. There was a question of what would be helpful to share and what would not and some degree of fear about taking such risks.

The conversation turned towards the almost universal experience of loneliness and the depth of the human need to find comfort in transcending our sense of isolation and separateness. The exploration of loneliness went quite deep and there was some resistance to ending the conversation. It seems that these group meetings have taken us into depths that we are reluctant to leave for the more superficial levels of oursurface interactions and relationships. At the same time, there may be an awakening of uncomfortable feelings and sensations which can be difficult to “be with”. Still, being with them seems necessary in order to penetrate them and “go through” a kind of “death” process wherein the “ego” self may dissolve and freedom from the self may be realised.

 

DB

Self-inquiry, November 22, 2023

/in /by

Self-inquiry

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion

 

Six participants attended this meeting sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada and held at the Gorge Park pavilion in Esquimalt (Victoria), BC. When the group was asked if anyone had an important issue to explore with the group’s help, one person spoke of her difficulty in communicating with a particular person and asked for reflections from group members on how to approach someone who seemed to thrive on argument and disagreement. There were quite a number of responses to the question, which was considered sometimes a challenging problem for all of us in our daily lives. The importance of honesty and truthfulness was emphasised along with the question “Is it necessary to have an ego with all the conflicts it produces in our relationships?” Jackie asked if we are really prepared to look into the question. Such investigation may demand that we let go of defensive positions and attitudes to which we are accustomed. To begin with, can we admit that we don’t understand the depths of what we are looking at?

Inquiry into such issues may reveal that we are avoiding something in ourselves which the thought process or “ego” finds threatening somehow and which engenders fears we feel uncomfortable being with. We looked at the complexity of boredom and its suppression of fear and insecurity in our experiencing. The conversation probed more and more deeply into the realities of “emptiness” and loss and how they can take on an “existential” meaning and challenge in us. This seemed to touch on universal issues in many. And the question remained, “Are we really interested in dialoguing about such deep issues?”

DB