Archive for category: Event Summaries

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

Self-inquiry with Jackie McInley

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

At Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion

Victoria, BC

Twelve people in total were present for this Wednesday afternoon meeting sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada and held at the beautiful new pavilion in Esquimalt Gorge Park. The idea of hosting the meetings in Victoria is to make them more accessible for people living in town than having to drive out to the Centre in Metchosin.

As is usually the case, we began with about five minutes of silence followed by a brief talk by Jackie introducing the subject of “dialogue” to those not familiar. Somewhat surprisingly, she pointed out that we were not here to learn something or to become something (more free, loving, clear, etc.) The intention of dialogue in Krishnamurti circles is to see what we actually are. What is driving our lives in ways we may not be aware of? Can we see, within the group interactions, what is actually going on within us, within our thoughts and feelings, in a fresh and revealing way? Can we discover something new about ourselves?

Jackie asked what we would like to look at today and told a story of some happenings that had taken place while she was facilitating a dialogue group online a few days before. The incident had produced some conflict within the group, apparently based on a fear of offending other individuals. It was suggested that a desire for cohesion would inevitably create some conflict and the group spent some time looking at issues arising out of opposing desires for cohesion and individuality. Could the two co-exist? We explored some of the ways thought creates our reality and our world.

During our communication Jackie remarked that there was a lack of intensity in the group which she was experiencing as boring and “incoherent”. She wondered if asking a question about our sense of fear when speaking in front of a group would open up the dialogue and make it more “interesting”. She asked if we all felt fear when in such a situation,which opened up several avenues of inquiry. Themes of connection and disconnection were brought forward and it was suggested that attachment to an identity blocks connection and love. Is it possible to feel our vulnerability and yet not get caught in the full impact of feelings like guilt, for example. Can there be a sense of being stressed

without losing the sense of space which surrounds our feelings and thoughts? This seemed like a valuable theme to pursue, but it was time to bring the meeting to a close. Participants were quite animated as they packed up and departed.

DB

Self-inquiry with Jackie McInley

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada

538 Swanwick Rd., Metchosin, BC

There was a relatively small turnout of seven people (total) for this Sunday afternoon event at the Metchosin location of the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. The session was facilitated by Jackie Mckinley, who continues her visit to Canada. She started the meeting with a period of silence which gave time for participants to sit with what they might wish to explore in the group on this occasion. Jackie suggested that people see if there is some issue or question that is resting somewhat heavily in their awareness and which they feel would be worthwhile to explore more deeply. One person revealed that she would be interested in investigating the issue of psychological pain that she found arising in herself somewhat often. Jackie then gave us some guidance as a group, suggesting some questions we might ask ourselves about any such pain that we experience.

– What is psychological pain for each one of us?

– How can we explore it?

– Is it to do with our images of ourselves?

– How can we get in touch with it when it may be that we usually don’t talk about the pain and tend to keep it quiet?

This led to sharing by some participants on the subject of feeling a sense of lack, not being good enough, and a fear of being nothing or a nobody. One group member spoke of his creating an edifice of himself as a significant person but knowing at the same time that the creation is not authentic.

Jackie asked what it is that’s driving the need to be somebody, which seemed to encourage group members to open up more fully with what was going on in their subconscious minds and which had been shaped and conditioned by their early life experiences. It seemed that a major factor was not getting the love we (and everyone) needed as children.

Another participant brought up the importance of loving ourselves and providing the support we need from our own inner resources.

It was an interesting exploration of some very important questions and issues faced by most – and perhaps all – of us. Jackie pointed out several times towards the end of the meeting that Krishnamurti questioned the activity of looking outside ourselves for love or validation. This subject will no doubt be further explored in future gatherings.

DB

Self-inquiry with Jackie McInley

Sunday, November 5, 2023

At KECC Metchosin, BC

Sixteen of us were present for this Sunday afternoon meeting at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC. It was a larger turnout than usual. We began with a silent sit for about five minutes after which Jackie, our visitor from the UK, commented that it was very nice to have a quiet moment at the beginning of such a gathering. She wondered what non-verbal sense of the group the attendees might have and what kind of relationship they might have to the topic we were going to explore, that being the fundamental nature of who or what we are. We were not, she said, present to debate the issue but were hopefully here to explore our perceptions of ourselves and each other as we communicated together. When we listen closely to each other and ourselves we can be noticing how we relate to what is being shared. It is possible to notice without forming conclusions either before speaking takes place or afterwards. We are learning about ourselves in an open space of listening which involves an acute attention and a perception of how we are reacting to what is happening in the group circle. Much of what is happening is a revealing of our “conditioning” as thoughts arise and are expressed. Can we notice these thoughts and what they reveal about ourselves as the group members interact?

One participant mentioned the importance of being vulnerable and another shared the necessity of “passion” and intensity in our looking and being with the insights that arise. When we look with intensity, we become a nobody, or an “emptiness”, as the self dissolves. Another mentioned that this can produce a shared sense of Being which can contain a deep meaning as barriers between individuals fall away. It may be difficult to go beyond our conditioning and to achieve a goal of some sort, and yet it may not be complicated to simply look at ourselves in action. At the same time, freedom from habitual patterns of thought and feeling may be challenging to realise and we may not find the intensity of passion that Krishnamurti finds necessary in our intention to change. It seems we cannot make ourselves passionate if we are not!

Nevertheless, surely we must question and be aware of our motivations and our resistance to being transformed.

Participants in the dialogue seemed at the least to be involved in learning how to question and to inquire into their own selves.

DB

Self-inquiry

Sunday, October 29, 2023

With Jackie McInley

At KECC, Metchosin, BC

Thirteen people, all included, attended this event sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada and held at the Centre’s main location at 538 Swanwick Road in Metchosin, BC at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon. The meeting was facilitated by Jackie McInley from the UK, who seems to attract on a regular basis a good number of serious seekers committed to exploring who or what they truly are in a context of group exploration and investigation. She pointed out right from the beginning that it is not a group with membership, rules, particular loyalties or principles. The group is not focused on the individual but, at the same time, does not ignore him or her. The subject of interest is the human mind or the human being itself and how it creates its experience of life.

Where should we begin such an exploration? Jackie asked. One interesting approach might be to focus on something that is weighing us down, that we would like to address, or anything we felt stuck on in our lives. We may be disturbed by changes in our world, by uncertainty, chaos, or our expectations not being met. What is our relationship with anxiety and insecurity? Jackie asked, and with a sense of instability we may feel in our lives? And what is it that triggers these feelings? These questions stimulated a string of penetrating observations and ideas from the participants which challenged the conventional ways we might inquire into such issues and brought us into ever-deeper insights and perceptions in the realm of understanding the nature of thought and its movements in ourselves. We considered the proposition that observation of thought brings about a silence in the mind and explored the possibility of touching the “Unknown”, which Krishnamurti and others suggest is of utmost importance in our self-exploration. Group members seemed to feel that the dialogue was very worthwhile.

DB