Preparing the Ground for Meditation
A weekend retreat with Dr. Ashwani Kumar
July 7-9, 2017 (Friday 7 pm – Sunday 4:30 pm)
This experiential retreat provides an exceptional opportunity to understand and explore the true meaning and significance of meditation.
Dr. Ashwani Kumar is currently a professor of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. He has been seriously engaged with J. Krishnamurti’s work for more than 14 years. He has spoken at Krishnamurti schools and study centers in the US, Canada, the UK, and India. He is the author of the book Curriculum As Meditative Inquiry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) which explores Krishnamurti’s insights regarding meditation, consciousness, and education.
This workshop will provide opportunities for a serious exploration of the notion of meditation. We will explore the following questions: What is meditation? In what ways does modern life—its pressures and demands—undermine meditative awareness in each of us? How is the loss of deeper meditative awareness connected to the loss of creative flow of life and deeper intrinsic intelligence, which are necessary to lead authentic and meaningful lives? What could we do at the level of our bodies, minds, and emotions to lay a foundation for the meditative movement to emerge from deep within ourselves, to give us real strength to meet the challenges of life, and to connect us with the creative and intelligent movement of life?
The retreat comprises an exploration of the above questions by means of: a) having authentic and profound dialogues with each other; b) experimenting with relaxation exercises that release tensions from the body and the mind and create a sense of awareness; c) learning to observe and experience our thoughts and emotions without imposing our judgments, without suppressing or indulging in what we experience, and without changing or modifying what we observe. Such engagement demands of us a serious interest in learning about ourselves, willingness to engage with one another, and a sense of open-mindedness.
Activities will include talks with Q&A, awareness exercises, dialogues, videos and meditative nature walks.
“Meditation is to find out whether the brain, with all the activities, all its experiences, can be absolutely quiet. Not forced, because the moment you force, there is duality. The entity that says, ‘I would like to have marvelous experiences, therefore I must force my brain to be quiet,’ will never do it. But if you begin to inquire, observe, listen to all the movements of thought, its conditioning, its pursuits, its fears, its pleasures, watch how the brain operates, then you will see that the brain becomes extraordinarily quiet; that quietness is not sleep but is tremendously active and therefore quiet. A big dynamo that is working perfectly hardly makes a sound; it is only when there is friction that there is noise.
Krishnamurti, The Impossible Question, 1972
Cost:
Shared accommodation (double occupancy) with meals:
Regular rate: $250 Early bird rate*: $220
Private accommodation with meals:
Regular rate: $300 Early bird rate*: $270
Day Commuter – with meals:
Regular rate: $190 Early bird rate*: $170
Day Commuter – without meals:
Regular rate: $140 Early bird rate*: $120
* valid up to 30 days before the event
Stay for an additional 1-3 nights after the retreat at a discounted rate of only $40/night.
Persons with financial constraints may be offered a special discount. Please contact the program manager, Ralph Tiller, here.
