THE ART OF LIVING AND DYING

THE ART OF LIVING AND DYING
An online retreat with Javier Gomez Rodriguez
October 9-11, 2020 (3 Sessions: Fri-Sun: 10 am PT/1 pm ET/6 pm GMT)

The subject of this short retreat was very close to Krishnamurti’s (K’s) heart as encompassing the whole of existence. For K, the word ‘art’ meant to put everything in its right place and it suggests a creative approach to our human condition, so the art of living is something we need to learn about and discover for ourselves. For K life is all things and what matters is how we approach it: 

“Life is beauty, sorrow, joy and confusion; it is the tree, the bird, and the light of the moon on the water; it is work, pain and hope; it is death, the search for immortality, the belief in and the denial of the Supreme; it is goodness, hate and envy; it is greed and ambition; it is love and the lack of it; it is unfathomable ecstasy; it is the mind, the meditator, and the meditation. It is all things. But how do our petty, confused minds approach life? That is important, not the description of what life is. On our approach to life all questions and answers depend.” (Commentaries on Living, Third Series, pg. 106)

The art of living is thus intimately bound with the quality of the mind with which we approach it. In this, as in every other art, sensitivity is fundamental in order to perceive whether things are or are not in their right place. While we may start by becoming aware that the world is out of joint, we quickly realise that the outward disorder is a reflection of the inner confusion.

This awareness of inward disorder signals the awakening of the need for self-knowledge. As our life is totally invested in our relationships, it is in this wide mirror that we can see ourselves reflected. Our thoughts, fears and desires are part of the ebb and flow of the tidal movement of consciousness as action and reaction in relationship. Such relationship reveals not only our own personal idiosyncratic personalities but the repeating patterns of the universal stream of consciousness. These patterns are structural and shared by all mankind. Consciousness is inherently participatory and this awareness deepens our humanity and opens the way to compassion. This is part of the art of living, but this art is incomplete unless there is a deeper understanding of the relationship between being, time and death.

K intended his teachings as a mirror of our human condition, a mirror whose significance depended on our capacity to see the actuality for ourselves. So, in this retreat we will be approaching these universal human themes as much as possible from the angle of our own experience and discoveries. This is in keeping with the spirit of dialogue and fellowship implicit in this joint venture of self-knowledge, in the unfolding of meaning at the heart of our human consciousness and existence.

PROGRAM

FRIDAY (09.10.20)

“What has validity is the life that you lead every day, that is the only life you have, and without understanding it, you will never understand either love, beauty, or death.” (The Awakening of Intelligence, pg. 206)

10:00 a.m.       Presentation: What is Living?

— Surveying the field of existence

— The common lot of humanity

— A tale of fragmentation

— Intimations of wholeness

— The challenging art of living

Q & A

SATURDAY (10.10.20)

“Time has bred consciousness with its content. It is the culture of time. Its content makes up consciousness; without it, consciousness, as we know it, is not. Then there is nothing.” (Krishnamurti’s Journal, pg. 130)

10:00 a.m.       Presentation: Unfolding Consciousness

                        — Life as a whole

— The world is out of joint

— The universal streaming content of consciousness

— Between habit and insight

— Ethical responsibility

Q & A

SUNDAY (11.10.20)

“Living and dying may be the same thing, and the fact that we have separated them may be the source of great sorrow.” (Commentaries on Living, Third Series, pg. 62)

10:00 a.m.      Presentation: Living with Death

— Being and time

— The fear of death

— The encounter with nothingness

— Beauty, intelligence and compassion

— Glimpses of creation

Q & A

A Short Biographical Sketch of Javier Gómez Rodríguez

Javier was a student and then became a teacher at Brockwood Park, a school founded by K in England. There he met up with David Bohm and later facilitated a Bohmian dialogue group for four years. He has detailed his adventure with dialogue in his booklets Through the Mirroring Word: A Personal Journey with Dialogue (2017) and Reflecting Consciousness: An Overview of Dialogue (2017).

Javier was one of the main editors of The Link, the magazine published by Krishnamurti Link International (KLI) as an international forum for the study of the teachings. Currently Javier continues to be associated with KLI and keeps to its agenda of international meetings and responsibilities.

In 2016 Javier started giving a course offering a comprehensive introduction to K’s life and teachings that he sees as universal in nature, a potential avenue of significant insight and fundamental change and, as such, a veritable education for mankind.

Three 90 minute sessions.

Recordings will be made available, in case you are unable to attend a session or wish to review it.

Retreat Fee:   $60 CAD