Exploring Awareness, December 1, 2019, at KECC

Exploring Awareness
Sunday, December 1, 2019
At KECC

The Sunday afternoon session was attended by six of us. We stayed with our usual format for these meetings with two guided meditations and some discussion of our experiences. We began with a meditation, guided by David, into being with our experience without naming it or creating any story about it. We were invited to be fully present with all our attention, with “full-body” awareness or what Krishnamurti calls “choiceless awareness”. Not naming experience can bring about a more direct and insightful understanding of “what is”, and bring about a deeper silence in the mind. There was then the invitation to notice if we were creating a division between ourselves as an “observer” and the thing being observed. What happens if this duality is noticed? Does a different quality of perceiving come about, a unitary and whole sense of presence and awareness?
The second half of the session featured a recording of one of Scott Kiloby’s guided meditations offered at his recent retreat given at the Centre. The focus was on looking at the ways in which thought creates a sense of not being good enough, a “deficiency story” about ourselves. The meditation also went quite deeply into the process of observing thoughts and feelings and allowing them to fall away as they arise, without needing to do anything. The experience seemed to be valued by all participants and considered very relevant to our daily lives. It was a rich afternoon of “meditation” and sharing.