Exploring Ourselves, September 4, 2022

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Exploring Ourselves

With Jackie McInley

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Zoom Online

 

Sixteen people in total were in attendance at this Sunday morning meeting led by Jackie McInley from the UK. The session began as usual with a brief period of silence which created a space for authentic questions to be brought forward as they arose for participants. The group seemed most interested in the topic of fear, which we had explored in the previous meeting two weeks prior. Some very interesting and pertinent questions were put before the circle for our investigation, including a wondering if there is enough space created within the group in order to fully consider the questions deemed of significance. In that spirit, the meeting went on for a full two and a quarter hours, which was longer than most meetings of this kind.

Quite a number of subtleties involving the experiencing of fear were presented for inquiry.

– What is it that is creating the fear?

– Do we fear the known? The Unknown?

– Are desire and fear two sides of the same coin?

– What are we trying to protect in ourselves or in others?

– How is the mind creating division and separation in life, and is that a deep cause of fear?

– Krishnamurti’s emphasis on the issue of “the observer and the observed” was hovering in the background but did not emerge fully into the light of day. I, this participant, felt that it was an important subject to be explored but did not make a point of sharing it with the group given that numerous other subjects were being looked into.

Jackie commented that dialogue is a forum for learning how to communicate with each other. Can we be fully attentive, she asked, to all that is going on in us and in our relating with each other? Others mentioned they felt this kind of learning was taking place but was not an easy thing to accomplish!

The length of the meeting seemed to demonstrate the level of interest held in its subject matter by most of the participants. If Ralph had not brought it to an end it may have gone on indefinitely.

DB