Inquiry Sunday at the Centre

Our morning session, attended by six people, focused on viewing a video of Gangaji on the topic of “Unravelling the Knot of Suffering”. It was made in 2002, but the subject matter was timeless in looking at the basic causes of suffering and the remedy for the condition. The issue of suffering was approached in a few different ways but the essence seemed to be the attachment to an identity as a separate self who has to defend and protect itself from the apparent threats continuously presented by the impermanence of life. Gangaji’s interactions with people made the topic relevant to daily existence and her pointers were clear and useful. Our group engaged in some discussion which sometimes strayed from the direct looking at suffering  and perhaps, in hindsight, became overly conceptual, but which was hopefully useful to some degree.

The afternoon session involved looking at three video clips of J. Krishnamurti responding to questions put to him at various talks and dialogues. As usual, K emphasized the importance of looking for oneself rather than looking to him or any other for an answer. He always comes back to self-knowledge as the essence of spiritual development and minimizes the significance of conceptual understanding in favour of direct seeing. The group of three present for the session enjoyed a lively exploratory discussion of each short video.