Inquiry Sunday at KECC February 4, 2018
Inquiry Sunday at KECC
February 4, 2018
For the morning session the gathering of five people viewed a recent talk by Paul Hedderman. Paul is a bit of a rough diamond, but he puts across his points in an very original and effective way, often with humour as well as wisdom. One of the main insights he shares pertains to what he calls “selfing”. The human mind tends to create a fictional person or entity, which is actually not there, and then proceeds to act and relate as that fictional entity without questioning its nature. Such a way of living produces much conflict and suffering. The basic issue is the claiming of personal ownership and doership in regards to actions that are just happening as a movement of life itself. There is, Paul says, no self but only the activity he calls selfing, which gives the impression of a self acting. It is very much what many of the teachers say, expressed with its own unique flavour. Everyone found the presentation enjoyable and valuable and were planning to attend his upcoming presentations in Victoria some time in early April. The video was followed by some group discussion and further exploration of the perspectives offered by Hedderman.
The afternoon session included some shorter video clips featuring three different teachers. First we looked at J. Krishnamurti responding to a questions from his audience at a talk in Ojai, California. He discussed the nature of insight and intuition, pointing to a vital and alive clear seeing of the movement of life and thought. Intuition should be questioned as it may be a subtle or hidden desire for things to be a certain way. Interest then led us to look at a sample of Byron Katie’s way of working with an individual who felt that her partner should understand her better. Katie’s inquiry can be very effective in exposing assumptions and beliefs that are causing conflict instead of harmony. We then watched two clips of Scott Kiloby introducing his Living Inquiry method for working with addictions and compulsions and giving a short talk about the power of being fully present with our emotional experiences without moving away or escaping. Scott has a clear and compassionate manner of presenting very helpful pointers. This writer was struck by the great similarity between what Scott was promoting and what Krishnamurti often recommended in relation to the same issue. We discussed whatever was most significant and relevant to us in each video.