Inquiry with Vala Legan, September 10, 2026
We met in the Pavilion for a dialogue on “Via Negativa.” Our facilitator, Vala, opened with a quote by Krishnamurti: “Seeing the false as false is truth.” She suggested that, rather than searching for a positive statement of truth, to look closely at what is false, incomplete, or not actually true.
We considered our tendency to create ideals – love, truth, peace, oneness – and then move towards them, while overlooking what is actually happening in the present moment. Could seeing what is false be more valuable than trying to become something we imagine we should be?
Much of the conversation focused on our attraction to certainty. Thought wants to reach an answer, settle a question, and feel secure, while Krishnamurti continually points towards an inquiry that does not arrive at a final conclusion. Perhaps uncertainty is not something to escape, but something that allows inquiry to remain alive.
Participants explored what happens when we are triggered by fear, anger, judgment, or discomfort. One example revealed how, beneath an apparently reasonable agreement, there can be anger and resistance that only become visible through quiet observation. Instead of trying to change or suppress what is there, could we simply see it without judgment?
The group returned to the possibility of being sincerely interested in what is actually happening, rather than in what should be happening. This means noticing thought as it divides, judges, compares, and creates ideals, without making another ideal out of “non-judgmental awareness.” The invitation was simple: to be present with whatever arises, including the uncomfortable and the unwanted, and to observe the movement of becoming something other than what is.
Perhaps this is the radical simplicity of Via Negativa: not finding the right answer, but seeing clearly what is not true and allowing that seeing to have its own effect.
- Anastasia Shtamina
