Inquiry with Zeenat Patel, August 13, 2026

/in /by

We met at the Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion for a dialogue on authority, facilitated by Zeenat. She began by exploring the many forms of authority that surround us—public opinion, ideology, religion, belief systems and social structures—and asked whether, when we reject authority, we simply create its opposite. This became a springboard for looking more closely at how authority operates, both outwardly and within ourselves.

One participant, recalling a reading of Krishnamurti, pointed to the distinction between external authority and the authority we carry within ourselves, describing it as “the authority of a fragment”—a thought, judgement or belief that becomes so powerful that it appears to be unquestionable truth. The group explored how fear, conditioning and unquestioned assumptions can give thought an authority of its own.

One participant suggested that questioning opens space, while conclusions close the door. Zeenat asked, “What is it that is preventing us from staying with that aliveness, from staying with that questioning, from that almost quality of innocence?”

The inquiry then moved toward aloneness. Zeenat asked, “What does it mean to stand alone and why do we seem so afraid to do so?” Participants explored whether aloneness might mean freedom from the constant movement of thought, from the need for reassurance, and from the compulsion to solve every problem or arrive at certainty. Zeenat clarified that this was not about loneliness or physical isolation, but about a quality of being that can exist even when we are together.

This led to a deeper question: “Is it possible to act from a place that is not coming from authority – internal or external?” The group considered whether such action might come from a place of “unknowingness,” without relying on thought, belief or analysis, while still functioning practically in everyday life. The inquiry gradually shifted from trying to find an answer to noticing what is happening in the present moment. Perhaps freedom is not something to arrive at, but something glimpsed when we meet each moment directly, without trying to make it conform to an idea.

The meeting ended with a period of silence and an open question to carry forward: “Is it possible to live in this daily life of ours, without the authority of one storyline, one story that one carries within?

 

  • Anastasia Shtamina