Meditation and Inner Freedom: Weekend Retreat with Dr. Ashwani Kumar

Meditation and Inner Freedom
A Weekend Retreat with Dr. Ashwani Kumar
May 25-27, 2018

Dr. Ashwani Kumar is currently a professor of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. He has been seriously engaged with J. Krishnamurti’s work for more than 14 years and has spoken at Krishnamurti schools and study centers in the US, Canada, the UK, and India. He is the author of the book Curriculum As Meditative Inquiry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) which explores Krishnamurti’s insights regarding meditation, consciousness, and education. Dr. Kumar joined us for the sixth year in a row to present, this time, a weekend retreat entitled “Meditation and Inner Freedom.” The retreat began on Friday evening with an introductory exploration of the subject of self-inquiry. Thirteen participants engaged with him in looking at the most real and meaningful questions in our lives at the present time. We were encouraged to share and further explore our questions to see the deeper issues underneath them. Being directly in touch with ourselves in this way, we were immediately in direct and real contact with ourselves and experiencing an inner integration.
Ashwani does not present anything as knowledge to be accepted or rejected but, rather, as encouragement to look clearly for ourselves at what is actually happening in us from moment to moment. He invites an intense looking and listening which involves the whole being rather than just the intellect. He guided the group into a number of awareness and relaxation exercises, including some very dynamic forms of “meditation”, which promote a balanced approach to self-inquiry and meditation. Over the course of the weekend we jumped into meditations involving dance and movement, laughing, and speaking in gibberish. We engaged in group dialogue sessions and were guided in deep explorations of the questions that were most important to us. There was also a generous amount of time to be quietly with ourselves and to be in nature in order to integrate what had arisen in the dialogues and meditations. Ashwani regularly asked us to share our experience of what was going on for us as we engaged with the exploration of what it means to be in a flow of meditative understanding in our lives. Our inquiry was supported by watching a talk on video by Krishnamurti entitled “What is Meditation?” in which he spoke of attention and inattention. To be attentive to inattention is attention.
Ashwani presented an experience of real substance and depth which participants found of great interest and benefit. Many expressed that their understanding of inquiry and self-knowledge had deepened in a significant way. We are very grateful for his visit.