Meditative Self-Inquiry with Mukesh Gupta, June 4, 2026

This was our first meeting with Mukesh Gupta – our June and July facilitator. Mukesh began the meeting with a meditation followed by a talk of about thirty minutes on the topic of Being versus Becoming. He spoke about how humans are conditioned from childhood to “become something,” to not be idle in perceived contemplation but rather to be seen to be “doing”—always to be reaching for something, acquiring, and proving themselves; to become something more than what they already are and that his sense of oneself as never enough creates fear.

A participant made an observation that it can be a challenge to find the passion for life that is naturally there, which Mukesh referred to, upon awakening in the morning when faced with the challenges of everyday life.

“Can I allow the mind to sink into the energy of the heart? So, mind has a place but it has a right place only in the space of the heart. Then it can serve it, only in assistance to this presence.” Mukesh pointed out that there is the “body-less space of beingness,” and suggested participants notice what is in the way of their ability to be with the unknown.

In response to a participant who made a distinction between “psychological becoming” and “becoming,” Mukesh pointed out that “psychological becoming is false.” He invited participants to notice the fact that, “You don’t have to become what you really are.

This story of the mind is always trying to become something you are not. So you move away from what is.” He said that this all can be stopped by being with what is, something Krishnamurti said again and again.

“When I am only attending to what is through the thinking process, that creates duality and conflict because thought has a story to transform it from what is to what should be.”

Further key quotes:

“Only attention is present with what is.”

“Llife is transformation, when the mind interferes with it, it delays the transformation.”

“When I name it, that is the first interference” (eg. That is fear and it should not be here).

“Then the energy is free to transform by itself; if you create a wall around something then how can it be released? So just see what is blocking it.”

“Coming home means being simple and nobody and nothing.”

In response to a participant who relayed his experience for the past two years after retirement of his struggle with losing this identity and feeling afraid of what he experienced as “the void,” Mukesh responded, “Mind fears being lost but who you are isn’t lost. Let it be lost, be at ease with this emptiness, this void.” He also suggested that, “The void might not be the real fear but a projected fear.”

He asked, “Can the now be more thrilling than the mind, than the stories?” He invited the participants to connect to what was prior to the sadness (eg.), to the space around it, to the stillness beyond it.

A participant observed that she found comfort in asking herself how she can serve what’s happening now because it makes her “secondary not fundamental.” Mukesh responded that perhaps there only is what is and our whole ‘work’ is to meet it fully without separation, that becoming is a reaction to what is and the mind doesn’t know what to do so it tries to escape. He pointed out that life is, “not about becoming perfect, it’s about accepting our humanity.” He suggested that what we are experiencing is part of the totality, it’s not personal.

“In the matter of spiritual evolution it is not a matter of decision, it is just a happening —can the silent presence be more and more available —it has to be discovered despite what is happening —it is here.”

Finally, a participant asked for clarification on goal setting vs becoming because Mukesh had earlier said that it is possible to set goals without a psychological sense of becoming. Mukesh posed the question, “What is stopping me from being happy right now? I can only be happy now, not in the future; it does not depend on any achievement.”

• Kathryn Jefferies