Meditative Self-Inquiry with Mukesh Gupta, March 13, 2022

Meditative Self-Inquiry with Mukesh Gupta

Zoom online

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Seventeen of us were present in total for this Sunday morning group dialogue. It was the first in a new series of events with Mukesh. He emphasised a question he feels to be essential in our self-inquiry: “Can we not live in a deep peacefulness in our daily lives?” What is the cause of war and conflict inside ourselves and in the world? Can we, Mukesh asked, explore the question without motive or expectation, from a place of quietness and stillness? Can we be aware of our inner disorder? The sense of a separate “me” or “ego” must be understood, not by thought but by awareness. Why have we accepted the separate self as a reality? Is it a thought? And is there any other instrument of exploration than thought? He suggested that awareness and attention are not dependent on thought; we must begin with them and move into our inquiry employing a deep looking and listening which has no past prejudices.

Our group was split into smaller sub-groups of three or four for a more intimate sharing. It was suggested that we approach the questions without having any quick answers. Could we explore as an activity of the heart in a quiet presence and observation? After a valuable twenty minutes of sharing in the small groups we came back together in the large group and engaged in further discussion. The importance of facing any crisis with a “new mind” was explored in some detail by Mukesh and other group members. There must be an openness, a stillness without old ideas and concepts which have little aliveness and creative discovery in them. It is the new mind that can respond adequately to the challenges we are up against at this time and perhaps at any time.

Some time was spent at the end of the meeting in silent sitting, being with our bodily presence and breath.