Recent Weekend Events at KECC
Krishnamurti Study Group Saturday, October 18, 2014 Five people gathered on the lawn to continue with the study of Freedom From the Known. None of the participants had not been at the previous meeting and the interest was in looking at the last half of Chapter 15, which had been explored at that time. The main subject being discussed by K was meditation and attention, but other issues were also presented by inquirers. There was a questioning of K’s apparent dismissal of all teachers and the proposal was made that there have been teachers for all of us who have been of great help. It was suggested that K is saying that Life itself is the teacher, which could include “teachers” as well as anyone we meet or any situation or happening in our daily lives. Perhaps he is indicating that depending on teachers is a way of not looking for ourselves at what is actually going on. A further question was concerning K’s sometimes harsh judgements about the pettiness of most people and the seeming contradiction when he says we must look at ourselves without condemnation or approval, without judgement of any kind. Without presuming to have an answer to the question, it was suggested that he may speak the way he does because he is attempting to shock us into paying attention and “waking up.” Next meeting we will enter into the last chapter of the book. Inquiry Sunday Sunday, October 19, 2014 Inquiry Sunday usually consists of a morning and an afternoon session. This time the morning session highlighted a video of American teacher Adyashant entitled “The Redeeming Presence of Love”. In fact most of the talk discussed the issues of birth, life, and death. Four people were present. Adya went into the ideas of birth and death and pointed to the importance of transcending the fear of death, not only as an ultimate event but as a psychological reality every moment of life. The fear of death is inseparable from the idea that we are born as opposed to the awareness of our true nature as that which is prior to birth. He then spoke of the need to go beyond transcendence and to bring the understanding into the day to day small events of living. This merging of the transcendent with the immanent is what he called the redeeming quality of Love. The video was followed by some brief discussion about “how” one brings love into everyday actions. It was suggested that it is a question of love acting and not “us” acting. The afternoon session began with a video of Krishnamurti speaking on “The Violent Self”, a collection of segments of his talks on violence. This is one of the Evelyn Blau compilations in the “Beyond Myth and Tradition” series. The main emphasis of K’s pointings was that if we can look at ourselves without division, without the conflict of the observer and the observed, then a tremendous energy is made available which puts an end to violence completely. This is an understanding and an action that Krishnamurti applies to all self examination and possibility of radical change. The video was as usual followed by a discussion of aspects of what had been listened to which were of particular interest to the participants.
