Self-Inquiry, April 12, 2023

Self-Inquiry

With Jackie McInley

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Gorge Park Pavilion, Victoria, BC

 

Ten people were present at the new building close to the lovely Japanese flower garden in Esquimalt Gorge Park off of Tillicum Road. We had gathered in order to engage in a “dialogue”, or group inquiry, aimed at coming to understand our own true nature and living more fully from the “truth” of that very nature. In practice the endeavour turns out to be largely an exercise in bringing forth the love within ourselves and engaging with others in our lives from that “place” of love or from “the heart”. It is firstly a challenge for the individual to realise himself or herself in a deeper way and to live a meaningful life of compassion and intelligence which can, at the same time, bring about a radical change in the way we relate with others and create our society. The teachings of Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti are taken as valuable guidance as we seek to understand and transform ourselves through careful observation of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Our life thus becomes a kind of meditation wherein we are looking and listening to ourselves and others and gaining insight into the workings of our minds and hearts. The insights can spontaneously change us and our world.

Jackie McInley from the UK is visiting the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC, for the month of April. While here, she is facilitating a series of dialogue meetings where people can come together to consider these issues and share the process of self-exploration recommended by Krishnamurti in his talks and writings while he was living (1895 – 1986). This meeting, as her meetings usually are, was begun with an explanation by Jackie of what she feels to be the purpose and the way of going about the project of self-observation that can awaken an intelligence in us which can guide our living. What we find in our own exploration, Jackie said, can be shared with others in a group situation in such a way that can bring greater insight and understanding of our “conditioning” and the possibility of freedom from that conditioning. This is not merely an intellectual exercise but is a direct seeing of the contents of our minds as they are revealed in our interactions with each other, in “the mirror of relationship”.

The session was about ninety minutes in length. As it progressed the participants gradually shared more and more intimate details of sensitive aspects of their inner and outer world and the issues and challenges that were most important to them. We went quite deeply into the workings of fear in our thinking and felt experience and came to see that most or all of us have basically the same psychological problems and challenges that we struggle with and would like to resolve if possible. Jackie skillfully invited every member of the group to share what brought them to such a meeting and what issues they were deeply interested in exploring and learning to deal with in an effective way. This was the third such meeting offered in the past couple of weeks and it seemed to indicate a real possibility of meaningful inquiry.

DB