Self-inquiry, August 11, 2024

Self-inquiry with David Bruneau 

August 11, 2024 

At KECC, Metchosin, BC 

 

Five people in total attended this afternoon meeting at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada (in Metchosin). The weather allowed us to sit outside on the lawn in front of the Main House but the temperature dropped as the afternoon progressed and some felt the coldness as the time passed. The group discussion or dialogue focused largely on our perception of thoughts and ideas and the central place in Krishnamurti’s teachings of the process and value of “seeing” and “insight”. Questions were raised about how K’s teachings could be characterised. Was K a psychologist or a philosopher? Did he use thought to understand thought, or can only awareness understand thought? We entered some fairly complex explorations of thought and “proprioception” which took us into the realm of David Bohm”s work with Thought as a System as well as his other explorations and how they related to K’s presentation of the nature of thought. We also looked into the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of meditation as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and criticised by Krishnamurti, who said at times that mantra meditation created a dull mind and was ultimately quite limited. Various forms of Buddhist meditation were explored and evaluated in terms of their value as instruments of insight or their degree of power for self-transformation. The discussion eventually came to an end as we retired to the Gatehouse for some warmth and snacks. 

 DB