Self-inquiry, November 22, 2023

Self-inquiry

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

With Jackie McInley

Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion

 

Six participants attended this meeting sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada and held at the Gorge Park pavilion in Esquimalt (Victoria), BC. When the group was asked if anyone had an important issue to explore with the group’s help, one person spoke of her difficulty in communicating with a particular person and asked for reflections from group members on how to approach someone who seemed to thrive on argument and disagreement. There were quite a number of responses to the question, which was considered sometimes a challenging problem for all of us in our daily lives. The importance of honesty and truthfulness was emphasised along with the question “Is it necessary to have an ego with all the conflicts it produces in our relationships?” Jackie asked if we are really prepared to look into the question. Such investigation may demand that we let go of defensive positions and attitudes to which we are accustomed. To begin with, can we admit that we don’t understand the depths of what we are looking at?

Inquiry into such issues may reveal that we are avoiding something in ourselves which the thought process or “ego” finds threatening somehow and which engenders fears we feel uncomfortable being with. We looked at the complexity of boredom and its suppression of fear and insecurity in our experiencing. The conversation probed more and more deeply into the realities of “emptiness” and loss and how they can take on an “existential” meaning and challenge in us. This seemed to touch on universal issues in many. And the question remained, “Are we really interested in dialoguing about such deep issues?”

DB