Self-inquiry, September 27, 2023

Self-inquiry

September 27, 2023

With Oda Lindner

Esquimalt Gorge Pavilion

 

Seven people in total attended this Wednesday afternoon meeting at the beautifully constructed pavilion in Gorge Park on Tillicum Road. The session was facilitated by Oda Lindner, who is visiting the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada in Metchosin, BC, and is being sponsored by the same charitable organisation. The purpose of the Centre is to disseminate the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, a spiritual teacher who lived from 1895 to 1986. Oda Lindner has spent many years studying the teachings and presently lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario.

Oda began the meeting by describing how she had found breath work very helpful in experiencing the meaning of what Krishnamurti spoke of when he gave his own talks and wrote his many books. Breathing is always taking place in the present moment, which K says is the only time we can realise the truth of what he is saying. There is a strong tendency in the human mind to continuously bring in the past and to separate ourselves from each other and from the present moment. Group discussion or dialogue is useful in bringing attention to the deeper aspects of our capacities to penetrate deeply into the layers of our consciousness and to realise a sense of freedom in ourselves.

Different participants had varying input into the discussion, some of which seemed to stray from the central points of K’s teachings and yet were considered to be important for those sharing them. One group member produced a book written by Mark Lee entitled Probing the Mystery and asked permission to read a passage which expressed K’s assertion at the end of his life that nobody has touched the mystery that is Krishnamurti and nobody ever will. At the same time it was agreed that it is not helpful to compare ourselves to Krishnamurti and judge ourselves to be less than perfect in that comparison.

The dialogue ranged through a number of topics and questions raised by K during his lifetime. The issue of desire was considered by one person in particular to be very important in unravelling the meanings in the teachings and we spent some time with it. The writer had some doubts about the extent to which the dialogue actually revealed significant insights into the understanding of our habits of thinking in that area, but the process of inquiry seemed to be felt useful by some of the group. How many was difficult to tell.