Self-inquiry: the Merging of Heart and Mind, June 24 – 26, 2022

Self-inquiry: The Merging of Heart and Mind

June 24 – 26, 2022 with GP Walsh

Zoom online

 

We were pleased to have GP with us again, online from Seattle, with a group of participants numbering between 23 and 25 on each of the three days of the workshop focused on self-inquiry or the study of who and what we really are. GP skillfully guided us at the start of each of the three 1 ½ hour sessions with a guided meditation featuring an experiential journey into the nature of our consciousness and our identity. He referred to a few teachings from ancient sources such as the Ribhu Gita and modern sources such as Ramana Maharshi, Mooji, and J. Krishnamurti. His main pointer was that we are the pure awareness that is hearing the words being spoken at this very moment. This awareness cannot be separated into subject and object or into other categories such as Being, Consciousness, and Feeling, or Heart and Mind. The Heart is the felt sense of Being and is that which we are experiencing at every moment. The nature of consciousness is very subtle and invites a great deal of inquiry into its nature in order to realise the simplicity of the truth that “I am That”. Over the weekend the group participants explored various aspects of our nature, our thinking, and our non-dual identity which turns into an experience of suffering as soon as we identify with the body or the mind. When “otherness” disappears the infinite appears.

Together GP and the group members explored a variety of questions such as “Who is perceiving?”, “What is the thought “I” referring to?”, “What is aware of being aware?”, “How can I let go of attachment?”, and so on. Such profound questions may have no answer in terms of ordinary thought processes and yet may produce a direct experience of ourselves, which may be what we are looking for. According to Ramana, the greatest barrier to Enlightenment is the belief that we are not enlightened already. We investigated the wisdom of such pointers which often appear complex and incomprehensible and yet can be understood in terms of thought’s habit of making everything into a problem. GP made twists and turns that challenged our understanding but somehow made the fact more accessible that “what we are looking for is what we are looking from.” It was a very interesting three meetings and GP’s presentation was much enjoyed.

DB