Self-inquiry with Hillary Rodrigues, September 12, 2024

Self-inquiry with Hillary Rodrigues 

Thursday, September 12, 2024 

At Goward House 2495 Arbutus Road 

Victoria, BC 

 

Seven participants were in attendance for this dialogue meeting at Goward House in Victoria sponsored by the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada. Unable to use our usual locations for this meeting, we were able to gather at a lovely house in the forest near the University of Victoria where we felt very comfortable and at ease with the classic furniture and large windows. 

Our facilitator, Hillary, suggested we begin with a period of silence. As we sat quietly, Hillary made some valuable comments about the preciousness of silence. Silence, he said, allows more of a focus than usual on what is going on inside us. Thinking can be “relentless” but also interesting in that it can include one’s own responses to what is going on in others and one can see how the “self” arises in relation to others. 

As we rested in quietness there was a sense of sharing the energy of group presence and unity, which was experienced by some as “love.” In addition there was the experiencing of the arising of the “ego” self, which Krishnamurti and others often recommended we observe carefully. Group members pointed out that, in such a relationship, the various appearances of the “I”, “me” and “mine” can readily be observed. 

We commented on the central place of desire (or latching on to a self) in the occurrence of suffering. 

Although a functional self is necessary, one man pointed out, perhaps a greater need is that of insight. Effective insight is important in any attempt to go beyond the self. We sensed a harmony in the group and a “thinking together” often mentioned by K and which might be felt as more profound than any thinking. 

It was a delightful meeting with a quality of communion. 

 

DB