Self-inquiry with Jeff Brown, April 7, 2024

Self-inquiry with Jeff Brown

Sunday, April 7, 2024

At Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada

Metchosin, BC

Jeff has offered to facilitate self-inquiry meetings at the Krishnamurti Centre in Metchosin or elsewhere when we are in need of someone skilled and capable of leading dialogues (when regular presenters are temporarily not available). He appears to have a deep understanding of the dialogue and self-inquiry process and we are grateful for his willingness to take on the role when needed. On this occasion there were only a total of four participants present for the 1 ½ hour meeting which, nevertheless, turned out to be interesting and valuable in probing the perspectives shared by J. Krishnamurti during his lifetime.

Jeff opened the session with some explanation of the ways in which Krishnamurti and Physicist David Bohm explored the nature of reality together during their explorations of “shared meaning” and the workings of the human consciousness. One of the important inquiries they shared was a sometimes intensive examination of the nature of conflict and division and the possibility of transcending the sense of separateness between so-called individuals. Such inquiry included insight into the power of language and thought to create division and conflict.

Jeff spoke of a tribe in the Amazon – the Praha tribe – which apparently had a very different way of seeing the world and of expressing what they saw. This led into a discussion of the place of knowledge, language, and memory and a questioning of our very basic identity. “Are we anything but memory?” Jeff asked, challenging the group to look deeply into the ways we form our understandings and perceptions of ourselves and our world. “What is the self?” became the core question bringing us towards the difficulty of contemplating the Unknown and of following Krishnamurti’s lead into such indefinable territory. It provoked some very interesting looking and sharing within the small group.

DB