Self-Inquiry with Joel Kroeker, November 30, 2025
We began with the directive to stay within the fertile realm of self inquiry (and resist drifting toward group therapy or therapeutic interventions on each other). We did this by reminding ourselves: “Whenever any of us feel tempted to do an intervention on another participant (such as inviting them to consider something OUR way instead of THEIR way), let’s suppress that urge and instead in the silence of our own mind perhaps we could instead ask ourselves: “why might I need them to see it my way right now?” Or “why do I need them to know what I seem to know about this?”
We agreed to do this in order to resist the seductive pull of settling into dualistic positions which tends to take us away from self-inquiry.
The group began exploring the potential value (or lack of value) of human language (and the use of words in particular). Some wondered if perhaps words are undervalued and others felt perhaps they are overvalued regarding the potential encounter with something real beyond the words (or communicative intentions) themselves.
The discussion then turned to “the stories we hold onto or rely upon regarding identity” and how we tend to manage psychological anxiety through curating specific stories that reinforce our preferred identity markers. I am this…or I am not this.
Eventually the group explored what might be beyond the stories we construct about ourselves and the various aspects of the world(s) we inhabit. For example, “what is a tree beyond our notion of ‘tree’?”
And ended with an open question about whether we might manage to drop the tendency to take refuge in identity stories and instead encounter something beyond these small self stories.
This being the final onsite meeting of the year, most of us then followed up with informal dialogues and sharings over an enjoyable dinner at the local restaurant.
- Joel Kroeker
