Swanwick Star Issue Nr. 11 (2018)
A Brockwood Park retreat
“ I think it is essential to sometimes to go on retreat, to stop everything that you have been doing, to stop your beliefs and experiences completely, and look at them anew.”
J Krishnamurti
“ As I see it, A study center has become a necessity because this is the place where the treasure is. From that treasure you can draw. You can draw your strength, your energy, your sustenance…here is something that is sacred…and from that everything flows. It must last a thousand years, unpolluted, like a river that has the capacity to cleanse itself, which means no authority whatsoever for the inhabitants. The teachings themselves, have the authority of truth.”
J Krishnamurti
It takes planes, trains and automobiles to travel from KECC, Victoria, to the village of Bramdean, 60 miles south west of London, in Hampshire, UK, the rural home of the Brockwood Park Study Retreat Center.
After this long journey, alighting from the final taxi ride, a little weary, I stand…. still for the first moment, allowing senses, dulled from the tedium of travel, to flower again in this world away…….bird song, perfume, the crunch of gravel underfoot, sheep calling, foliage, sunshine and above all, a pervasive sense of peace. Once inside the heavy wooden front door there is a warm welcome from Wilfred, a cup of tea and the sanctuary of a quiet room overlooking, as all rooms do, the tranquil grounds and beyond, to the rolling hills of Hampshire.
It is two years since I was last here and now there are ten days of retreat time ahead. The first few days of no agenda followed by a 5 day study/dialogue with 11 others who have also travelled from Europe, London, Scotland to be in this remarkable and unusual setting.
All who find their way here are privileged indeed to be housed in such a remarkable and beautiful, sacred building. At first glance it looks like a sprawling English country manor house, set, as it is, in 40 acres, but is indeed much larger than that (19 single rooms.) It was designed by the architect Keith Crowley in consultation with Krishnamurti. The design was the result of a dream in which Crowley ‘saw’ the building as being in the form of a seated meditator with a quiet space being at the center. All rooms extend outwards from this core, which also holds a spacious dining room, to enjoy the organic, vegetarian meals, also a comfortable sitting room, so arranged to foster small group gatherings for mutual inquiry. Meals are taken at tables for 6 where visitors meet and share what interests them and what brings them here. There are many windows, such that all spaces open onto each other or to a courtyard. The library, which holds copies of all of the Krishnamurti books, videos and audios, in many languages, is tranquil with comfy chairs for reading and contemplating. A book shop offers many new and updated editions for purchase.
So much care and consideration was put into the creation of this place, (as well as everything in it) which opened a few months after K’s death in 1986. K had requested that it should last for a thousand years and would preserve the purity of the teachings. Those who manage the center, the guest helpers and the visitors, all present together at any one time, are encouraged to participate in this atmosphere of sacred space. The attitude of reverence is palpable and quite remarkable as a rarity in the 21st century.
The first few days were settling in to this silence with no access to Wi-fi, phone, TV or any other distraction. There is something akin to withdrawal as the absence of external stimulation sinks in. Walks on English footpaths are available outside the door, and wandering amongst the woods and fields is a lovely possibility of absorption in nature and summer tranquility. Even cars are infrequent on these roads. Horses and their riders are more common than vehicles. I cheated a bit, in that the nearby village ( A 6 k round trip walk) has a sweet little coffee shop at the back of the post office which has both free Wi-fi, newspapers and home baked treats. A little decadence goes a long way when the world of immediate gratification has been left behind!
After a few ‘settling’ days, more people arrived in preparation for an intensive retreat of video and dialogue, looking into the topic of the “Transformation of Man.” As always with a group of disparate people it took a while to settle in to becoming a whole group inquiring together for an official 5 hours a day or so, but many more dialogues continued over meals and into the night. Others, including myself, took more personal quiet time for digestion of the seven sequential video/ dialogues.
I cannot say enough about the benefit of this kind of sustained inquiry and the sense of being present as David Shainberg, David Bohm and Krishnaji together dialogued on the topics of the nature of disorder, caused by a misperception of the nature of thought, a misperception of our natural capacity for image making, and the perennial conflict inherent in our relationships. All due to fragmentation. The barometer of “ the sorrow of mankind,” was seen as a central underpinning to all these fragments for investigation, for deconstruction.
Not only the content but the process of this initially chaotic, yet ever deepening rapport, between the three men, developed. One could say that the first two videos especially were fractious, and by the last there was a meditative harmony which could be felt by all, participants and viewers. Indeed in this series, K is at pains to consider the viewer.
Dr Shainberg obliges by frequently acting as ‘everyman.’ David Bohm, as always, is reliably as he is with K, the voice of rationality and objectivity. He provides a calm foundation to absorb the challenge of K and the excitability of Dr Shainberg.
Our group mimicked these processes and was alternately, thoughtful, reactionary, emotional, calm, confused, talkative, quiet, chaotic and possessing of insight. At these rare insightful moments, there was a sense of oneness, of being permeated by compassion, intelligence and love. Regardless of the fragmentary nature of habitual approaches, there was always held and maintained a sense of respect and acceptance which, outside of this particular place and circumstance, would be hard to imagine. Separation would be the norm, yet here ongoing participation and commitment to the process was evident as the gradual maturation of fragments into something whole.
Some ‘enjoyed’ it more than others, some had not studied K at all, others for a lifetime, but regardless of history or experience I suspect that all were radically changed by such participation. The last words were these:
“All these discussions, dialogues have been a process of meditation. Not a clever argument but a real penetrating meditation which brings insight through everything that is being said. Seeing the truth of every statement, or the falseness of every statement. Seeing the false as it comes out in each of us and is clarified. Seeing all this is to be in a state of meditation and then whatever we say leads to the ultimate thing. Then you are not sharing.
Where are you?………There is no sharing. It is only that.”
K & Shainberg
Now, on the long flight homewards, I am so very glad that I went. It was not a vacation by any means, yet more worthwhile than almost anything one could imagine. I will be back, and recommend to anyone who has found an inkling of the love and wisdom inherent in K’s teachings that they take up the invitation to visit, at least once, this extraordinary and unique place on planet earth.
LW
July 2018
