Swanwick Star Issue No. 2 (2009)
Ralph Tiller
I first came across K’s teaching at age 15 in our home in the Austrian Alps. It came in the form of a K book (in German) that my mother had brought from one of her trips to Saanen. The words had a uniquely powerful ‘ring of truth’ that resonated strongly with me and left a lasting impression.
Subsequently, while living in Europe and later in Canada, I attended numerous K gatherings in Saanen, Brockwood, Ojai and New York, as well as the then K Foundation for Latin America in Puerto Rico. In 1966, when I first heard about plans to start a school in England, I had the opportunity to meet with K privately in New York, indicating my interest in his teaching and offering my help. Eventually, after Brockwood Park School opened, I worked there for one summer as volunteer in the early seventies.
In 1969 I completed my post-graduate studies at McGill University in Montreal and then taught in community colleges there. During that time, I participated in the activities of the Krishnamurti Informational Centre in Montreal and its video showings. This ended in 1975 when I left for development related work in Latin America with CUSO and then UNICEF, including a stint at its New York Head Office.
On returning to Montreal 4 years later, the Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada (KECC) was urgently looking for teachers and support staff for its newly established Wolf Lake School in Victoria. Accepting an offer to work there, I arrived in late 1979. I helped with tutoring and administration, but a main activity became organizing and maintaining a national outreach program for the KECC by organizing and hosting K video showings in Vancouver and Victoria and by supporting local groups across Canada. Eventually Hillary Rodrigues, a teacher and colleague, and I were asked by the owners to be in charge of the school in their absence until it was closed in 1981.
In 1983 I returned to Latin America to work in community and rural development programs in Honduras and Peru for another ten years. On my return to Victoria I established a holistic health practice and, during that time, also attended some video showings and dialogues at the Centre, which had become a K Study Centre for adults.
Since 2007 I have had the opportunity to become more actively involved in its program and promotion, hosting K video showings and dialogues, and hosting weekend retreats based on K’s teachings, as well as for the first time also including some contemporary teachings aligned with it (together with my wife Madelaine and friend David Bruneau, who was also a teacher at Wolfe Lake School). Now as program manager, I feel inspired by the Swanwick Centre’s vision as an international centre for spiritual inquiry and the wonderful opportunity to help make this vision reality.
