Swanwick Star Issue No. 4 (2011)

Krishnamurti Retreats 2011

This year the centre hosted two Krishnamurti-focused retreats. The first, on July 22-24, was facilitated by Ralph Tiller and David Bruneau and was entitled “Living Without Conflict”. The core material was four talks given by K at Brockwood Park in England in 1982. In addition there were times of silent sitting and reflection, some writing, sharing in pairs, and group dialogue on the topic of conflict and the possibility of freedom. Participants gave very positive feedback as to the value of the retreat.

The weekend of August 6-7, following a Friday evening talk at the Church of Truth in Victoria, a retreat took place with Hillary Rodrigues, author of a book on Krishnamurti and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge. Hillary had led a retreat the previous summer and many of the participants from that event were again in attendance, as well as some newcomers. The subject this year was “The Power of Self-Inquiry: Advaita and Krishnamurti”. Hillary gave a number of talks on aspects of Advaita Vedanta and on K’s approach to inquiry, followed by a group dialogue. A couple of videos of K and another of James Schwartz, an American Vedanta teacher, were part of the program. The participation was spirited and the topic was found to inspire some very interesting questioning, exploration, and insight. Participants very much appreciated the combination of scholarly knowledge and personal authentic experience that Hillary brings to his presentations and it is hoped that he will return again next year.