Swanwick Star Issue No. 7 (2014)
A Trip to the KFA Gathering in Ojai, California
May 7-13, 2014
The KFA’s Annual May Gathering took place on May 10-11, 2014 at the Krishnamurti Educational Centre (KEC) in Ojai. I had been invited to attend on behalf of KECC.
I stayed at the Theosophical Society’s Krotona Guest House, together with the Indian delegation, and for meals and the events I commuted to the Pepper Tree Retreat at the other end of Ojai valley. The mealtimes turned out to be an unusual opportunity to meet many Foundation trustees, KFA staff and other members of the ‘K World’.
For this year’s Gathering the theme of “Unconditioning” had been chosen. Workshops took place Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons at Pine Cottage, Arya Vihara and the Archives building.
About 150 people were at the opening session and then attended about 24 different sessions and activities, including presentations by some trustees. Many of these were also videotaped and simultaneously broadcast online.
Three different events were held at any one time, so it was not possible to attend every event. Of the ones I attended, the talk by Dr. Krishna of Rajghat School on ‘What is meant by Freedom from Conditioning?’ was impressive in its scope, insight and accomplished delivery. Of special interest also was a presentation by Amanda Lezra, a 21 year old graduate of Oak Grove School, who reported on her project ‘Think on These Things’, an outreach program of the KFA aimed at young adults in high schools and universities. It uses social media in an innovative way to engage young people in the exploration of questions such as ‘What is success?’ and ‘What is learning?’ and to stimulate discussion for deeper self-understanding. I also attended two dialogues facilitated by Kandaswamy, the secretary of the KFI, and Eric Hassett, mainly to see how they were being conducted.
I had opportunities to meet with Jerome Blanche, the secretary of the KFT, Kandaswami, the long-term secretary of the KFI and Jaap Sluijter, the Director of the KFA (who said he was happy to finally ‘put a face’ to the KECC), as well as many of the attending trustees. Ray McCoy of KFT, who had visited Wolf Lake School and is now senior editor of the KFT, was unable to attend, but instead I had interesting conversations with David Skitt, who works with him and wrote the preface to K’s classic ‘Freedom from the Known’, among others.
The trustees from the various K Foundations seemed interested in knowing more about KECC and they were pleasantly surprised to hear that KECC is this year offering five K based sessions each month, in addition to the monthly weekend retreats, most of which are also K based.
I also met with K. Krishnamurthy, the head of KFI Publications, to finalize the publication in India of the small K booklet “On Knowing Oneself”, a good introductory talk by K in Sydney in 1955, that we will be handing out to guests and visitors free of charge.
I also reconnected with Mark Lee and Asha in their home for tea, with Ivan Berkovicz who had spent time at Wolf Lake School, as well as with Michael Krohnen, K’s cook and author of ‘The Kitchen Chronicles: 1001 Lunches with J.Krishnamurti’. Michael had given a cooking workshop at Swanwick many years ago and is now in charge of the library and book store. With him I visited the book store and received helpful feedback as to the books most in demand.
The KEC staff was very busy during the Gathering, but I briefly met most of them, including Eric Williamson, their website developer and Kelley O’Mara, their marketing manager and social media person. Most of the present staff are quite young, with Michael Krohnen the one long-term staff member. This seems to reflect the renewed energy that Jaap has brought to KFA since becoming Director two years ago. There is, moreover, an interesting new Intern Program for young persons, mainly in their twenties, and I met with some of them. One of them mentioned she would want to come to Swanwick at some point as a guest helper.
I also met with Richard Waxberg and Deborah Kerner in their home to finalize arrangements for them to hold a K based dialogue retreat at Swanwick that is now scheduled for October. They have successfully been holding Intensives at the KEC over the last decade, and also some 6 years ago at Swanwick. This workshop, together with Mark Lee’s July retreat here, are concrete ways of strengthening the KECC-KFA connection.
I had an interesting conversation with Ulrich Brugger at his Ojai Retreat, now a top ranked B&B, who at one time trained dialogue facilitators for the KFA, including Richard Waxberg. He also hosts dialogues and made some helpful suggestions in this regard.
I also visited the nearby Krotona library and book shop, both of which now also include a good selection of K books.
Before leaving, however, I left with Mark Lee some ‘Talking Points’ that he agreed to present at the ITM on behalf of the KECC. They clarified the role of the KECC, its relationship with the K Foundations and its intention to maintain and further strengthen its relationship with the KFA for the purpose of disseminating K’s teachings.
All in all, my presence at this event helped create greater awareness of KECC among the Foundations and helped create new contacts that may be helpful in the future.
Ralph Tiller
