The Urgency of Change Dialogue Meeting, July 12, 2020

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The Urgency of Change Dialogue Meeting

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Zoom online

Nine participants were present for this Sunday afternoon meeting. Our focus for this session was the third chapter of the J. Krishnamurti book The Urgency of Change, which group members had explored on their own before coming to the meeting. We began with five minutes of quiet sitting with the question “What is the root of fear?” Krishnamurti has said that the cause of fear is thought, but what is it exactly about thought that is responsible for the experience of fear? Can the process of thought be seen at a level that can create a shift in our relationship to fear?

We then entered a group sharing of what had been discovered during the meditation or in our ongoing self-inquiry. The sharing was lively and extended out to touching upon the main topics discussed in the chapter on fear, such as dependency, being with “emptiness”, the search for security, and the results of comparing ourselves with others or with an ideal version of ourselves. Can we look at these issues in our lives without escaping from them into abstractions and quick answers or solutions? The discussion provoked some exploration of Krishnamurti’s suggestions for looking and listening without naming our experience and without creating a division between the observer and the observed. The inquiry seemed to be valuable.

After the meeting a few of us explored our impressions of the event. It was suggested that it might be helpful to slow down the speed of the communication at times, perhaps by simply putting attention on such things as our feet on the ground or our breathing. Other simple “grounding” techniques might be of use. Perhaps some pointers on the nature of dialogue might be pertinent, for example the practice of “suspending” or holding up our thoughts and feelings in the circle with space to look at them and question any assumptions or agendas in expressing our ideas. That can be explored more fully at our next meeting.

Reading over the chapter on fear again might be valuable. The next reading will be “How to Live in this World”. I will send out more details about our planned meetings soon.

DB.