DEATH & REBIRTH BEYOND TIME
EXPLORATIONS INTO FREEDOM INTENSIVE RETREAT
October 15-22, 2023, Sunday to Sunday

Krishnamurti describes psychological Death as the falling away of the limited me-centered consciousness, and suggests that Rebirth is an unburdening of the mind in the timeless present, beyond conflict and fear, and the frustrations of endless seeking.

All over the earth, our most ancient ancestors saw the importance of promoting the regeneration of the human spirit. Rights-of-passage were designed and practiced to allow us to profoundly renew ourselves, to die to past psychological accumulations in order to bring about a rebirth of the mind.

Krishnamurti made it emphatically clear, that just like our ancient ancestors and the earth itself, we human beings must give ourselves the opportunity to be born anew, to free the brain of fear, conflict, anxiety, confusion and beliefs that eventually rob us of the capacity for complete renewal.

The 8-day Explorations into Freedom Intensive Retreat: Death and Rebirth Beyond Time, facilitated by Richard and Deborah, offers exactly this opportunity each October, to cast off the psychological accumulations we have carried since childhood and collectively from time immemorial, the psychological burdens lodged in the subconscious mind that we drag along from one day to the next, trapping our energy in resistance to the dynamic flow of life, making it difficult to meet life with a fresh mind, to renew our energy and reignite the spark that brings joy in just being alive.

ln this way, the October Intensive Retreat gives us a unique opportunity to vacate our everyday lives, our routines, in order to discover for ourselves whatever is no longer vital, no longer essential, that no longer carries the living spark of aliveness, the joy that is our natural inheritance.

Together we will penetrate into the hidden regions of the psyche to tease out whatever is dampening our energy, exposing the irrelevant, dead, habitual patterns of thought and belief, that have brought most of humanity to this crisis of endemic conflict and psychological suffering threatening our very existence on this extraordinary planet earth.

During our daily dialogical excursions together, we are journeying into self-discovery, the mystery of being alive, illuminating the darkest regions of the mind to bring light and clarity, as we uncover the original mind that has never been contaminated by thought, has never been touched by sorrow, self-pity or hurt of any kind.

Richard and Deborah encourage participants to discover the penetrating awareness of ‘listening and seeing’ as an open door to a new timeless and boundless perceptual dimension.We are exploring the ground where human consciousness assembles itself, to discover where the distortions in perception begin to appear, the dead leaves cluttering our minds. We are cleansing the content of the brain, creating fresh space inwardly, fresh energy that can move us to penetrating insights, the flowering of intelligence no longer bound by time or space, no longer limited by the artificial constraints of a fear-based, me-centered consciousness.

The Retreat takes place at the beautiful, mountain-ringed Krishnamurti Center campus, nestled in the spiritually alive Ojai Valley in California. This is the perfect location for our in-depth explorations.Richard and Deborah limit their Intensive Retreats to 12 participants to help create an atmosphere of mutual support, affection, respect and sensitivity, as we journey together toward the potential for complete freedom of the mind.

Please join us for this unique and inspiring in-depth exploration to free the mind of a million years of psychological conditioning, to see if it is possible for a rebirth of the mind, to meet the mystery and beauty of being alive, here and now, as if for the first time.

Facilitators

Richard Waxberg and Deborah Kerner live in Ojai, California. They moved here 17 years ago by invitation to create and begin facilitating the Explorations into Freedom Intensive Retreats for the Krishnamurti Foundation of America. They offer two 8-day retreats each year at the Krishnamurti Center in Ojai, in June and October. They have also facilitated retreats in British Columbia, Canada and Denmark.

They are both practicing artists. Richard studies and plays the Japanese Shakuhachi flute. Deborah is also a published poet. Both Richard and Deborah had successful careers in New York City as graphic designers. Richard taught art and design, aesthetics and art history at the prestigious Parsons School of Design.

They left their lives in New York City to begin a new spiritual life, taking up the challenge Krishnamurti proposed of stepping ‘out of time’, stepping out of the ‘me-centered’ paradigm of consciousness. Their journey took them to Ojai, California to study Krishnamurti’s teachings, and to India to teach for a full school year several art and design courses at the Rishi Valley School in rural Andra Pradesh, a school based on Krishnamurti’s teachings located near his birthplace.

During their year of teaching at the Rishi Valley School, Richard and Deborah traveled to 4 Krishnamurti schools throughout India, to participate in dialogues with teachers and staff on what it means for students to experience an education based on Krishnamurti’s teachings.

As part of their earlier spiritual work, they studied Native American shamanic practices for 12 years with 3 traditional Native American elders before discovering the profound life-changing teachings of J.Krishnamurti. It was during these studies that they learned the importance of gathering, storing and releasing energy as an essential part of spiritually transformational work.

They continue studying and exploring current scientific studies and observations on human consciousness that reflect Krishnamurti’s profound message of transformation, freedom, and love.