Empathy
Human beings… experience themselves, their thoughts, and feelings as separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of the human consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us… Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.    

–Albert Einstein

We have been educated in a culture that emphasizes the self. The concept of a separate self is ingrained in us from the very beginning of our lives and is passed on from generation to generation. If we look objectively as to what is happening in the world now (and within us), it is somewhat obvious that this self-centered view has not only created a great deal of problems but this view is also very limited in addressing the problems it has created.

In his teachings, Krishnamurti suggests the very act of looking at and inquiring into our thought processes may be a means to penetrate this separateness, that Einstein refers to in his quote above. If there is a chance of addressing the problems we are creating, perhaps we first need to look factually at ourselves and our conditioning.

During this week, we will have an opportunity to inquire together into the nature of the self and our thought processes. We will use some passages from Krishnamurti’s teachings as a jumping off place to explore together and inquire into the possibility of a wider perspective. Exploring and inquiring into the possibility of perceiving beyond and through our conditioned thinking, is a central theme in Krishnamurti’s teachings.

Facilitator

Darcy Gray became interested in the teachings of Krishnamurti in his early twenties.  In 1978 he joined the Krishnamurti School in Ojai, California a few years after its opening in 1975.

In the early years of the school, Darcy participated in staff dialogues with Krishnamurti and with David Bohm. Over the three decades he spent at Oak Grove School, he taught Math and Physics and held many other roles in the High School, Elementary School and in Administration. He also traveled to many of the other K schools and joined Oak Grove School’s first High School excursion with Brockwood Park’s students staff visit to the sister schools in India.

“Teaching at the Oak Grove school didn’t seem like I was working in a job but more like joining in an endeavor that made sense to me. During my years teaching Physics and Mathematics (both subjects traditionally often taught with rote methods) my main focus became exploring alternative ways of presenting the subject in ways that both myself and my students could make sense of it and in developing an atmosphere of learning together in the classroom.”

“When working with students, I would question both right and wrong answers. Another thing that happens often is that the students will come up with an answer  that appears to be totally off the wall to me. My tendency is to grimace, but I have learned to hold off and try to find out why this person is saying what they are. Most often they have very logical, well thought-out reasons for what they say. But they don’t always match up with what I’m expecting. To tell them they are wrong is way off base, because usually they are not wrong. They may have had a different interpretation of how the problem was defined, or a totally different approach to the problem, and that’s why they responded the way they did. Our thought process often wants to come to quick conclusions and as a teacher you can easily cut students off and may undermine the exploration process.”

Darcy retired from teaching at the school in 2020 but continued participating in the Oak Grove K discussions and was an active volunteer. His keen interest in dialogues and in the questions Krishnamurti has posed, persists.