As we look at the world, it seems to be filled with chaos and conflict. And we are also immersed in this chaos and conflict, inwardly and outwardly. Life can seem a constant struggle to overcome our problems, with no apparent ending. In turn, we feel pressured to “do” something about ourselves, which means to be other than what we are.

In wanting to free ourselves, we seek various ways out of our inner conflict and problems. In the midst of this, there seems to be no real understanding of what is going on within us, only confusion. For example, is seeking a way out of our situation actually a way out of our situation? It seems that wanting to get rid of our problems does not lead anywhere, even as it is often foremost on our minds.

Is it possible that our problems lie in the very way we are looking at them, and ourselves: as separate from us to begin with, and we therefore need to do something to correct them or make them go away? Are we actually separate from our problems? Can we actually understand ourselves when we view ourselves in this way? Or does understanding arise naturally in truly wanting to understand ourselves, which means no longer being separate within, from fear, problems and so on.

We tend to live as if we ought to be other than we are, rather than living as we are. In the latter may lie the opportunity to discover without struggling, because we aren’t striving to be other than what we are. Perhaps living as we are is itself transforming. We might even come to see how we truly want to live, free of self-concern.

But this is not a sort of “doing” on our part based on an idea, but rather a choiceless dying to ourselves, to whatever arises within. And in this dying, what ends? Do fear and all the rest no longer arise? Or, is there no longer concern as to what arises because we are not separate from it.

You are invited to participate in exploring how we are living now, without knowing what this is and where it might lead.

Daily online sessions:  10:00am-12:15pm PACIFIC TIME

These sessions will be recorded and made available to the participants only for further personal study for 2 weeks after the last session.

Dan Kilpatrick is a retired Associate Professor of the Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems, and the Program in Neuroscience, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has had a long-time interest in our shared, underlying nature and inquiry into how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. The insights of J. Krishnamurti and others have been an invaluable part of this journey, helping to reveal that the opportunity for self-discovery is present in each and every moment and does not depend on circumstance. Coming to see that our sense of self is something in which we all share, not as a conclusion, but as an immediate and living fact, is also perhaps our greatest challenge.

Dan received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at San Diego in chemistry and his doctorate degree in biochemistry from Duke University. His research focused on how self-organizing gene networks controlling development and its timing give rise to emergent properties of the nervous system.