“Relationship is our problem, and without understanding relationship, merely to be active is to produce further confusion, further misery. Action is relationship: to be is to be related. Do what you will—withdraw to the mountains, sit in a forest—you cannot live in isolation. You can live only in relationship, and as long as relationship is not understood, there can be no right action. Right action comes in understanding relationship, which reveals the process of oneself. Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom; it is a field of affection, warmth, and love, therefore a field rich with flowers.” – Krishnamurti

Life presents us with challenges of every sort: livelihood, relationship, health, etc. We are often uncertain or conflicted as to how to meet these. How do we find the right response? If we are fragmented ourselves, how can we find a complete response? Where do we look for it? Is there action in which there is no conflict? Is there a place for motive, will, or intention? Join us in dialogue so we may explore this essential question together.

“To go far, you must begin very near, but to begin near is very difficult for most of us because we want to escape from “what is,” from the fact of what we are.” – Krishnamurti

The dialogue is an attempt to begin very near by exploring the nature of our personal selves as they are experienced and expressed in our daily lives. We look at the personal in the context of the universal and question the limits of the personal. Krishnamurti’s teachings are a point of departure, but the inquiry is our own. We seek understanding not through external sources but through observation of the subjective experience through which the world appears and the expression of that in our relationship with the natural and social world. Inquiring together as a group creates a microcosm of the larger society and a mirror in which we can see our conditioning reflected as we expose ourselves to one another and to ourselves. The aim of group inquiry is not problem solving or self-improvement but self-discovery. As the self tends to become defensive and resistant to examination when threatened it is important to create a safe environment in which everyone is respected. A dialogue rooted in respectful, affectionate relationship is vastly different from a dialogue of the intellect. This affection is an outcome of listening deeply and requires a suspension of judgment.

We will meet each day for a 2 1/2-hour session that will include but not be limited to discussion/dialogue, some short video clips, and short excerpts from texts.

Daily online sessions (These sessions will not be recorded):
10:30 am-1:00 pm PACIFIC TIME

Facilitators Kathy Franklin and Terry O’Connor are retired psychotherapists who found Krishnamurti’s teachings invaluable in their work.  They have hosted a dialogue in their home since 1992, and have organized the annual Memorial Day Krishnamurti Dialogue and Gathering in Maryland since it began in 1995.