SCHEDULE
ABOUT WORKSHOP THEMES Workshop Number 1: July 6 – 10, 2011 at Hyderabad Theme: Living without getting hurt—is it possible? “A physical hurt I can cure very easily. The body looks after itself and cures it. But the psychological hurt is the hurt of the image which thought has built about itself, and any derogatory word or incident hurts that image.” J. Krishnamurti Right from the childhood we are constantly being hurt psychologically. These hurts affect all our actions in life and end up in generating lot of suffering for us. They also distort our outlook towards life and very often we end up living in a kind of protective shell which eventually cuts us off from the mainstream life. This results in decay and deterioration of us.
All such questions and more will be dealt with in this workshop. Workshop Number 2: August 22 – 26, 2011 at Pune Theme: Life in relationship. Problems of relationship. “Life is a movement in relationship. There is no escape from that. You may become a hermit, take vows, put on strange garbs and all the rest of it, thinking yourself extraordinary, exceptional, but you are related. To understand relationship is the most important thing in life; not god, not all these scriptures, but to understand the depth, the meaning, the beauty, the quality, of relationship.” J. Krishnamurti Our life is our relationship with the world around us. We are reflected exactly the way we are in our relationship to others. Why are there problems in our relationships? What is the basis, the quality and the nature of our relationship with others? These and many other such questions will be explored in this workshop with a particular focus on husband-wife, parent-children, teacher-student, and employer-employee relationships. Also the question of whether the relationship can be taken to a completely different dimension where no conflict is possible will be explored in this workshop. If you have problems of relationship and would like to resolve them through the understanding of their nature, this is the right workshop for you. Workshop Number 3: September 9 – 13, 2011 at Kolhapur Theme: Religious mind in the technological age. “A religious mind is free of the past; a religious mind is free of time, because time belongs to the positive and negative reactions. So a religious mind is a mind that is capable of thinking precisely, not in terms of negative and positive. Therefore, such a religious mind has within it the scientific mind, but the scientific mind does not have the religious mind in it. The religious mind contains the scientific mind; but the scientific mind cannot contain the religious mind, because that is based on time, on knowledge, on achievement, success, utilization.” - J. Krishnamurti Most of the major religions in the world are based on belief, faith and sentimentality. They demand faith in some concepts, ideas and are not open to investigation. They are based on fear and exploit constant human search for security. Their concept of god is more a result of faith than the actual experiencing of the reality of god. This has given rise to many foolish ideas, meaningless rituals and traditions. But by questioning all these, the science has struck at the very roots of traditional religiosity. The scientific conclusions based on accurate observations, precise measurements, constant verification through experiments, have rendered all the old religious beliefs meaningless.
Workshop Number 4: October 3 – 7, 2011 at Dapoli, Ratnagiri District Theme: Difficulties in the study of Krishnamurti’s ‘Teachings’. “You may know the superficial layers of your mind; but to know the unconscious motives, drives, fears, the hidden residue of tradition, of racial inheritance—to be aware of all that and to give it close attention is very hard work, it demands a great deal of energy. Most of us are unwilling to give close attention to these things; we have not the patience to go into ourselves step by step, inch by inch, so that we begin to know all the subtleties, the intricate movements of the mind. But it is only the mind which has understood itself in its totality and is therefore incapable of self-deception—it is only such a mind that can free itself of its past and go beyond its own movements within the field of time. This is not very difficult, but it requires a great deal of hard work.” - J. Krishnamurti What is Krishnamurti’s Teaching? Why should anyone study it at all? Why is it so difficult? Is it meant for highly intellectual people? Can an illiterate person study it? Is it merely a theoretical concept or it has a practical value in one’s daily life? How does one practice it in one’s life? How does one study these teachings? Do I have to live my life according to what Krishnamurti has said, or can I not live it in my own way? What are the difficulties one encounters while studying the teachings and how they can be overcome will be the concern during this workshop. For the long time students of Krishnamurti, this is a unique opportunity of taking stock of what one has been studying and where has it lead oneself to. For the new comers to Krishnamurti, this workshop offers an opportunity to begin the study in a right way. Workshop Number 5: November 3 – 7, 2011 at Panchgani, Maharashtra Theme: Integrating Education. What is right education? “Though there is a higher and wider significance to life, of what value is our education if we never discover it? We may be highly educated, but if we are without deep integration of thought and feeling, our lives are incomplete, contradictory and torn with many fears; and as long as education does not cultivate an integrated outlook on life, it has very little significance.” “The individual is made up of different entities, but to emphasize the differences and to encourage the development of a definite type leads to many complexities and contradictions. Education should bring about the integration of these separate entities—for without integration, life becomes a series of conflicts and sorrows. Of what value is it to be trained as lawyers if we perpetuate litigation? Of what value is knowledge if we continue in our confusion? What significance has technical and industrial capacity if we use it to destroy one another? What is the point of our existence if it leads to violence and utter misery?” - J. Krishnamurti The present education divides human beings as it is based on comparison, competition and focused on developing a student as an exclusive entity. This results in all kinds of divisions in the human society. Divisions based on nationality, religion, race, language, culture, as if were not enough and hence economical disparity has become another factor of division. Fee-based education has created divisions among the students. The days of economically poor and rich students studying together seem to be over. This rift in the status in school grows further and causes much larger divisions in the society as the student comes out of the school and starts living his life. The economic division seem to be overpowering all other types of divisions. Is there a way of educating which will integrate the human being with other human beings, with nature, rather than isolate him from them? Can there be an education which will develop the student into inclusive kind of personality rather than make him exclusive? Is every human being unique? Where does that uniqueness lie? Can education nurture that uniqueness? All such and more will be considered during this workshop. There is a separate brochure just for this workshop giving all the further details of the programme. Workshop Number 6: December 12 – 16, 2011 at Pune Theme: What is our consciousness? Learning about consciousness. “My consciousness is made up of all this. My consciousness is used to the process of time, my consciousness thinks in terms of gradualness, my consciousness is practice and through practice to achieve, which is time. My consciousness is a process of time. Now I am asking that consciousness, can it go beyond this? Can we, who are caught in the movement of time, go beyond time? That question, consciousness cannot answer. Consciousness does not know what it means, because it can only think in terms of time and when questioned whether this process can end in which there is no time, it cannot answer, can it?” - J. Krishnamurti What is consciousness? What is it made of? Is consciousness limited to plant, animal and human consciousness or there are possibilities beyond. How does understanding of the consciousness help us live better? What are conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious layers of our existence? What is conditioning? Can it be broken through? How can one reach the deeper unconscious layers in oneself and cause a change there? All this and more will be the content of this workshop. Workshop Number 7: January 9 – 13, 2012 at Pune Theme: What is love? Why that perfume is missing in our life? “You see, the educator is generally concerned about himself, he is caught up in his personal worries about his family, his money, his position. He has no love in his heart, and this is one of the difficulties in education. You may have love in your heart, because to love is a natural thing when one is young; but it is soon destroyed by the parents, by the educator, by the social environment. To maintain that innocence, that love which is the perfume of life, is extraordinarily arduous; it requires a great deal of intelligence, insight.” - J. Krishnamurti Usually love is understood in the context of attachment, jealousy, sentimentality, emotions. But is that love? Why there is no love in our relationships? What is that quality of love which is missing from our life? What are the obstructions to love and how they can be overcome? Does love necessarily involve sex? Why has sex become such an important issue in human life? Is love blind? Is love binding? What does freedom mean in the context of love? What is death and how is it related with love? Does intelligence necessarily imply love? Why do human beings suffer? Can there be an end to suffering? All this and more is the theme of this workshop. Workshop Number 8: February 6 – 10, 2012 at Pune Theme: What is creativity? Creativity in daily life. “Is it not possible for a mind to be completely in a state of not knowing, so that it is capable of sensitivity, so that it can receive? Is not the highest form of thinking the completely negative state of the mind in which there is no accumulation, in which therefore there is complete poverty of mind— poverty in the most dignified, profound sense? It is new soil, it is a mind in which there is no knowledge; therefore, it is the Unknown. It is only then the Unknown can come to the Unknown. The known can never know the Unknown. Sirs, this is not just a statement; but if you listen to it, if you listen to the real meaning of it, you will know the truth of it. But the man of vanity, the man of knowledge, the scholar, the man who is pursuing a result, can never know the Unknown; therefore he cannot be a creative being. And at the present time it is the creative being—the man who is creative—that is essential in our daily life, not a man who has a new technique, a new panacea. And there can be no creativeness if there is already a residue of knowledge. The mind must be empty to be creative. It means the mind must be totally and completely humble. Then only is there a possibility of that creativity to come into being.” - J. Krishnamurti Most of us live our life in a routine, habitual, traditional way which leads to boredom, loneliness and eventual depression. There is hardly any creativity in our daily life. What is creativity? Does one have to be an artist, poet, musician, etc. to be creative? Can one live and do everything in a creative way? All such questions and more will be taken up for exploration in this workshop. Workshop Number 9: March 2 – 6, 2012 at Panchgani, Maharashtra Theme: Is there a completely different way of living? “One can see very clearly that one must lay a new foundation for a different kind of living, a different way of looking at life as a whole, not fragmentarily, a way of thinking when it is absolutely necessary, most efficiently, logically, and sanely, but while the mind is not functioning in thought, for the mind to be completely quiet the rest of the time. A way of living where action is complete and not contradictory, so that one action doesn't deny or bring about corruption, or disintegration in other activities. A way of living that is of tremendous enjoyment, great delight, without the exhausting process of pleasure. And also a way of life that is completely and utterly peaceful. Now can all this be realized in our daily living? That's what I would like to talk about, if that is what you also want.” - J. Krishnamurti Are we happy the way we are living? The daily routine, boredom, problems in relationships, conflicts, tensions at home and at working place, constant pursuit of pleasure, struggle for achievement, all this interspersed with occasional joys and moments of happiness seems to be our daily life. Is this all life is about? If not, then what are we doing with our life? Is there a way of living which is completely different from that described above? How does one find out? What is the deeper significance of life? What is the purpose of human life? Can it be realized in our daily life and not remain just as an intellectual concept? A journey of exploration into our own daily life and the possibilities beyond will be taken up in this workshop. If you are not happy the way you are living and want to explore the possibility of a deep radical change, this is the workshop for you. This workshop does not promise change but invites you to join the exploration into the depths and expanses of human life. 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