The benefits of disconnecting from the familiar
A retreat provides such an opportunity
I need to disconnect from most things except the essentials every seven weeks or so. Disconnect is a word I heard used by a fellow participant in the retreat from which I have just returned.
They were talking about disconnecting from what has caused us psychological difficulties. Rather than go into the past and perhaps heal the trauma they were advocating disconnect from the past and build from here. The question probably arises ‘How do I build from here?’ We were at the Krishnamurti Centre so you won’t be surprised that ‘The teachings’ associated with Krishnamurti may provide an answer.
Increasingly I also hear others refer to other teachers the most popular of which is Eckhart Tolle and his book ‘The Power of Now’. Tolle may have been influenced by ‘The Teachings’ associated with Krishnamurti.
I have read pages of Tolle’s book but never completed it. I read enough to concur with what he expounds ‘as far as possible live in the moment’. My own version is, “The only thing required of you is this present moment”
The teachings attempt to bring people to the same place. A sentence that stood out for me at the weekend was, “…………but what change is first to be aware of what actually “is” and to live with it, and then one observes that the “seeing” itself brings about change.”
I understand this to mean standing back from what is happening inside ourselves almost as if we are watching a film. Often I get pulled into the drama and become an actor in it rather than perhaps a spectator of it.
But it is the disconnecting that brings me to the Centre. Dare I say that what has been created here speaks to my soul more than words? The architecture speaks to me in a way architecture rarely does. The building is like a rug laid out on the ground, it takes nothing away from the surrounding nature. No TV, radio or any other technological distractions. There are books and videos if you wish to read and or watch them.
The questions Krishnamurti asks are good questions to enquire into whatever you conclude. The people I meet are most often those who you wouldn't meet in church, temple or mosque but they are aware. The dialogues whether in a group, on the sofa or at dinner are almost always beyond the superficial.
Now I have returned to the ‘connect’ and almost instantly I am aware that the relaxation that I was experiencing has moved to a tension. My consolation is that I am of aware of it as difficult as it is and hoping that “the “seeing” itself brings about change.”
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