Is There An Action That Has No Cause?
We often hear and use terms such as the “me”, judgment, conflict, resistance, division and so on, in reference to our psychological life. Have we ever noticed what these words tend to evoke in us? Is there a sense that these words refer to something that should not be happening, that it is a problem that must be gotten rid of? (Which is not to say that what these words reference doesn’t create suffering in our lives). Is this very feeling or valuation in fact what the words refer to? Is our psychological movement simply reacting to itself, judging, separating, trying to free itself from itself? It all seems impossible.

It seems that any movement by the mind to define itself and its circumstances is simply more division and conflict. What’s a mind to do then? Maybe this question itself is the crux of the matter. All that our minds seem to know are means to some assumed result. Krishnamurti spoke of the value of being disturbed, which psychological conflict and suffering reflect. Does this have something to do with no longer trying to avoid our disturbance and suffering? And is this itself a matter of choosing or finding a different action for us to take in order to stop avoiding ourselves, or is this simply more of the same?

Is there another possibility, not within this movement of motive? Perhaps there is a different action that does not arise out of wanting to get rid of conflict/suffering, but which flows spontaneously and naturally (choicelessly) from, for example, truly seeing the futility of this movement that can only avoid itself. 

In this, what happens to the framework of self-concern that reacts to its own arising? Has this movement of avoiding itself simply lost all meaning, even as it might arise, in freedom? Is an action already taking place without effort or knowing, one that is its own action?

You are invited to explore these and related questions about our shared way of looking at everything, and what this might reveal. 

We will meet each day for a 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:  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.