Jul 14

Silent Retreat

Date and Time

July 14 - 16 2023 PDT

Location

Krishnamurti Center, 1070 McAndrew Rd OJAI, California, 93023-8314 United States View Map

Co-ordinator

Krishnamurti Center Ojai
More Information
+1 (805) 646-2726

About This Event

This program is a unique opportunity to come together in silence at the Krishnamurti Center in Ojai, CA. The intention of this weekend program is to be a retreat in the deepest sense. It is rare that we have the opportunity to share a space in silence together; to gather together with the intention of minimizing the external distractions of the world to come in touch with the quiet space of our being. We will begin the retreat with some short reading and then refrain from reading, writing, and speaking for the remainder of the weekend. 

This program is intended for you to be with yourself—however that looks and feels. We will meet at regular times as a group to share and respect this intention in ourselves and one another. The schedule is made specifically so that we can do away with our need to communicate about our daily engagements while having the opportunity to meet throughout the day and spend time together in silence. Saturday we will begin and end the day sitting during sunrise and sunset.

Facilitator
Mary Kelly: I was born on an island in the Nile River and the first words I learned to speak were Arabic. As both of my parents are educators and students of Krishnamurti’s teachings, growing up in Connecticut I was always exposed to challenging study at home and fun, weekend enrichment classroom-activities with my mother. But it was the unmistakably clear message of Krishnamurti’s example of free inquiry and learning that really awakened me to the possibility—or to the necessity—of dedicating my whole life to the vocation of teaching children at the elementary-school level. The inevitable deficiencies of my regular college-training in education were very thankfully ameliorated by an excellent graduate program at the University of New Haven and by the enriching experience of two different “Teachers’ Academy” programs I attended at Oak Grove School and the Pepper Tree Retreat in 2007 and 2013, and also the wonderful experience of participating as a volunteer Art & Literacy teacher at The Valley School in Bangalore, India, for a year in 2009. After working for four years in a public school in Connecticut I am most fortunate to be in my 8th year as the fifth-grade teacher at Oak Grove School, which is the fulfillment of my dream: to teach and learn in an exceptional place where education is understood as the blossoming of life!