“Only in Relationship can you know yourself, not in abstraction and certainly not in isolation. The movement of behavior is the sure guide to yourself. It's the mirror of your consciousness; this mirror will reveal its content, the images, the attachments, the fears, the loneliness, the joy and sorrow. Poverty lies in running away from this, either in its sublimations or its identities.” J.Krishnamurti

So, we think we have relationship, don’t we? 

I assume I already know what my relationship is with my friends, my lover, my boss, my family… That relationship is woven out of what I want, or don’t want, isn’t it? Either I rush towards relationship, desire it, want more of it… Or I avoid it and cut off; living isolated, yet in control. I worry (whether I’m aware of it or not) about all these relationships: what the other person thinks of me affects my whole sense of self worth. Or am I in relationship to affirm the self worth I do not actually have within?

In these relationships, how and by what are we connected? What is the connection itself made of? Is that connection love? Is it care or affection? Or, is the interplay of most relationships, based on the ideas and images we project onto each other; either positive or negative? Is the narrow, calcified fact of these limited relationships, blocking and affecting the flow of my whole life and the whole network of society?

In our 7-day retreat, we shall be bringing out and laying bare these questions - and many more - that the group holds within themselves. As we dialogue, our intention is observing rather than speculating, allowing the inquiry to deepen as its own natural process. If we are participating in order to gain new (or confirm old) ideas we cherish, then we are not really investigating. If I already know the answers and am seeking to self improve through dialogue and questioning - can there be discovery actually taking place? Can there be any transformation?

During this delicate process of self discovery together, we may uncover that our own revelations are common also within the group - as well as in the world as a whole. Do I care enough to expose - honestly and simply, with affection and quiet listening - the lies and self deceptions I carry in my thoughts about others? 

Can there be fundamental change in all our relationships? Can we approach tentatively what it is to really love? Is love something we can learn to have or to express? Or is love utterly different from all this? Is love a living presence I have no control of, buried and concealed under the habits of my core programming and belief systems? What could this mean for our everyday lives and perhaps even for all human beings?

For those interested, we are going to find out together. Not intellectually. Not at the verbal level. But deeply challenging our fixed perceptions of life and relationship.