FIVE QUESTIONS
Ingram to lead 'Dialogue' in presence, wholeness
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
| • | Dharma Dialogues with Catherine Ingram
7 p.m. Friday and Saturday St. Anthony's Retreat Center, 3351 Kalihi St. $10 Also: There will be an all-day workshop Sunday, $50. 955-6932 |
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She left journalism and began the speaker circuit after writing "In the Footsteps of Gandhi," which included interviews with Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and Ram Dass.
Q. What is a Dharma Dialogue?
A. It's an interactive event, almost like an improvisational jazz performance, only in conversation, leading to present awareness.
Q. What's the weirdest place you've done one?
A. Sedona, Ariz. It's a new-agey place. There's a lot of places that sell crystals in Sedona. (Laugh.)
I usually teach in Europe and the United States. I do evening events and retreats of various durations.
Q. What's your Hawai'i connection?
A. I've been coming since I was 19, and I'm now 51. I lived on Maui for eight months (in 1993), and lived on the North Shore for three months in 1973. I've done Dharma Dialogues on Maui and Kaua'i, but this is first on O'ahu.
I'll be coming again in April.
Q. You're no longer a Buddhist?
A. What I'm doing is not Buddhist practices, but I have a great ease with people who are practicing Buddhists. I speak their language. But what I say is, there is no practice needed to experience beingness. The idea of practice is that you're going to gain something in the future. Buddhists are mostly involved in practice and I'm not at all — a very big departure point. But Buddhism is a sort of cousin to my way of seeing. There's lots of overlap.
Q. What are you, then?
A. It's a nondual tradition. It's kind of a sense of oneness or wholeness. I get put in that category a lot. I don't categorize myself. ... If you adhere too much to a tradition, you get boxed in to beliefs. I recommend you release all beliefs. The so-called mystical experience is available to everyone, and everyone has experienced it countless times.
