Breaking Through Separate Self Perspective Limits

How should one’s unlimited self relate to the limited self in meditation practice, and how can the unlimited self help break the limiting patterns? Rupert says: ‘Instead of thinking of your unlimited self and your limited self alongside her, think of your more limited self inside the greater self. [They refer to a metaphor in which a white sheet of paper represents being – the infinite self – which Rupert then asks participants to engage in an exercise with.] Draw a little perforated circle in the middle of that white sheet of paper. That’s your apparently finite separate self. The boundary of that person is made of sense perception. It’s sense perception that makes you feel you are in here experiencing a world out there. But the white paper inside the circle is the same white paper outside the circle. Although your thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions are all unique to you, the self in you, the pure self – the pure feeling of I, your being – that’s the white paper. The perforated circle doesn’t really separate the white paper into two pieces. There’s just one piece of paper. All you need to do is realise that the shape of the circle doesn’t define you, the paper inside it. It’s just the belief that what I am is conditioned by the shape of the circle. It’s just that little belief that needs to go.’

From event 06 June - 13 July, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta, 6–13 June 2025

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