Nikki Walton hosts a podcast series called New Growth. In this episode, she begins her conversation with Rupert by asking him to share his ‘awakening story’. He relates an experience from his early 20s that, as he described it, injected urgency into his search for truth, which had begun several years earlier.
After a brief phone call from the girl he was madly in love with, ending their relationship, he was struck forcibly by the realisation that he had placed his present and future happiness in something that had come to an end in two minutes. He asked himself whether anything objective could be relied upon as a source of happiness.
Many years later, with his teacher Francis Lucille, it became experientially clear to Rupert that his nature was peace and happiness, and nothing else. Happiness, as he defines it, is not an emotion, which might come and go, but the basis of everything.
Rupert is then asked to explain the two metaphors he frequently employs to illustrate this: John Smith/King Lear; and the likening of consciousness to a knowing screen upon which the entire contents of consciousness is displayed. The screen is also, ultimately, the singular substance of which it is all made.
Finally, he describes the fruits of the two fundamental realisations common to all the great spiritual traditions: that peace and happiness are our true nature, and that everyone and everything share a single being.
First, the world and our relationships are relieved of the impossible burden of producing happiness for us, something they cannot ever do. We cease using the world to serve our happiness, and instead we use our happiness to serve the world.
Second, love is the recognition of our shared being. We don’t have to like everybody, but we do have to love them. Or, more specifically, we have to love the being we share with them. Our relationships are transformed, the power of our judgmental and divisive attitudes towards ourselves and others is weakened until those attitudes subside altogether. We can share and celebrate our happiness with all others.
You can listen to this episode on the Rupert Spira Podcast
https://rupertspira.libsyn.com/episode-18-nikki-walton
For a further explanation of the John Smith/King Lear metaphor, we recommend watching this teaching
