Is Awareness a Product of Our Mind? from the media In Meditation, Being Outshines Experience
A man asks how we know if what we call awareness is not just a product of mind. Rupert suggests that if awareness was a product of the brain, then the brain would have to exist prior to and independent of awareness.
- Duration: 4 minutes and 3 seconds
- Recorded on: Sep 13, 2021
- Event: Webinar – Monday 13th September from 6:00pm
Most of our attention is involved in thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving. All these constitute the foreground of our experience, while the simple fact of our being lies in the background. Because our attention is involved with the foreground of our experience, we overlook the simple fact of being in the background. Here we take a step back from the content of experience and rest in the being that shines in each of us as the knowledge ‘I am’. Experience seems to obscure being. In meditation, being outshines experience. ‘I am’ is the Divine Name. Numerous times throughout the day, return to this pure ‘I am’, allowing it to emerge from the background of experience and pervade the foreground.
A man says that he becomes aware of his true nature during meditation, but then worries arise again. Rupert suggests that returning to our self and turning away from the content of experience is the path and, in time, experience loses its power to conceal one's true nature.
A man whose grandfather recently died says that, even during this experience, he was able to maintain awareness of his true nature, and feels as if he has stabilised in this awareness. Rupert explains that the presence of awareness is the one stable element of experience.
A woman says she has a theoretical understanding of the teaching but has yet to have a direct experience of her true nature. Rupert guides her in self-enquiry to demonstrate that her understanding is not simply theoretical.
A question is asked about entanglement and the distance between awareness and experience. Rupert elaborates that entanglement is the mixture of infinite awareness with the limitations of the separate self, and the distance dissolves in recognition of one's true nature.
Because there is a feeling of needing to do something, a man asks about how to relax into this understanding. Rupert guides him in self-enquiry to see if he can find the one who needs to do something.
A questioner asks about the nature of oneness, which feels like aloneness and loneliness, not love and unity. Rupert responds that aloneness comes from identifying with the separate self, and that this understanding leads to connection and love, not loneliness.
A woman who says she has always felt as if she was two entities - personality and being - has recently recognised that she is one. Rupert responds that the personality is a colouring of being, not a separate entity.
A man asks how to reconnect with happiness after a relationship ends. Rupert suggests we give ourselves time to put distance between ourselves and our former friends and lovers, and to seek truth rather than happiness from another.
A questioner asks about the vibrations of localised consciousness in mind and body. Ruperts uses the analogy of the dream to describe the activity of the finite mind that seems to become a localised character in a dream whilst everything else in the dream is the unlocalised aspect, but all are various frequencies of perception.
A questioner asks if there is any control over what happens, including realisation? Rupert replies that it may feel like an effort to recognise one's true nature, until one recognises that there never was a person who needed to do anything.
A man asks how we know if what we call awareness is not just a product of mind. Rupert suggests that if awareness was a product of the brain, then the brain would have to exist prior to and independent of awareness.
A questioner asks about enlightenment and the experience of oneness and immortality. Rupert responds that enlightenment is simply the recognition of our own essential being.
Most of our attention is involved in thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving. All these constitute the foreground of our experience, while the simple fact of our being lies in the background. Because our attention is involved with the foreground of our experience, we overlook the simple fact of being in the background. Here we take a step back from the content of experience and rest in the being that shines in each of us as the knowledge ‘I am’. Experience seems to obscure being. In meditation, being outshines experience. ‘I am’ is the Divine Name. Numerous times throughout the day, return to this pure ‘I am’, allowing it to emerge from the background of experience and pervade the foreground.
A man says that he becomes aware of his true nature during meditation, but then worries arise again. Rupert suggests that returning to our self and turning away from the content of experience is the path and, in time, experience loses its power to conceal one's true nature.
A man whose grandfather recently died says that, even during this experience, he was able to maintain awareness of his true nature, and feels as if he has stabilised in this awareness. Rupert explains that the presence of awareness is the one stable element of experience.
A woman says she has a theoretical understanding of the teaching but has yet to have a direct experience of her true nature. Rupert guides her in self-enquiry to demonstrate that her understanding is not simply theoretical.
A question is asked about entanglement and the distance between awareness and experience. Rupert elaborates that entanglement is the mixture of infinite awareness with the limitations of the separate self, and the distance dissolves in recognition of one's true nature.
Because there is a feeling of needing to do something, a man asks about how to relax into this understanding. Rupert guides him in self-enquiry to see if he can find the one who needs to do something.
A questioner asks about the nature of oneness, which feels like aloneness and loneliness, not love and unity. Rupert responds that aloneness comes from identifying with the separate self, and that this understanding leads to connection and love, not loneliness.
A woman who says she has always felt as if she was two entities - personality and being - has recently recognised that she is one. Rupert responds that the personality is a colouring of being, not a separate entity.
A man asks how to reconnect with happiness after a relationship ends. Rupert suggests we give ourselves time to put distance between ourselves and our former friends and lovers, and to seek truth rather than happiness from another.
A questioner asks about the vibrations of localised consciousness in mind and body. Ruperts uses the analogy of the dream to describe the activity of the finite mind that seems to become a localised character in a dream whilst everything else in the dream is the unlocalised aspect, but all are various frequencies of perception.
A questioner asks if there is any control over what happens, including realisation? Rupert replies that it may feel like an effort to recognise one's true nature, until one recognises that there never was a person who needed to do anything.
A man asks how we know if what we call awareness is not just a product of mind. Rupert suggests that if awareness was a product of the brain, then the brain would have to exist prior to and independent of awareness.
A questioner asks about enlightenment and the experience of oneness and immortality. Rupert responds that enlightenment is simply the recognition of our own essential being.