Understanding a Frightening Ayahuasca Experience from the media The Key to Accessing the Meaning of LIfe

Be aware of the full spectrum of experience – thoughts, images, feelings. Now be aware of simply being. What is the difference between being aware of perceptions and being aware of simply being? We don’t think about it, we experience this. Focussing on the content of experience and being aware of being requires the slightest, subtlest shift of attention. In that shift lives the whole meaning of life, like a key that gives access to that for which we long above all else. Awareness of being is our primary experience – silent, transparent, empty peace – seemingly veiled by the content of experience where we search for fulfilment. We lose touch with the awareness of being in the awareness of other things. Allow the awareness of things to subside and the awareness of being to emerge. For mystics, this is practising the presence of God; for Buddhists, the recognition of Buddha nature. Simply return to the place of peace in ourself.

A man whose family has endured many traumas, asks if becoming more aware will mean that distance is created between his family and him, and does it mean will they become strangers. Rupert suggests that the understanding is not what alienates him from his family, but instead it is the intense trauma that you have all experience, which causes tension and conflict. This understanding is the best hope your family has for healing. More and more, as you recognise the nature of your essential being, recognise the nature of their being. Mirror it for them and you will be teaching them silently.

A woman asks how to deal with overwhelming shifts of energy. Rupert asks why a feeling is there of needing to deal with these shifts. A problem is added in believing these experiences need to be dealt with. Being is never overwhelmed by experience, unless you think it is, and then it will seem to be.

A man references something Rupert said: that the infinite consciousness or God need needs to assume the form of mind in order to know the world. He asks if things exist when they aren’t being perceived. Rupert, using the example of a mug, suggests that the faculties through which we perceive the world is what makes this mug look the way it looks. A dog, with different perceiving faculties, would see it differently. However, there is something independent of or prior to the perceiving of it. The reality of the object precedes the finite mind – which is infinite consciousness – but the appearance of the object owes how it appears to the facilities of the finite mind.

A woman asks about torture, which she has personally experienced, and the fear, darkness and guilt that surround it. Rupert responds that the sadness and guilt felt is probably a good thing in contrast to numbness. The fear is asking for attention. It has been buried but is now coming up to be liberated. Invite this fear in rather than trying to avoid it so that it can be dissolved in the light of awareness.

A woman asks if she is addicted to feelings of guilt because of prior abuse. Rupert responds that she has identified with these feelings, and so there is a fear of letting them go in that they feel intrinsic to who she is, but they can be let go when we see that they do not define us. Our essential nature is prior to these feelings.

A man asks Rupert to speak to the non-dual perspective in relation to world turmoil. Rupert suggests there are two things to consider in relation to this: the first is that we feel we share our being with everyone, which is the attitude that heals relationships; their being is our being. Secondly, we must discern, first in our self and then in others, actions that come from this understanding and those that violate it – we then take action accordingly.

A man asks Rupert for a definition of spiritual bypassing. Rupert suggests that it is a term that was developed in the seventies to describe the bypassing of the content of one’s psychology – one's emotional content – and going directly to their true nature. When this happens, there is a discrepancy between their genuine understanding and the mind that never gets in touch with feelings and emotions, and therefore, never attend to them.

A woman says that she feels she is always in fight or flight mode, that her body seems ruled by fear, especially when she is feeling judged or criticised. Rupert suggests yoga meditations may be helpful, but the problem is not in the body. For instance, when feeling judged, the body is not really hurt, but your identity is seemingly threatened so the hurt comes from the mind. He suggests asking 'Who is hurt?' and the discovery of who we really are will resolve the issue.

A young man who is graduating from college and looking for work, asks about handling the need for validation. Rupert suggests that the main thing is to connect with what you really love. When choosing a career path, you don't want that choice to be influenced by what other people think or expect of you. Be informed by love. Enthusiasm is love in action. A young man asks how to deal with the need for validation. Rupert suggests that he simply not deal with those old habits when they come. Don’t get involved with them. Because you have a passion and interest, just go to that. You don’t have to respond to the fears, expectations or a sense of duty. Your love and enthusiasm are so much stronger.

A Hindu woman who is conditioned by the way the word ‘soul’ is used in Hinduism asks for clarification – is it similar to the sense of 'I am'. Rupert responds that he doesn't know how Sri Aurobindo uses the word, but the way he uses it is to indicate the deeper or deepest levels of the finite mind. The phrase 'I am' refers to God's being, and when qualified in any way it becomes the ego, the apparent separate self. It is a doorway through which the separate self moves to discover the infinite, and it is the same doorway through which the infinite goes to become an apparent, localised separate self.

Be aware of the full spectrum of experience – thoughts, images, feelings. Now be aware of simply being. What is the difference between being aware of perceptions and being aware of simply being? We don’t think about it, we experience this. Focussing on the content of experience and being aware of being requires the slightest, subtlest shift of attention. In that shift lives the whole meaning of life, like a key that gives access to that for which we long above all else. Awareness of being is our primary experience – silent, transparent, empty peace – seemingly veiled by the content of experience where we search for fulfilment. We lose touch with the awareness of being in the awareness of other things. Allow the awareness of things to subside and the awareness of being to emerge. For mystics, this is practising the presence of God; for Buddhists, the recognition of Buddha nature. Simply return to the place of peace in ourself.

A man whose family has endured many traumas, asks if becoming more aware will mean that distance is created between his family and him, and does it mean will they become strangers. Rupert suggests that the understanding is not what alienates him from his family, but instead it is the intense trauma that you have all experience, which causes tension and conflict. This understanding is the best hope your family has for healing. More and more, as you recognise the nature of your essential being, recognise the nature of their being. Mirror it for them and you will be teaching them silently.

A woman asks how to deal with overwhelming shifts of energy. Rupert asks why a feeling is there of needing to deal with these shifts. A problem is added in believing these experiences need to be dealt with. Being is never overwhelmed by experience, unless you think it is, and then it will seem to be.

A man references something Rupert said: that the infinite consciousness or God need needs to assume the form of mind in order to know the world. He asks if things exist when they aren’t being perceived. Rupert, using the example of a mug, suggests that the faculties through which we perceive the world is what makes this mug look the way it looks. A dog, with different perceiving faculties, would see it differently. However, there is something independent of or prior to the perceiving of it. The reality of the object precedes the finite mind – which is infinite consciousness – but the appearance of the object owes how it appears to the facilities of the finite mind.

A woman asks about torture, which she has personally experienced, and the fear, darkness and guilt that surround it. Rupert responds that the sadness and guilt felt is probably a good thing in contrast to numbness. The fear is asking for attention. It has been buried but is now coming up to be liberated. Invite this fear in rather than trying to avoid it so that it can be dissolved in the light of awareness.

A woman asks if she is addicted to feelings of guilt because of prior abuse. Rupert responds that she has identified with these feelings, and so there is a fear of letting them go in that they feel intrinsic to who she is, but they can be let go when we see that they do not define us. Our essential nature is prior to these feelings.

A man asks Rupert to speak to the non-dual perspective in relation to world turmoil. Rupert suggests there are two things to consider in relation to this: the first is that we feel we share our being with everyone, which is the attitude that heals relationships; their being is our being. Secondly, we must discern, first in our self and then in others, actions that come from this understanding and those that violate it – we then take action accordingly.

A man asks Rupert for a definition of spiritual bypassing. Rupert suggests that it is a term that was developed in the seventies to describe the bypassing of the content of one’s psychology – one's emotional content – and going directly to their true nature. When this happens, there is a discrepancy between their genuine understanding and the mind that never gets in touch with feelings and emotions, and therefore, never attend to them.

A woman says that she feels she is always in fight or flight mode, that her body seems ruled by fear, especially when she is feeling judged or criticised. Rupert suggests yoga meditations may be helpful, but the problem is not in the body. For instance, when feeling judged, the body is not really hurt, but your identity is seemingly threatened so the hurt comes from the mind. He suggests asking 'Who is hurt?' and the discovery of who we really are will resolve the issue.

A young man who is graduating from college and looking for work, asks about handling the need for validation. Rupert suggests that the main thing is to connect with what you really love. When choosing a career path, you don't want that choice to be influenced by what other people think or expect of you. Be informed by love. Enthusiasm is love in action. A young man asks how to deal with the need for validation. Rupert suggests that he simply not deal with those old habits when they come. Don’t get involved with them. Because you have a passion and interest, just go to that. You don’t have to respond to the fears, expectations or a sense of duty. Your love and enthusiasm are so much stronger.

A Hindu woman who is conditioned by the way the word ‘soul’ is used in Hinduism asks for clarification – is it similar to the sense of 'I am'. Rupert responds that he doesn't know how Sri Aurobindo uses the word, but the way he uses it is to indicate the deeper or deepest levels of the finite mind. The phrase 'I am' refers to God's being, and when qualified in any way it becomes the ego, the apparent separate self. It is a doorway through which the separate self moves to discover the infinite, and it is the same doorway through which the infinite goes to become an apparent, localised separate self.