How Does Something Manifest from Nothing? from the media We Are That Which Cannot Be Removed from Ourself

Ghosts are delocalised consciousness, suggests Rupert to a man who had a profound and traumatic experience with an energetic force – what he called a ghost. He asks for help in understanding how this experience sits within the non-dual framework. Rupert suggests that under the prevailing paradigm, matter is primary and everything else arise from it. In this understanding, consciousness is the ultimate reality. Matter doesn’t emerge from it. Matter is the activity of consciousness as it localises. He explains that when one localised mind looks at another, what we see (through our perception) is a body. In this model, when a body dies, it begins to de-localise. As this happens, the finite mind may still have some sort of presence in our world. While our senses tend to only see things within a particular framework, some people’s minds are configured in a way that allows them to perceive a wider spectrum of experience. This energetic form was the mind of someone who had died, and perhaps was stuck.

Rupert suggests we live the implications, in response to a man who had a life-changing experience. He asks about how to handle the shifts in relationships because of the changes he has undergone. Rupert says that when we share a way of viewing the world with others, and then one’s view changes radically, this creates resistance in others around us who are threatened by this change. When this happens, we understand that we have a broader view and because of that, it is our responsibility to bridge the gap. The best way we do this is to live the implications of the changes we have experienced.

We are that which cannot be removed, pure being. Rupert responds to a man who asks for insight into his self-enquiry practice who says he has seen that he is not his thoughts and feelings and feels peace, but that peace still feels mingled with thoughts and feelings. Rupert suggests that he is on the right track. We see our thoughts and feelings vanishing all the time, except for this one experience of being aware. When you reach that being, self-enquiry gives way to self-resting or self-abiding. However, thoughts and feelings may remain and will evolve over time, but we aren't implicated by them. We allow the foreground of our experience to continue while we rest in the background of our true nature.

Let go of the motive, not the action, suggests Rupert. A man, who has spent seven years writing a novel, struggles to find an agent or publisher. He enquires about what to do as he considers completely letting it go. Rupert remarks that it is a long time to spend on a project to have it neglected. He recommends completely letting go of any agenda for the book – complete surrender in that way – but continue to take action to get it published.

A man asks to what extent toxins or impurities in the body, specifically vaccinating an infant child, affect the recognition of our true nature. Rupert replied, 'None'. Everybody, without exception, is aware of their being, irrespective of its content.

A man asks if there is a force of evil in the world. Rupert responds, 'No, there is no such evil force'. To suggest that there is an evil force in the universe would be to suggest, to use religious language, that God is not omniscient or that there are two forces in the universe – God’s power and some other force. If that were the case, God would not be God.

A man asks if Rupert thinks we are at a point of transition in the world. Rupert comments that he has noticed that a growing number of people are interested in these matters. As the effects of the prevailing materialist paradigm become more evident – through personal despair, outer conflict and the degradation of the earth – more and more people are genuinely open to another possibility. Rupert also feels it is the time of the Direct Path and that with the non-dual understanding disavowed of its previous packaging, it is more accessible to others.

A woman asks about the maternal impulse and anxiety – ‘Where does instinct arise from?’ Rupert responds that nature has endowed mothers with the need to give care from a recognition of oneness, which is deeper than the physical impulse to preserve the species. However, our adult children make their own choices and our time to make decisions of their behalf comes to an end. With respect to anxiety, don't be interested in what you are anxious about; instead, be curious about the one who is anxious.

A woman relays her experience of spaciousness during the yoga mediation and how afterward, she sensed that people were moving ‘through her field’. She asks about how to adjust to this. Rupert suggests that we adapt to it, but sometimes quite slowly. The quality of the meditation lingers. Each time, we don't go all the way back to our ‘norm’. In other words, are ‘norm’ begins to get closer to what we experience during meditation. You don't lose the ability to act normally, but you no longer feel that your identity is located to, or generated by, a body.

A woman new to non-duality expressed confusion about the Mary and Jane analogy, saying that her experience is that her dream character is her waking character. Rupert clarifies that he should have explained that Mary and Jane have separate names for the purpose of instruction, but that yes, we tend to feel that our waking character and our dreaming character are the same.

A woman, who has a 15-year-old child who is anxious, struggles with it. She also encounters the same thing, in a different way, in her work. She asks how to bring calm to the space. Rupert suggests that the best thing we can do is to step back and rest in a place that is free of anxiety, in the open presence of awareness. This puts us in the best possible position to respond from the presence of awareness in the moment.

A woman asks, ‘Am I aware? I am not sure.’ She says that she doesn’t experience the absoluteness of being and Rupert asks about what it is that doesn’t experience the absoluteness of being. He suggests if there is doubt, there is being. The only thing that cannot legitimately be doubted is being.

Ghosts are delocalised consciousness, suggests Rupert to a man who had a profound and traumatic experience with an energetic force – what he called a ghost. He asks for help in understanding how this experience sits within the non-dual framework. Rupert suggests that under the prevailing paradigm, matter is primary and everything else arise from it. In this understanding, consciousness is the ultimate reality. Matter doesn’t emerge from it. Matter is the activity of consciousness as it localises. He explains that when one localised mind looks at another, what we see (through our perception) is a body. In this model, when a body dies, it begins to de-localise. As this happens, the finite mind may still have some sort of presence in our world. While our senses tend to only see things within a particular framework, some people’s minds are configured in a way that allows them to perceive a wider spectrum of experience. This energetic form was the mind of someone who had died, and perhaps was stuck.

Rupert suggests we live the implications, in response to a man who had a life-changing experience. He asks about how to handle the shifts in relationships because of the changes he has undergone. Rupert says that when we share a way of viewing the world with others, and then one’s view changes radically, this creates resistance in others around us who are threatened by this change. When this happens, we understand that we have a broader view and because of that, it is our responsibility to bridge the gap. The best way we do this is to live the implications of the changes we have experienced.

We are that which cannot be removed, pure being. Rupert responds to a man who asks for insight into his self-enquiry practice who says he has seen that he is not his thoughts and feelings and feels peace, but that peace still feels mingled with thoughts and feelings. Rupert suggests that he is on the right track. We see our thoughts and feelings vanishing all the time, except for this one experience of being aware. When you reach that being, self-enquiry gives way to self-resting or self-abiding. However, thoughts and feelings may remain and will evolve over time, but we aren't implicated by them. We allow the foreground of our experience to continue while we rest in the background of our true nature.

Let go of the motive, not the action, suggests Rupert. A man, who has spent seven years writing a novel, struggles to find an agent or publisher. He enquires about what to do as he considers completely letting it go. Rupert remarks that it is a long time to spend on a project to have it neglected. He recommends completely letting go of any agenda for the book – complete surrender in that way – but continue to take action to get it published.

A man asks to what extent toxins or impurities in the body, specifically vaccinating an infant child, affect the recognition of our true nature. Rupert replied, 'None'. Everybody, without exception, is aware of their being, irrespective of its content.

A man asks if there is a force of evil in the world. Rupert responds, 'No, there is no such evil force'. To suggest that there is an evil force in the universe would be to suggest, to use religious language, that God is not omniscient or that there are two forces in the universe – God’s power and some other force. If that were the case, God would not be God.

A man asks if Rupert thinks we are at a point of transition in the world. Rupert comments that he has noticed that a growing number of people are interested in these matters. As the effects of the prevailing materialist paradigm become more evident – through personal despair, outer conflict and the degradation of the earth – more and more people are genuinely open to another possibility. Rupert also feels it is the time of the Direct Path and that with the non-dual understanding disavowed of its previous packaging, it is more accessible to others.

A woman asks about the maternal impulse and anxiety – ‘Where does instinct arise from?’ Rupert responds that nature has endowed mothers with the need to give care from a recognition of oneness, which is deeper than the physical impulse to preserve the species. However, our adult children make their own choices and our time to make decisions of their behalf comes to an end. With respect to anxiety, don't be interested in what you are anxious about; instead, be curious about the one who is anxious.

A woman relays her experience of spaciousness during the yoga mediation and how afterward, she sensed that people were moving ‘through her field’. She asks about how to adjust to this. Rupert suggests that we adapt to it, but sometimes quite slowly. The quality of the meditation lingers. Each time, we don't go all the way back to our ‘norm’. In other words, are ‘norm’ begins to get closer to what we experience during meditation. You don't lose the ability to act normally, but you no longer feel that your identity is located to, or generated by, a body.

A woman new to non-duality expressed confusion about the Mary and Jane analogy, saying that her experience is that her dream character is her waking character. Rupert clarifies that he should have explained that Mary and Jane have separate names for the purpose of instruction, but that yes, we tend to feel that our waking character and our dreaming character are the same.

A woman, who has a 15-year-old child who is anxious, struggles with it. She also encounters the same thing, in a different way, in her work. She asks how to bring calm to the space. Rupert suggests that the best thing we can do is to step back and rest in a place that is free of anxiety, in the open presence of awareness. This puts us in the best possible position to respond from the presence of awareness in the moment.

A woman asks, ‘Am I aware? I am not sure.’ She says that she doesn’t experience the absoluteness of being and Rupert asks about what it is that doesn’t experience the absoluteness of being. He suggests if there is doubt, there is being. The only thing that cannot legitimately be doubted is being.