The Transparency of Pleasure and Pain from the media Everything Is Myself
A woman asks for a clarification about, ‘Who is discriminating the feelings of pleasure and pain?’ Rupert suggests that pain is not an egoic experience. If the Buddha had an abscess, he would experience pain. Who is experiencing that? The one who experiences: consciousness. However, if you go deeply into the sensation, pleasure and pain aren't inherent in the sensation. If we stay with it, it becomes transparent. The conceptual layers we add to experience fall away.
- Duration: 7 minutes and 39 seconds
- Recorded on: Jun 8, 2022
- Event: Seven Day Retreat at The Vedanta – 3rd to 10th June 2022
A woman asks if it is okay to use Rupert’s teaching in her yoga classes. Rupert says that it’s fine to use the same language when it come from understanding. Slowly, over the years, you may find your own language for it. Regarding the teacher–student relationship, we tend to approach teachers in the same way we approached our parents, schoolteachers, etc. We project onto them what we've learned from previous relationships. A good teacher will quickly turn that projection around and gently hand it back.
A woman relays an experience she had in the middle of the night of pain in her leg, which became a portal through which she could enter the present. How do we handle these intensities? Rupert suggests that we be the space in which the intensity arises and gradually dissolve it into the space. In the Vedantic approach, we turn our attention away from experience. We go to the ‘I’, not the ‘pain’. In the Tantric approach, we neglect the ‘I’ and we investigate the sensation.
A woman, who is at retreat for the first time, has been experiencing suffering instead of the peace she feels at home listening through webinars and YouTube. In sitting with her suffering, it has decreased, and she cried, and knew that everything was herself. Rupert thanks her for sharing it.
A man talks about how aggression trigger him. He feels so angry about the Ukraine War and asks for Rupert’s insight. Rupert suggests it’s important that we see what it is in them that creates this action: frustration, hatred and anger. We must make sure that we do not do the same thing they do. We have to find peace in ourselves. Rupert shares a practice for working with this that takes the understanding from our minds to our hearts.
A woman asks about thought and thinking in meditation. Rupert suggests that all spiritual traditions say there is only the self, God, pure consciousness. It’s one thing to understand that intellectually, it’s another thing to bring this understanding in our felt experience. This is what we are doing here.
A woman asks about the term ‘big bang’ that Rupert used in that morning's meditation. Rupert says that he meant that we had collapsed our experience in space and time into something smaller than a point. Creation exists within something which itself has no dimensions. We dream of time and space every night in dreams, so why not extrapolate that the big bang was not an event that took place billions of years ago, but the human mind’s attempt to understand this within its own limitations.
A woman, who is a writer, asks, ‘Am I putting myself in touch with my true nature through memory when I write?’ Rupert suggests that if she is remembering a moment when she was in peace and it puts her in touch with peace now, then the memory is portal.
A woman, who is an autobiographical writer, asks about holding difficult emotions. Rupert mentions J.M.W. Turner, the artist who strapped himself to the mast to deeply know the experience of being in a storm. Rupert suggests that she strap herself to the mast, so to speak, and write from there so that her readers will feel viscerally what she experienced.
A man referencing the consciousness-only model, feels like ‘shared being’ seems dualistic. Rupert suggests that what is dualist is to believe that there is self and others. Non-dualism is the recognition that there is just being. You cannot experience anyone else’s mind because the mind is limited, not because we aren't the one shared being.
A man comments that he thinks he sometimes displays anger while not really feeling it. Rupert says that it’s quite possible to display anger, if the situation requires it, without actually feeling angry, but no one is totally beyond having a reaction. These are old habits that arise from time to time, but they occur less and less frequently and last for less time. We don't have to be perfect.
A man says that his experience at the retreat has been great, but then he got triggered at the bonfire, and felt ‘small’. Rupert suggests that his ability to share this moment of contraction releases him from the egoic contraction. don't worry about it.
A woman asks for a clarification about, ‘Who is discriminating the feelings of pleasure and pain?’ Rupert suggests that pain is not an egoic experience. If the Buddha had an abscess, he would experience pain. Who is experiencing that? The one who experiences: consciousness. However, if you go deeply into the sensation, pleasure and pain aren't inherent in the sensation. If we stay with it, it becomes transparent. The conceptual layers we add to experience fall away.
A woman who was brought up in the tradition of Bhakti and wants to focus on the Direct Path says that she feels guilty that she’s left her path behind. Rupert suggests that she make the world her temple and make all her activities in the world her puja. The path of devotion and the path of knowledge come together. They are the same thing.
A man asks about the dilemma of focussing on work and meditating on awareness. Rupert asks whether he loses sight of the screen when he watches a movie. All there is is God, consciousness, reality. It’s not possible to experience anything other than that. Experience is not in contrast to God.
A woman asks if it is okay to use Rupert’s teaching in her yoga classes. Rupert says that it’s fine to use the same language when it come from understanding. Slowly, over the years, you may find your own language for it. Regarding the teacher–student relationship, we tend to approach teachers in the same way we approached our parents, schoolteachers, etc. We project onto them what we've learned from previous relationships. A good teacher will quickly turn that projection around and gently hand it back.
A woman relays an experience she had in the middle of the night of pain in her leg, which became a portal through which she could enter the present. How do we handle these intensities? Rupert suggests that we be the space in which the intensity arises and gradually dissolve it into the space. In the Vedantic approach, we turn our attention away from experience. We go to the ‘I’, not the ‘pain’. In the Tantric approach, we neglect the ‘I’ and we investigate the sensation.
A woman, who is at retreat for the first time, has been experiencing suffering instead of the peace she feels at home listening through webinars and YouTube. In sitting with her suffering, it has decreased, and she cried, and knew that everything was herself. Rupert thanks her for sharing it.
A man talks about how aggression trigger him. He feels so angry about the Ukraine War and asks for Rupert’s insight. Rupert suggests it’s important that we see what it is in them that creates this action: frustration, hatred and anger. We must make sure that we do not do the same thing they do. We have to find peace in ourselves. Rupert shares a practice for working with this that takes the understanding from our minds to our hearts.
A woman asks about thought and thinking in meditation. Rupert suggests that all spiritual traditions say there is only the self, God, pure consciousness. It’s one thing to understand that intellectually, it’s another thing to bring this understanding in our felt experience. This is what we are doing here.
A woman asks about the term ‘big bang’ that Rupert used in that morning's meditation. Rupert says that he meant that we had collapsed our experience in space and time into something smaller than a point. Creation exists within something which itself has no dimensions. We dream of time and space every night in dreams, so why not extrapolate that the big bang was not an event that took place billions of years ago, but the human mind’s attempt to understand this within its own limitations.
A woman, who is a writer, asks, ‘Am I putting myself in touch with my true nature through memory when I write?’ Rupert suggests that if she is remembering a moment when she was in peace and it puts her in touch with peace now, then the memory is portal.
A woman, who is an autobiographical writer, asks about holding difficult emotions. Rupert mentions J.M.W. Turner, the artist who strapped himself to the mast to deeply know the experience of being in a storm. Rupert suggests that she strap herself to the mast, so to speak, and write from there so that her readers will feel viscerally what she experienced.
A man referencing the consciousness-only model, feels like ‘shared being’ seems dualistic. Rupert suggests that what is dualist is to believe that there is self and others. Non-dualism is the recognition that there is just being. You cannot experience anyone else’s mind because the mind is limited, not because we aren't the one shared being.
A man comments that he thinks he sometimes displays anger while not really feeling it. Rupert says that it’s quite possible to display anger, if the situation requires it, without actually feeling angry, but no one is totally beyond having a reaction. These are old habits that arise from time to time, but they occur less and less frequently and last for less time. We don't have to be perfect.
A man says that his experience at the retreat has been great, but then he got triggered at the bonfire, and felt ‘small’. Rupert suggests that his ability to share this moment of contraction releases him from the egoic contraction. don't worry about it.
A woman asks for a clarification about, ‘Who is discriminating the feelings of pleasure and pain?’ Rupert suggests that pain is not an egoic experience. If the Buddha had an abscess, he would experience pain. Who is experiencing that? The one who experiences: consciousness. However, if you go deeply into the sensation, pleasure and pain aren't inherent in the sensation. If we stay with it, it becomes transparent. The conceptual layers we add to experience fall away.
A woman who was brought up in the tradition of Bhakti and wants to focus on the Direct Path says that she feels guilty that she’s left her path behind. Rupert suggests that she make the world her temple and make all her activities in the world her puja. The path of devotion and the path of knowledge come together. They are the same thing.
A man asks about the dilemma of focussing on work and meditating on awareness. Rupert asks whether he loses sight of the screen when he watches a movie. All there is is God, consciousness, reality. It’s not possible to experience anything other than that. Experience is not in contrast to God.