Find Your Purpose Doing What You Love from the media Take One More Step Back

Let go of all thoughts, feelings, sensations, and allow the feeling of simply being to emerge from the background of experience. Just as one who is lost in the drama of a movie overlooks the screen, we overlook the simple feeling of being. Being loses itself in the drama of experience. Meditation is letting go of the drama and coming back to our self, to the simple fact of being aware. From the world to our thoughts, then our thoughts to our feelings, that's as far as most people go. Take one more step back to the fact of simply being. Thoughts and feelings are always agitated, moving. The being that lies behind these is always silent and still. To find peace and quiet joy, take a step back from the content of experience to being. As we turn again towards experience, the inherent peace of our being pervades our activities and relationships in the world.

A woman asks, ‘What is your advice to empaths who absorb other people’s energy? Rupert suggests that in this approach it’s not necessary to detach ourself from experience. Our being would only need to detach from experience if it were attached to it in the first place. The screen doesn't need to detach from the movie.

A man thinks of questions throughout the day to ask Rupert, but even if he doesn't get the chance to ask, the questions inevitably are answered. Why is that? Rupert responds that it is not his answer that gives satisfaction but our own innate intelligence and the understanding within us. Answers and the understanding always come from within us. He affirmed that there are questions that come from feeling and those that come from thinking.

A woman, who is overwhelmed by human cruelty, asks for guidance on how to handle these thoughts. Rupert suggests that these kinds of repeat thoughts have a feeling underneath them which propels them. The thoughts are the tip of the iceberg. Don't discipline the thoughts, replace them. The feeling underneath must be clearly seen.

A man reads a quote from Ramana Maharshi, 'Existence is equal to awareness or consciousness,' and asks for clarity. Rupert suggests that it is 'being' that is equal to consciousness, and he leads him in self-enquiry to find the place where we know what we are, where we say 'I am’. Is that 'I' the same that knows that 'I am’? Is there an 'I' that knows the 'I' of 'I am' or are they the same? Knower and known are the same. There are not two 'I's.

A woman wonders if resistance is suffering, then is accepting its opposite. Rupert suggests that acceptance is not the opposite of resistance. Resistance is an activity of mind; acceptance is what we are. Don’t get rid or resistance; find the one on whose behalf the resistance arises.

Can the finite mind know its true nature and the source of all things? Rupert responds that the short answer is 'yes'. It can't know reality before it knows its own essential self because reality appears consistent with its limitations. If it turns attention around and investigates and understands its own nature, it knows its own being and knows everything without those limitations. Ultimately, the finite mind cannot know the infinite, or reality.

A woman asks if when we are experiencing grief from the place of awareness, are we experiencing happiness and grief simultaneously. Rupert suggests that our true nature is peace so, in theory, we can feel grief which is pervaded by peace and so don’t feel overwhelmed by it. The sorrow is like a colouring of our being with a certain quality of sorrow, sadness, grief, but we don't go into despair.

A woman who follows Kabbalah, asks how non-duality relates to the levels of soul as she understands it. Rupert suggests that the soul is the totality of the individual mind, not just the strata that we are aware of in the waking state. Rupert uses the analogy of a white piece of paper with a drawn circle inside another circle to illustrate.

Let go of all thoughts, feelings, sensations, and allow the feeling of simply being to emerge from the background of experience. Just as one who is lost in the drama of a movie overlooks the screen, we overlook the simple feeling of being. Being loses itself in the drama of experience. Meditation is letting go of the drama and coming back to our self, to the simple fact of being aware. From the world to our thoughts, then our thoughts to our feelings, that's as far as most people go. Take one more step back to the fact of simply being. Thoughts and feelings are always agitated, moving. The being that lies behind these is always silent and still. To find peace and quiet joy, take a step back from the content of experience to being. As we turn again towards experience, the inherent peace of our being pervades our activities and relationships in the world.

A woman asks, ‘What is your advice to empaths who absorb other people’s energy? Rupert suggests that in this approach it’s not necessary to detach ourself from experience. Our being would only need to detach from experience if it were attached to it in the first place. The screen doesn't need to detach from the movie.

A man thinks of questions throughout the day to ask Rupert, but even if he doesn't get the chance to ask, the questions inevitably are answered. Why is that? Rupert responds that it is not his answer that gives satisfaction but our own innate intelligence and the understanding within us. Answers and the understanding always come from within us. He affirmed that there are questions that come from feeling and those that come from thinking.

A woman, who is overwhelmed by human cruelty, asks for guidance on how to handle these thoughts. Rupert suggests that these kinds of repeat thoughts have a feeling underneath them which propels them. The thoughts are the tip of the iceberg. Don't discipline the thoughts, replace them. The feeling underneath must be clearly seen.

A man reads a quote from Ramana Maharshi, 'Existence is equal to awareness or consciousness,' and asks for clarity. Rupert suggests that it is 'being' that is equal to consciousness, and he leads him in self-enquiry to find the place where we know what we are, where we say 'I am’. Is that 'I' the same that knows that 'I am’? Is there an 'I' that knows the 'I' of 'I am' or are they the same? Knower and known are the same. There are not two 'I's.

A woman wonders if resistance is suffering, then is accepting its opposite. Rupert suggests that acceptance is not the opposite of resistance. Resistance is an activity of mind; acceptance is what we are. Don’t get rid or resistance; find the one on whose behalf the resistance arises.

Can the finite mind know its true nature and the source of all things? Rupert responds that the short answer is 'yes'. It can't know reality before it knows its own essential self because reality appears consistent with its limitations. If it turns attention around and investigates and understands its own nature, it knows its own being and knows everything without those limitations. Ultimately, the finite mind cannot know the infinite, or reality.

A woman asks if when we are experiencing grief from the place of awareness, are we experiencing happiness and grief simultaneously. Rupert suggests that our true nature is peace so, in theory, we can feel grief which is pervaded by peace and so don’t feel overwhelmed by it. The sorrow is like a colouring of our being with a certain quality of sorrow, sadness, grief, but we don't go into despair.

A woman who follows Kabbalah, asks how non-duality relates to the levels of soul as she understands it. Rupert suggests that the soul is the totality of the individual mind, not just the strata that we are aware of in the waking state. Rupert uses the analogy of a white piece of paper with a drawn circle inside another circle to illustrate.