Choices, but No Chooser is There from the media Life On the Pathless Path
A man, who says he works with A Course in Miracles, asks about actions and free will. Rupert suggests that it’s not that there is no responsibility, it is that there is no person. There are choices; but no chooser.
- Duration: 8 minutes and 15 seconds
- Recorded on: Feb 23, 2023
- Event: Seven Day Retreat at The Vedanta – 18th to 25th February
A woman asks about how to find the silence in the noise caused by loud neighbours. Rupert suggests there are two kinds of silence: one is the absence of noise, and the other lies behind both noise and the absence of noise.
A woman asks, ‘Why does the one contract down to the separate self?’ Rupert suggests that it doesn’t need to, it just does it because it is its nature. Like the sun, it just shines. There isn't a reason for manifestation. A reason is something in form, like going to the grocery store to buy food for dinner. The one is prior to form.
A man, who says he works with A Course in Miracles, asks about actions and free will. Rupert suggests that it’s not that there is no responsibility, it is that there is no person. There are choices; but no chooser.
A man asks if awakening is a dissolution of the belief in a separate self. Rupert suggests that the dissolution of the belief comes as a result of the recognition. Our true nature is self-knowing. Rupert uses the analogy of the actor John Smith to elucidate. King Lear doesn’t have the recognition that he is John Smith, it is John Smith that recognises himself. The moth loses itself to become the flame. The idea of recognition is a concession to the separate self.
A man shares his prayer to God to show him how to love, and asks if everything is God’s being then why does he have this impulse for prayer. Rupert suggests that his prayer is very beautiful. There is no higher prayer. The answer to that prayer is what we do here – see everything and everyone as God. That’s the fastest way to learn how to love. He also shares that we are not good judges of our progress.
Rupert says that in the early days the teaching was focused on the Direct Path, but now it is more focused on the Pathless Path, which is consistent with Rupert’s own journey – the first twenty years on the progressive path, then fifteen years on the Direct Path. He shares that he intends to spend the rest of his life on the Pathless Path.
A man asks about love manifesting as injustice. Rupert suggests that there is love and the veiling of love. Unkindness and cruelty come when love is veiled. Ultimately, everything that is on the screen – the good and the bad – are a manifestation of the screen. The one knows nothing of imperfection, because it would have to know something other than itself, which it can only due from the perspective of the finite mind.
A woman asks about the phrase Rupert used: ‘infinite being consenting to existence’. Rupert suggests that was a poetic turn of phrase. The one allows itself to appear as the many, so in that sense it consents. Rupert says that if you wanted me to speak the truth, I would remain silent. Nothing I've said is true.
A woman, who suffers from epilepsy, asks about holding on to suffering. Rupert suggests that there may still be something in her that identifies with the one who has seizures. Be courageous, we don't need to keep suffering.
A woman, who will be singing at the retreat and has anxiety about doing so, asks about the one who is choosing an action. Rupert suggests that she continue to enquire. Ask yourself, ‘Who is the one who is performing this song?’
A man asks if the absolute doesn’t experience activity, then is it true that the absolute has no experience. Rupert suggests yes, the absolute is the world, the person knows the world. To have an experience you must separate yourself from the experienced. There must be an experiencer. What we experience as everything, the absolute experiences as nothing.
A man remarks on exposing and dissolving and wonders how that relates to bodywork, particularly the Alexander Technique. Rupert suggests that bodywork is a way of aligning the body with this understanding.
A woman asks how it is that God always seems to help when she needs it. She wonders how God can help her if he can't see or objectify her. Rupert suggests that when the individual prays they put themself in the right relationship to the universe and it can't help but respond. In prayer, we open the channel; we are not separate.
A man references an earlier conversation and suggests that our belief in our stories about who we are limits us. Rupert says that a new-born baby doesn't know anything, just the experience of being. Experience of being is our primary experience, with no limitations. Rupert suggests that we add qualification to being until it gets smaller and smaller and smaller. That is how we end up feeling like a person.
A man asks about attachment theory and identification. Rupert says that development stages of becoming a fully fledged separate self is necessary. What we are speaking to here is moving beyond that; not going back to a pre-development phase. For parents supporting the experience of individuation, we hold what they truly are in our heart. That feeling quality will keep alive in that child it's true nature, though it may go dormant.
A woman asks to be guided in self-enquiry. Rupert asks, ‘Can you say “I am” from my experience?’ He then asks about her experience that allows her to say ‘I am’, before leading her in various ways to investigate the 'I'.
A man says that if he had no senses and no memories, ‘I wouldn't be there but I would be’. Rupert says yes, that is self-enquiry. When we remove thinking and perceiving, what remains? We cannot be ‘I’ in the absence of being. We cannot remove being. The man describes being as 'aware sleep'.
A woman asks about how to find the silence in the noise caused by loud neighbours. Rupert suggests there are two kinds of silence: one is the absence of noise, and the other lies behind both noise and the absence of noise.
A woman asks, ‘Why does the one contract down to the separate self?’ Rupert suggests that it doesn’t need to, it just does it because it is its nature. Like the sun, it just shines. There isn't a reason for manifestation. A reason is something in form, like going to the grocery store to buy food for dinner. The one is prior to form.
A man, who says he works with A Course in Miracles, asks about actions and free will. Rupert suggests that it’s not that there is no responsibility, it is that there is no person. There are choices; but no chooser.
A man asks if awakening is a dissolution of the belief in a separate self. Rupert suggests that the dissolution of the belief comes as a result of the recognition. Our true nature is self-knowing. Rupert uses the analogy of the actor John Smith to elucidate. King Lear doesn’t have the recognition that he is John Smith, it is John Smith that recognises himself. The moth loses itself to become the flame. The idea of recognition is a concession to the separate self.
A man shares his prayer to God to show him how to love, and asks if everything is God’s being then why does he have this impulse for prayer. Rupert suggests that his prayer is very beautiful. There is no higher prayer. The answer to that prayer is what we do here – see everything and everyone as God. That’s the fastest way to learn how to love. He also shares that we are not good judges of our progress.
Rupert says that in the early days the teaching was focused on the Direct Path, but now it is more focused on the Pathless Path, which is consistent with Rupert’s own journey – the first twenty years on the progressive path, then fifteen years on the Direct Path. He shares that he intends to spend the rest of his life on the Pathless Path.
A man asks about love manifesting as injustice. Rupert suggests that there is love and the veiling of love. Unkindness and cruelty come when love is veiled. Ultimately, everything that is on the screen – the good and the bad – are a manifestation of the screen. The one knows nothing of imperfection, because it would have to know something other than itself, which it can only due from the perspective of the finite mind.
A woman asks about the phrase Rupert used: ‘infinite being consenting to existence’. Rupert suggests that was a poetic turn of phrase. The one allows itself to appear as the many, so in that sense it consents. Rupert says that if you wanted me to speak the truth, I would remain silent. Nothing I've said is true.
A woman, who suffers from epilepsy, asks about holding on to suffering. Rupert suggests that there may still be something in her that identifies with the one who has seizures. Be courageous, we don't need to keep suffering.
A woman, who will be singing at the retreat and has anxiety about doing so, asks about the one who is choosing an action. Rupert suggests that she continue to enquire. Ask yourself, ‘Who is the one who is performing this song?’
A man asks if the absolute doesn’t experience activity, then is it true that the absolute has no experience. Rupert suggests yes, the absolute is the world, the person knows the world. To have an experience you must separate yourself from the experienced. There must be an experiencer. What we experience as everything, the absolute experiences as nothing.
A man remarks on exposing and dissolving and wonders how that relates to bodywork, particularly the Alexander Technique. Rupert suggests that bodywork is a way of aligning the body with this understanding.
A woman asks how it is that God always seems to help when she needs it. She wonders how God can help her if he can't see or objectify her. Rupert suggests that when the individual prays they put themself in the right relationship to the universe and it can't help but respond. In prayer, we open the channel; we are not separate.
A man references an earlier conversation and suggests that our belief in our stories about who we are limits us. Rupert says that a new-born baby doesn't know anything, just the experience of being. Experience of being is our primary experience, with no limitations. Rupert suggests that we add qualification to being until it gets smaller and smaller and smaller. That is how we end up feeling like a person.
A man asks about attachment theory and identification. Rupert says that development stages of becoming a fully fledged separate self is necessary. What we are speaking to here is moving beyond that; not going back to a pre-development phase. For parents supporting the experience of individuation, we hold what they truly are in our heart. That feeling quality will keep alive in that child it's true nature, though it may go dormant.
A woman asks to be guided in self-enquiry. Rupert asks, ‘Can you say “I am” from my experience?’ He then asks about her experience that allows her to say ‘I am’, before leading her in various ways to investigate the 'I'.
A man says that if he had no senses and no memories, ‘I wouldn't be there but I would be’. Rupert says yes, that is self-enquiry. When we remove thinking and perceiving, what remains? We cannot be ‘I’ in the absence of being. We cannot remove being. The man describes being as 'aware sleep'.