A World of Appearances
- Duration: Video: 1 hour, 6 minutes, and 46 seconds / Audio: 1 hour, 6 minutes, and 46 seconds
- Recorded on: Nov 15, 2023
- Event: Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta – 11 to 18 November
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A woman holds up Rupert's book I Am Always I and says the children want to know if he wrote that with them in mind. Rupert says he did, and that he speaks happily to children.
A man says he is in limbo after a near-death experience. All interest in experience has fallen away, accompanied by an awareness of unity, but the ego keeps coming back. Rupert responds it's simple and easy. Visualise a cat on the windowsill. What does it feel like to be that cat? He asks about the feeling of being. And he makes various recommendations such as attending to the breath, yoga, friends, getting a dog and so on. He encourages the man to attend webinars and the after-talk and to connect with the community.
A man, referencing another man at the retreat who had been depressed, speaks of the value of the therapy he himself received for depression. He says there is a conflict between his heart and the rest of his body; his heart is willing to go deep, but his body expands into space, and he gets very tired. Rupert suggests that it might not be a good idea for him to go to far into space. He suggests respecting the body's response and needs. Be gentle with yourself.
A woman asks about the ajatavada and vivartavada, in light of the seeming contradiction that appearances are true, but there are no appearances, depending on the point of view. She asks about the body as it is that part of the soul that is discernible to the five senses. Rupert quotes William Blake, and elaborates that what appears to us as matter is consciousness, which is true of the universe and of our body.
A woman says that, from the point of view of awareness, when hunger is seen as a sensation she feels no need for food at all. Rupert suggests that hunger is supposed to be unpleasant so that we eat, but yes if you go deeply into the experience of hunger, it is not inherently unpleasant. He doesn't recommend you take it that far when it comes to hunger, thirst and physical pain. Rupert explains that he has known people who have used the non-dual understanding to justify anorexia.
A question is asked about the meditation regarding ajatavada, and if it is sufficient to stay aware of awareness. Rupert explains that the ultimate investigation of your true nature leads to abiding in being. The more you rest in being, the less you are distracted by the content of experience. You are weakening the power of objective experience.
A man asks about the Tantric approach. What is the purpose of the yoga meditation? Rupert replies that the purpose of Tantric approach is to feel the body and feel the world in a way that is consistent with the understanding that reality is one, indivisible whole, whose nature is love, consciousness, spirit. We want to feel and perceive the world as that. The purpose of yoga meditaions is to bring this understanding to entirety of our experience. When you wash the dishes, feel you are washing God's face.
A woman says she has been involved in the progressive path and asks how karma will be dissolved by bringing our attention to being. Rupert responds that the more we rest in, and identify with, being, the less we feel we are a separate self, hence less needs to be fulfilled, and we don't reap the consequences of acting from the separate self. We, in effect, neutralise the separate self.
A woman, who is a former Buddhist, says she's had non-dual experiences, which felt like she was coming home. She describes the feeling of oneness. She used to stutter but doesn't now when she is aware of presence. She asks if her insights come from being? Rupert replies 'yes'. He says, in reference to ajatavada, in regard to awareness's experience of itself, this aware emptiness, the world we live in is a world of appearances. And yet, although it is not put into words readily, we still gather as a community and have seemingly real experiences.
A woman holds up Rupert's book I Am Always I and says the children want to know if he wrote that with them in mind. Rupert says he did, and that he speaks happily to children.
A man says he is in limbo after a near-death experience. All interest in experience has fallen away, accompanied by an awareness of unity, but the ego keeps coming back. Rupert responds it's simple and easy. Visualise a cat on the windowsill. What does it feel like to be that cat? He asks about the feeling of being. And he makes various recommendations such as attending to the breath, yoga, friends, getting a dog and so on. He encourages the man to attend webinars and the after-talk and to connect with the community.
A man, referencing another man at the retreat who had been depressed, speaks of the value of the therapy he himself received for depression. He says there is a conflict between his heart and the rest of his body; his heart is willing to go deep, but his body expands into space, and he gets very tired. Rupert suggests that it might not be a good idea for him to go to far into space. He suggests respecting the body's response and needs. Be gentle with yourself.
A woman asks about the ajatavada and vivartavada, in light of the seeming contradiction that appearances are true, but there are no appearances, depending on the point of view. She asks about the body as it is that part of the soul that is discernible to the five senses. Rupert quotes William Blake, and elaborates that what appears to us as matter is consciousness, which is true of the universe and of our body.
A woman says that, from the point of view of awareness, when hunger is seen as a sensation she feels no need for food at all. Rupert suggests that hunger is supposed to be unpleasant so that we eat, but yes if you go deeply into the experience of hunger, it is not inherently unpleasant. He doesn't recommend you take it that far when it comes to hunger, thirst and physical pain. Rupert explains that he has known people who have used the non-dual understanding to justify anorexia.
A question is asked about the meditation regarding ajatavada, and if it is sufficient to stay aware of awareness. Rupert explains that the ultimate investigation of your true nature leads to abiding in being. The more you rest in being, the less you are distracted by the content of experience. You are weakening the power of objective experience.
A man asks about the Tantric approach. What is the purpose of the yoga meditation? Rupert replies that the purpose of Tantric approach is to feel the body and feel the world in a way that is consistent with the understanding that reality is one, indivisible whole, whose nature is love, consciousness, spirit. We want to feel and perceive the world as that. The purpose of yoga meditaions is to bring this understanding to entirety of our experience. When you wash the dishes, feel you are washing God's face.
A woman says she has been involved in the progressive path and asks how karma will be dissolved by bringing our attention to being. Rupert responds that the more we rest in, and identify with, being, the less we feel we are a separate self, hence less needs to be fulfilled, and we don't reap the consequences of acting from the separate self. We, in effect, neutralise the separate self.
A woman, who is a former Buddhist, says she's had non-dual experiences, which felt like she was coming home. She describes the feeling of oneness. She used to stutter but doesn't now when she is aware of presence. She asks if her insights come from being? Rupert replies 'yes'. He says, in reference to ajatavada, in regard to awareness's experience of itself, this aware emptiness, the world we live in is a world of appearances. And yet, although it is not put into words readily, we still gather as a community and have seemingly real experiences.