All You Experience Is Being
- Duration: Video: 1 hour, 58 minutes, and 7 seconds / Audio: 1 hour, 58 minutes, and 7 seconds
- Recorded on: Feb 18, 2024
- Event: Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta – 16 to 23 February 2024
A woman asks about saying prayers for other people. Rupert says it is a beautiful practice and that we should engage in it. He elaborates that our finite minds are not sealed containers; they are made of the same infinite consciousness.
A woman shares her experience of being with her dying mother and questions whether her mother felt absolute love at the time of passing. Rupert reassures her that her mother likely experienced this love. Further, he says that we don’t have subjective experiences of being born, and he is not positive that we have an experience of dying.
A woman shared an anecdote, recounting her five-year-old son’s words just days after her mother’s passing: ‘I wanted to let you know, I’ve found a very special place, and this place is here.’
A man asks about reincarnation. Rupert uses the analogy of circles on white paper – circles representing finite minds and the page symbolising consciousness – to demonstrate that consciousness vibrates within itself, making circles appear separate while they inherently remain part of the white page. When the body dies, the activity of infinite consciousness expands, losing its coherence; the boundary may not dissolve completely and may contract again, and at some stage, appear to another finite mind as a body. This would be an upgraded theory of reincarnation.
A woman references Rupert’s story about his outrage upon seeing a woman smoking in a car with a child in the back seat and asks if our role is to act from a place of love and understanding. Rupert agrees, explaining that his initial feeling was one of impersonal outrage because the mother’s love was compromised by her behaviour. Our sacred duty is to respond to situations from love and understanding, and such outrage is an extreme form of that.
A man says he’s having trouble connecting personal feeling and impersonal being. Rupert explains that there are two points of view: infinite consciousness and the finite mind. The finite mind is a point in infinite consciousness. What is consciousness experiencing itself? It doesn’t have experience; it is everything but knows nothing. Just as the eyes cannot see themselves because there is no distance between that which is seeing and that which is seen, it is only possible for something to be known in a subject–object relationship.
A woman asks about the living experience of absolute reality. Rupert says that everyone can have an experience of being, which is without dimensions, infinite and eternal. We are having that experience all the time. The dimensionless point of being is what expands as the universe.
A man enquires about how to deepen the experience of ‘I am’. Rupert replies, ‘Can you say from your experience, “I am not”? To answer that question, you have to go to your being.’ Rupert guides him in self-enquiry by asking him to imagine he is a newborn infant who has no objective experience yet, and from that viewpoint consider what is his experience. Prior to the arising of content, all you experience is being.
A man describes experiencing beautiful emotional and energetic flows during formal meditation and asks what to do with these experiences. Rupert explains that this original emotion of happiness is the last veil of objectivity in the mind and body, a slight tint on colourless being. He advises not to be seduced by these experiences, as from the perspective of our being, they are not essential.
A man asks how to quickly and effectively break the cycle of identifying with fear and self-sabotage. Rupert explains that one could ask oneself, ‘What is aware of these feeling?’ and then go to the experience of being aware. You have the option to give your attention either to the fear or to awareness. That which is aware is always free from fear and sorrow; it is the Direct Path to peace and happiness.
A woman asks about becoming aware of being in other people, for example, her brother. Rupert suggests imagining that her brother attended our gatherings, undertook the same experiment, and sooner or later came to the conclusion that he is unconditioned pure being. He advises feeling that other people are our very own being.
A man wonders why he can’t remove the ‘orange-tinted glasses’. Rupert explains that these metaphoric glasses represent our faculties of perceiving, thinking and feeling. When reality interacts with our perceptions, it appears as an outside world, and when it mixes with our feelings and thoughts, it manifests as an inside self.
A woman, struggling with an addiction to thinking, asks for advice. Rupert replies that there is no part of the experience of thinking that is not pervaded by being. There is no part of a movie that is not pervaded by the screen. Thinking is the colouring of being. Give your thinking complete permission to remain; don’t make it an enemy.
A woman asks about saying prayers for other people. Rupert says it is a beautiful practice and that we should engage in it. He elaborates that our finite minds are not sealed containers; they are made of the same infinite consciousness.
A woman shares her experience of being with her dying mother and questions whether her mother felt absolute love at the time of passing. Rupert reassures her that her mother likely experienced this love. Further, he says that we don’t have subjective experiences of being born, and he is not positive that we have an experience of dying.
A woman shared an anecdote, recounting her five-year-old son’s words just days after her mother’s passing: ‘I wanted to let you know, I’ve found a very special place, and this place is here.’
A man asks about reincarnation. Rupert uses the analogy of circles on white paper – circles representing finite minds and the page symbolising consciousness – to demonstrate that consciousness vibrates within itself, making circles appear separate while they inherently remain part of the white page. When the body dies, the activity of infinite consciousness expands, losing its coherence; the boundary may not dissolve completely and may contract again, and at some stage, appear to another finite mind as a body. This would be an upgraded theory of reincarnation.
A woman references Rupert’s story about his outrage upon seeing a woman smoking in a car with a child in the back seat and asks if our role is to act from a place of love and understanding. Rupert agrees, explaining that his initial feeling was one of impersonal outrage because the mother’s love was compromised by her behaviour. Our sacred duty is to respond to situations from love and understanding, and such outrage is an extreme form of that.
A man says he’s having trouble connecting personal feeling and impersonal being. Rupert explains that there are two points of view: infinite consciousness and the finite mind. The finite mind is a point in infinite consciousness. What is consciousness experiencing itself? It doesn’t have experience; it is everything but knows nothing. Just as the eyes cannot see themselves because there is no distance between that which is seeing and that which is seen, it is only possible for something to be known in a subject–object relationship.
A woman asks about the living experience of absolute reality. Rupert says that everyone can have an experience of being, which is without dimensions, infinite and eternal. We are having that experience all the time. The dimensionless point of being is what expands as the universe.
A man enquires about how to deepen the experience of ‘I am’. Rupert replies, ‘Can you say from your experience, “I am not”? To answer that question, you have to go to your being.’ Rupert guides him in self-enquiry by asking him to imagine he is a newborn infant who has no objective experience yet, and from that viewpoint consider what is his experience. Prior to the arising of content, all you experience is being.
A man describes experiencing beautiful emotional and energetic flows during formal meditation and asks what to do with these experiences. Rupert explains that this original emotion of happiness is the last veil of objectivity in the mind and body, a slight tint on colourless being. He advises not to be seduced by these experiences, as from the perspective of our being, they are not essential.
A man asks how to quickly and effectively break the cycle of identifying with fear and self-sabotage. Rupert explains that one could ask oneself, ‘What is aware of these feeling?’ and then go to the experience of being aware. You have the option to give your attention either to the fear or to awareness. That which is aware is always free from fear and sorrow; it is the Direct Path to peace and happiness.
A woman asks about becoming aware of being in other people, for example, her brother. Rupert suggests imagining that her brother attended our gatherings, undertook the same experiment, and sooner or later came to the conclusion that he is unconditioned pure being. He advises feeling that other people are our very own being.
A man wonders why he can’t remove the ‘orange-tinted glasses’. Rupert explains that these metaphoric glasses represent our faculties of perceiving, thinking and feeling. When reality interacts with our perceptions, it appears as an outside world, and when it mixes with our feelings and thoughts, it manifests as an inside self.
A woman, struggling with an addiction to thinking, asks for advice. Rupert replies that there is no part of the experience of thinking that is not pervaded by being. There is no part of a movie that is not pervaded by the screen. Thinking is the colouring of being. Give your thinking complete permission to remain; don’t make it an enemy.