At Home in Your Self and the World

A man asks if the body sense can be used as a portal like the ‘I’ can. Rupert elaborates on two quotes the questioner offered, from Nisargadatta and Eckhart Tolle. One can use the body as a stepping stone to gather attention. However, the body could be a portal when we go deep into the sensation of the body. We find an experience of sensing. Even further, we find only the knowing of it, which is pure consciousness.

A man asks if Rupert has advice for integrating the recognition. Rupert suggests that we think, feel, act, perceive and relate in a way that is consistent with the felt understanding that true nature is peace and happiness, and we share that being with everyone and everything. However, it is difficult to prescribe that because while our true nature is the same for everyone, the experiences each of us has are innumerable.

A man asks about how to integrate the understanding when dealing with someone we find difficult. Rupert suggests that we recognise that what we find difficult is not their self, but their thoughts, behaviours, etc. We love their self because we share our being. We love them, even if we don't like their thoughts or behaviour.

A woman describes her terror which resists surrender. Rupert asks if she can sense something in herself that is older and more primary than this fear. Go in that direction, as opposed to working on the terror itself. The safety you look for is behind and all around the terror. Relax your agenda with fear.

A woman shares her experience of being on guard and distracted all the time, which keeps her from resting in being. Rupert suggests that, given her high sensitivity, she must find a life circumstance that triggers this sensitivity as little as possible. Aim to not make a battle between a home in yourself and the experience of the outside world.

A woman asks about devouring our emotions. Rupert suggests that devouring our emotions is the Tantric way of self-enquiry at the level of feelings. All there is to shame is an emotion. All there is to an emotion is feeling. Then we go more deeply and touch the feeling, and all we find is knowing, which is pure consciousness, which is joy. In Tantra, we go deeply into experience.

A man says he gets tripped up when Rupert says that this is a dream in God’s mind versus the idea of a material world. Rupert wonders if mind and matter interact with each other, then how, through what medium? The activity of science takes place through the human mind of thinking and perceiving. To think the finite mind can study consciousness is like thinking the moon can study the sun. The mind cannot investigate consciousness. Unless what we do here – self-enquiry – is considered science, the highest science.

A woman, who works with children, shares her experience of seeing through their eyes and her subsequent expansion. Rupert suggests that she is seeing the children as they really are, their true nature. Their eyes are a portal into that experience. The children respond because they are being ‘seen’.

A man wonders if neo-advaita teachers leave out the outward-facing path. Rupert suggests that it is true that some contemporary and classic teachings only take the inward-facing journey, but neo-advaita is a teaching that answers every question with a variation on, ‘there is nobody here, there is nothing to do’. However, if they really believed that they wouldn't write books and offer teachings. The only radical teaching is silence.

A man asks how to engage with the teaching with his heart, not his mind. Rupert suggests that he just hang around the community, if you want to bring the teaching from the head to the heart. Anything more said would feed his mind, not his heart.

A man asks if AI can ever be conscious. Rupert suggests that is like something other than light illuminating. Nothing else can become consciousness because there is nothing other than consciousness. Could the character in the movie ever become the screen? There is only the screen.

A woman asks about the experience of love. Rupert suggests that what she refers to as the aspects of love are the expressions of love at the human level. However, love is not an experience that a person has; that’s not possible. That is like a moth experiencing a flame. Love is the nature of your being, but the one that wants to experience it is veiling that being.

A woman asks about fear and the story we tell ourselves about it. Rupert suggests that thoughts are like subtitles on a movie. An emotion is not just a series of thoughts. It is true that when we turn off the subtitles (thoughts) that emotions are reduced to a sensation.

A woman, whose daughter is suffering from depression, asks for Rupert’s insight. Rupert suggests that it’s not about her own feelings, it’s about her relationship with her daughter. While there is an instinctive desire to want to change her situation, her daughter will be feeling that lack of acceptance. She wants your unconditional love and acceptance, without the slightest desire to change her.

A man asks about resisting thoughts. Rupert suggests that there is nothing inherently wrong with being lost in thought. But if we look closely at why we are lost in thought, it is because there is a feeling behind it that is unbearable. Thinking is one of the easiest ways to avoid it. Get in contact with the feeling that lies behind it.

A man asks if we can try too much in prayer, like in meditation. Rupert suggests that the highest form of prayer is simply being. The essence of prayer and mediation are the same. It is the ultimate form of surrender to God. It is the practice of the presence of God.

A man asks about evoking prayer. Rupert suggests that we always evoke prayer, and for what reason? Nothing. Pray without ceasing, for no reason.

A man asks if the body sense can be used as a portal like the ‘I’ can. Rupert elaborates on two quotes the questioner offered, from Nisargadatta and Eckhart Tolle. One can use the body as a stepping stone to gather attention. However, the body could be a portal when we go deep into the sensation of the body. We find an experience of sensing. Even further, we find only the knowing of it, which is pure consciousness.

A man asks if Rupert has advice for integrating the recognition. Rupert suggests that we think, feel, act, perceive and relate in a way that is consistent with the felt understanding that true nature is peace and happiness, and we share that being with everyone and everything. However, it is difficult to prescribe that because while our true nature is the same for everyone, the experiences each of us has are innumerable.

A man asks about how to integrate the understanding when dealing with someone we find difficult. Rupert suggests that we recognise that what we find difficult is not their self, but their thoughts, behaviours, etc. We love their self because we share our being. We love them, even if we don't like their thoughts or behaviour.

A woman describes her terror which resists surrender. Rupert asks if she can sense something in herself that is older and more primary than this fear. Go in that direction, as opposed to working on the terror itself. The safety you look for is behind and all around the terror. Relax your agenda with fear.

A woman shares her experience of being on guard and distracted all the time, which keeps her from resting in being. Rupert suggests that, given her high sensitivity, she must find a life circumstance that triggers this sensitivity as little as possible. Aim to not make a battle between a home in yourself and the experience of the outside world.

A woman asks about devouring our emotions. Rupert suggests that devouring our emotions is the Tantric way of self-enquiry at the level of feelings. All there is to shame is an emotion. All there is to an emotion is feeling. Then we go more deeply and touch the feeling, and all we find is knowing, which is pure consciousness, which is joy. In Tantra, we go deeply into experience.

A man says he gets tripped up when Rupert says that this is a dream in God’s mind versus the idea of a material world. Rupert wonders if mind and matter interact with each other, then how, through what medium? The activity of science takes place through the human mind of thinking and perceiving. To think the finite mind can study consciousness is like thinking the moon can study the sun. The mind cannot investigate consciousness. Unless what we do here – self-enquiry – is considered science, the highest science.

A woman, who works with children, shares her experience of seeing through their eyes and her subsequent expansion. Rupert suggests that she is seeing the children as they really are, their true nature. Their eyes are a portal into that experience. The children respond because they are being ‘seen’.

A man wonders if neo-advaita teachers leave out the outward-facing path. Rupert suggests that it is true that some contemporary and classic teachings only take the inward-facing journey, but neo-advaita is a teaching that answers every question with a variation on, ‘there is nobody here, there is nothing to do’. However, if they really believed that they wouldn't write books and offer teachings. The only radical teaching is silence.

A man asks how to engage with the teaching with his heart, not his mind. Rupert suggests that he just hang around the community, if you want to bring the teaching from the head to the heart. Anything more said would feed his mind, not his heart.

A man asks if AI can ever be conscious. Rupert suggests that is like something other than light illuminating. Nothing else can become consciousness because there is nothing other than consciousness. Could the character in the movie ever become the screen? There is only the screen.

A woman asks about the experience of love. Rupert suggests that what she refers to as the aspects of love are the expressions of love at the human level. However, love is not an experience that a person has; that’s not possible. That is like a moth experiencing a flame. Love is the nature of your being, but the one that wants to experience it is veiling that being.

A woman asks about fear and the story we tell ourselves about it. Rupert suggests that thoughts are like subtitles on a movie. An emotion is not just a series of thoughts. It is true that when we turn off the subtitles (thoughts) that emotions are reduced to a sensation.

A woman, whose daughter is suffering from depression, asks for Rupert’s insight. Rupert suggests that it’s not about her own feelings, it’s about her relationship with her daughter. While there is an instinctive desire to want to change her situation, her daughter will be feeling that lack of acceptance. She wants your unconditional love and acceptance, without the slightest desire to change her.

A man asks about resisting thoughts. Rupert suggests that there is nothing inherently wrong with being lost in thought. But if we look closely at why we are lost in thought, it is because there is a feeling behind it that is unbearable. Thinking is one of the easiest ways to avoid it. Get in contact with the feeling that lies behind it.

A man asks if we can try too much in prayer, like in meditation. Rupert suggests that the highest form of prayer is simply being. The essence of prayer and mediation are the same. It is the ultimate form of surrender to God. It is the practice of the presence of God.

A man asks about evoking prayer. Rupert suggests that we always evoke prayer, and for what reason? Nothing. Pray without ceasing, for no reason.