Individual vs. Universal Consciousness

When thoughts, feelings, senses and perceptions are offline, what is being experienced? Rupert says: ‘That’s a beautiful question that goes straight to the heart of the matter. If I were to answer you with a word, that would just give you another thought, but you have to answer that question in your experience. What remains of yourself when your thoughts and perceptions are no longer online? You take away your thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions – all that remains is I, awareness, knowing nothing. That’s what remains when all King Lear’s thoughts, feelings, activities, and relationships disappear: John Smith. The presence of awareness is not itself an experience. You cannot find it in your experience. You can only be that knowingly.’

What is meant by ‘blank mind’ when advised not to go to the blank mind but to go to being? Rupert says: ‘Being, or the presence of awareness, is not a blank empty state. It is only the object-knowing mind that superimposes blankness or emptiness onto awareness and considers it boring. Imagine a woman who comes back from vacation and notices her favourite painting is missing. She sees the absence of the painting, while her friend sees the presence of the wall. Similarly, the object-knowing mind projects emptiness onto awareness. But if you were to ask being about its experience of itself, it would never reply “I am empty” because it’s not comparing itself with objects. Being would reply “I am full, not full of objects, but full of myself alone. I am replete, I am sufficient, I am whole, I am perfect.”’

What is the difference between Brahman and Paramatman, and do you use these distinctions of individual versus universal consciousness in your teaching? Rupert says: ‘I never or almost never use Sanskrit language. I don’t like to make the concession of referring to individual consciousness as opposed to universal consciousness because there is no individual consciousness – there’s only one consciousness. The content of consciousness is individual – each of us has private thoughts and sensations that are unique. But consciousness itself, within which each of our individual experiences takes place, is not personal, private or limited. It’s shared. Just as there are no individual spaces in the universe but one space which completely fills every room, so there are no individual consciousnesses in reality. When we experience love, we are experiencing our shared being.’

Is it possible to abide in the deepest sense of being while interacting with people, and does that quality of connection change over time? Rupert says: ‘King Lear has two different ways of speaking to his daughters. He can speak to them as their father, the King of England, in which case he’ll be upset with them. Or he can speak to them knowing that he’s John Smith, at peace, needing nothing from them. It’s exactly the same with us – our conversation can be informed by our sorrow, fear and need for approval, or we can be grounded in our being and feel completely fulfilled. When we’re meditating with our eyes closed, we give attention exclusively to our being. When having a conversation, our attention moves to the person and our being seems to recede to the background. But experience loses its capacity to obscure being, and though we first feel it in the background, it eventually overflows into the foreground.’

When meditating and reaching a state of being aware of being aware, questions about life decisions completely disappear – how can clarity be found if the mind that wants answers is no longer present? Rupert says: ‘These important life questions deserve careful consideration. You have your situation in life, your mind’s response to those situations, and your true nature of awareness that lies in the background. Awareness itself has no questions about what to do or where to live – those are questions the mind has about the body in the world. The real question is where the mind will get its answers from. Normally the mind is dominated by the separate self, which is insecure and needy. If you make decisions from that place, those qualities will be implicit in your decision. When you have a big life decision, go back to your true nature and allow the qualities inherent there – peace and sufficiency – to inform your mind. It’s not that you literally ask awareness what to do, but by immersing in your true nature, you’ll find that clarity comes from deeper than your mind and begins to percolate into it.’

How can the analogy of space being the same throughout all rooms be reconciled with the analogy of the whirlpool used when discussing karma? Rupert says: ‘Think of this building that was built 20 years ago. None of the activities that have taken place in this room have conditioned the space itself. Go back 30 years when there was no building – has the space changed? Has it been enclosed by the four walls or become limited? No. Our being is like that – there’s no individual being. The walls and configuration are individual and different, but space remains unchanged. That’s the experience we know as love – when we experience love, we are experiencing our shared being. Just as the space in this room and the vast space of the universe are the same space, our being is not incarnate now and doesn’t reincarnate. Being just remains as it eternally is – not meaning it lasts forever, but that the self is not in time.’

How can one avoid using awareness practice to suppress emotions when there’s a strong desire to return to the peace of being? Rupert says: ‘I don’t mean to imply that you should repress or avoid your feelings, but I do suggest temporarily turning your attention away from them. Instead of being absorbed in your anxiety, fear or anger, go back to your being, taste its innate peace and sufficiency, and then come back to your experience and allow it to be informed by this recognition. Your emotions, without your having to repress or work on them, will be changed by this recognition of your true nature. The anxiety will gradually be outshone by the peace of your true nature. You haven’t repressed or addressed it – you’ve gone back to your true nature and tasted that innate peace, which is now beginning to filter through your emotions and dissolve your afflictive emotions. Awareness is like the space of this room – it doesn’t have likes or dislikes and never says to a feeling “you’re not welcome” or “I want to get rid of you.”‘

Does beauty have to be seen in order to feel one with the object of beauty, especially considering a profound experience of tears and gratitude when entering the Duomo in Florence despite being unable to see it? Rupert says: ‘Your mind is trying to dumb down what is really happening, to dismiss it as some trivial experience – “it’s just because you’re on holiday.” The mind does this because in the experience of beauty, the mind was not present, and it realises if you have this experience again and again, there’s no place for it. The fact that you can’t see has opened a new channel of sensitivity in you. Buildings exude what has gone into the making of them, and you don’t need to see a building to feel that – you just have to be open, sensitive and receptive. The experience of beauty is the dissolution of the subject-object relationship. That’s why places like the Duomo are built – the ultimate purpose of art is not to draw you towards the object but to dissolve the subject-object relationship. When the dualistic tendencies of the mind dissolve, there is a deep relaxation in the body, which for you was expressed as tears. The overwhelming feeling of gratitude is the mind coming back online after plunging into awareness, before it appropriates the experience – it comes back suffused with the perfume of awareness.’

When thoughts, feelings, senses and perceptions are offline, what is being experienced? Rupert says: ‘That’s a beautiful question that goes straight to the heart of the matter. If I were to answer you with a word, that would just give you another thought, but you have to answer that question in your experience. What remains of yourself when your thoughts and perceptions are no longer online? You take away your thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions – all that remains is I, awareness, knowing nothing. That’s what remains when all King Lear’s thoughts, feelings, activities, and relationships disappear: John Smith. The presence of awareness is not itself an experience. You cannot find it in your experience. You can only be that knowingly.’

What is meant by ‘blank mind’ when advised not to go to the blank mind but to go to being? Rupert says: ‘Being, or the presence of awareness, is not a blank empty state. It is only the object-knowing mind that superimposes blankness or emptiness onto awareness and considers it boring. Imagine a woman who comes back from vacation and notices her favourite painting is missing. She sees the absence of the painting, while her friend sees the presence of the wall. Similarly, the object-knowing mind projects emptiness onto awareness. But if you were to ask being about its experience of itself, it would never reply “I am empty” because it’s not comparing itself with objects. Being would reply “I am full, not full of objects, but full of myself alone. I am replete, I am sufficient, I am whole, I am perfect.”’

What is the difference between Brahman and Paramatman, and do you use these distinctions of individual versus universal consciousness in your teaching? Rupert says: ‘I never or almost never use Sanskrit language. I don’t like to make the concession of referring to individual consciousness as opposed to universal consciousness because there is no individual consciousness – there’s only one consciousness. The content of consciousness is individual – each of us has private thoughts and sensations that are unique. But consciousness itself, within which each of our individual experiences takes place, is not personal, private or limited. It’s shared. Just as there are no individual spaces in the universe but one space which completely fills every room, so there are no individual consciousnesses in reality. When we experience love, we are experiencing our shared being.’

Is it possible to abide in the deepest sense of being while interacting with people, and does that quality of connection change over time? Rupert says: ‘King Lear has two different ways of speaking to his daughters. He can speak to them as their father, the King of England, in which case he’ll be upset with them. Or he can speak to them knowing that he’s John Smith, at peace, needing nothing from them. It’s exactly the same with us – our conversation can be informed by our sorrow, fear and need for approval, or we can be grounded in our being and feel completely fulfilled. When we’re meditating with our eyes closed, we give attention exclusively to our being. When having a conversation, our attention moves to the person and our being seems to recede to the background. But experience loses its capacity to obscure being, and though we first feel it in the background, it eventually overflows into the foreground.’

When meditating and reaching a state of being aware of being aware, questions about life decisions completely disappear – how can clarity be found if the mind that wants answers is no longer present? Rupert says: ‘These important life questions deserve careful consideration. You have your situation in life, your mind’s response to those situations, and your true nature of awareness that lies in the background. Awareness itself has no questions about what to do or where to live – those are questions the mind has about the body in the world. The real question is where the mind will get its answers from. Normally the mind is dominated by the separate self, which is insecure and needy. If you make decisions from that place, those qualities will be implicit in your decision. When you have a big life decision, go back to your true nature and allow the qualities inherent there – peace and sufficiency – to inform your mind. It’s not that you literally ask awareness what to do, but by immersing in your true nature, you’ll find that clarity comes from deeper than your mind and begins to percolate into it.’

How can the analogy of space being the same throughout all rooms be reconciled with the analogy of the whirlpool used when discussing karma? Rupert says: ‘Think of this building that was built 20 years ago. None of the activities that have taken place in this room have conditioned the space itself. Go back 30 years when there was no building – has the space changed? Has it been enclosed by the four walls or become limited? No. Our being is like that – there’s no individual being. The walls and configuration are individual and different, but space remains unchanged. That’s the experience we know as love – when we experience love, we are experiencing our shared being. Just as the space in this room and the vast space of the universe are the same space, our being is not incarnate now and doesn’t reincarnate. Being just remains as it eternally is – not meaning it lasts forever, but that the self is not in time.’

How can one avoid using awareness practice to suppress emotions when there’s a strong desire to return to the peace of being? Rupert says: ‘I don’t mean to imply that you should repress or avoid your feelings, but I do suggest temporarily turning your attention away from them. Instead of being absorbed in your anxiety, fear or anger, go back to your being, taste its innate peace and sufficiency, and then come back to your experience and allow it to be informed by this recognition. Your emotions, without your having to repress or work on them, will be changed by this recognition of your true nature. The anxiety will gradually be outshone by the peace of your true nature. You haven’t repressed or addressed it – you’ve gone back to your true nature and tasted that innate peace, which is now beginning to filter through your emotions and dissolve your afflictive emotions. Awareness is like the space of this room – it doesn’t have likes or dislikes and never says to a feeling “you’re not welcome” or “I want to get rid of you.”‘

Does beauty have to be seen in order to feel one with the object of beauty, especially considering a profound experience of tears and gratitude when entering the Duomo in Florence despite being unable to see it? Rupert says: ‘Your mind is trying to dumb down what is really happening, to dismiss it as some trivial experience – “it’s just because you’re on holiday.” The mind does this because in the experience of beauty, the mind was not present, and it realises if you have this experience again and again, there’s no place for it. The fact that you can’t see has opened a new channel of sensitivity in you. Buildings exude what has gone into the making of them, and you don’t need to see a building to feel that – you just have to be open, sensitive and receptive. The experience of beauty is the dissolution of the subject-object relationship. That’s why places like the Duomo are built – the ultimate purpose of art is not to draw you towards the object but to dissolve the subject-object relationship. When the dualistic tendencies of the mind dissolve, there is a deep relaxation in the body, which for you was expressed as tears. The overwhelming feeling of gratitude is the mind coming back online after plunging into awareness, before it appropriates the experience – it comes back suffused with the perfume of awareness.’