Our Essential Self Is Present Now
- Duration: Video: 2 hours, 0 minutes, and 21 seconds / Audio: 2 hours, 0 minutes, and 21 seconds
- Recorded on: Aug 14, 2022
- Event: Webinar – Sunday 14th August
Whatever our self essentially is, it must be present now. In order to know ourself, we do not need to refer to the past, only to our current direct experience of ourself. Whatever we are, we are now. The awareness of simply being is our primary experience of ourself. If there were no past experience to refer to, would we know from our current direct experience that we had an age or a body? Is there any experience of being a man or a woman? Of being a person? Without reference to thought or memory, do we have any experience of actually existing in a world? Do we find any limits? Are we related in any way to anyone or anything? Or do we stand alone as simply being? One way to describe meditation or prayer would be to be and remain only being without it being qualified in any way by experience.
A man, who is translating ‘I Am’, comments on the difference between Rupert’s reading of it on YouTube and the original audiobook. Rupert comments that because he is an artist, he is always seeing way to improve his work. Artists are always frustrated.
A woman, who is a long-time seeker, says she's been listening to Bernardo Kastrup interviews and her perception has shifted to being aware of what she is, but it makes her heart feel flat and she feels without purpose. Rupert responds that if there is no purpose, just let it be. It is the experience of not moving towards something, the habit of practising, which can leave one feeling a little empty.
A man talks about ‘before and after’, in which he is no longer seeking or resisting anything. He asks about how to let the understanding progress. Rupert suggests that this understanding percolates into the mind, heart, body and world forever. Don't expect it to come to an end. Make your life the means by which the understanding is expressed in the world.
A man, who has been studying non-duality for a long time, including that of Frances Lucille and Jean Klein, asks if he is neglecting grace by attempting to do all this on his own. Rupert responds with a story about friends who were living together but had never really fell in love with each other, though they hoped that one day they would. One day the wife realised that she was in love and had always been; it just hadn't taken the shape the same way other people experienced falling in love. Her desire to fall in love then ceased. He suggests that this man put down his expectations for how this should look, to not wait for the penny to drop.
A man asks about researching older sacred texts as a practice. Rupert suggests that it this can be useful if it's more about contemplation than practice. Let the understanding pervade your body and mind more and more. It's a sinking into the understanding.
A woman asks about the difficult relationship with her mother. Rupert suggests that she find the place in herself that is completely free of her mother. She does it every night when she falls asleep – the world, body, thoughts and feelings disappear. This is an opportunity to remain in touch with being. If you can do that, you'll be safe everywhere.
A man, who is suffering because a mutually antagonistic relationship ended, feels that it has affected his understanding. He asks how to deal with all these difficult emotions and integrate them with his understanding. Rupert suggests that a deep love of truth remain the number one priority in life and that all experience either help to investigate or express this understanding – prayer or praise, the inner and outer movement of understanding.
A woman, who feels overwhelmed by the amount of sadness and loss that she is feeling, asks Rupert to comment. Rupert suggests that we often feel sadness when something we invested our happiness in is not able to produce that happiness anymore. As she goes through these intense experiences, he suggests that she take them as messages from life to invest her peace and happiness in her being.
A woman says that when she rests in her being she then wonders about why God would want to localise into suffering. Rupert suggests that this is not something that God chooses to do, it is simply the nature of God to not just be at peace or rest, but to move or be active as well.
A man asks how to integrate the non-duality understanding into life and practical matters, such as work. Rupert suggests that he is still operating as a person, but the operating system has been upgraded, found the source of peace and can now be used in service of the understanding. He asks, ‘How does work conflict with this understanding?’.
A man asks whether the process of maturing in the understanding means losing the personal and becoming the all. He also asks about how consciousness can be itself through all of us. Rupert suggests that he think of sinking down into the essence of God’s mind. Our mind is just an illusory limitation of the only mind there is – God’s mind. In time, there are less and less psychological needs of the separate entity.
A woman asks if infinite awareness knows that it is all there is, then why does it localise to experience in form. What is the reason for this? Rupert suggests that it's not accurate to say that it desires to be in form, or that there is a reason for it, but it is its nature to express in the appearance of form. Through the finite mind, it knows the appearance of itself. There is no cause for the separate self because it is an illusion. The rope never turns into a snake; it is only a lack of clear seeing that made it appear as a snake, so we can't ask what causes the snake to appear. It doesn't.
Whatever our self essentially is, it must be present now. In order to know ourself, we do not need to refer to the past, only to our current direct experience of ourself. Whatever we are, we are now. The awareness of simply being is our primary experience of ourself. If there were no past experience to refer to, would we know from our current direct experience that we had an age or a body? Is there any experience of being a man or a woman? Of being a person? Without reference to thought or memory, do we have any experience of actually existing in a world? Do we find any limits? Are we related in any way to anyone or anything? Or do we stand alone as simply being? One way to describe meditation or prayer would be to be and remain only being without it being qualified in any way by experience.
A man, who is translating ‘I Am’, comments on the difference between Rupert’s reading of it on YouTube and the original audiobook. Rupert comments that because he is an artist, he is always seeing way to improve his work. Artists are always frustrated.
A woman, who is a long-time seeker, says she's been listening to Bernardo Kastrup interviews and her perception has shifted to being aware of what she is, but it makes her heart feel flat and she feels without purpose. Rupert responds that if there is no purpose, just let it be. It is the experience of not moving towards something, the habit of practising, which can leave one feeling a little empty.
A man talks about ‘before and after’, in which he is no longer seeking or resisting anything. He asks about how to let the understanding progress. Rupert suggests that this understanding percolates into the mind, heart, body and world forever. Don't expect it to come to an end. Make your life the means by which the understanding is expressed in the world.
A man, who has been studying non-duality for a long time, including that of Frances Lucille and Jean Klein, asks if he is neglecting grace by attempting to do all this on his own. Rupert responds with a story about friends who were living together but had never really fell in love with each other, though they hoped that one day they would. One day the wife realised that she was in love and had always been; it just hadn't taken the shape the same way other people experienced falling in love. Her desire to fall in love then ceased. He suggests that this man put down his expectations for how this should look, to not wait for the penny to drop.
A man asks about researching older sacred texts as a practice. Rupert suggests that it this can be useful if it's more about contemplation than practice. Let the understanding pervade your body and mind more and more. It's a sinking into the understanding.
A woman asks about the difficult relationship with her mother. Rupert suggests that she find the place in herself that is completely free of her mother. She does it every night when she falls asleep – the world, body, thoughts and feelings disappear. This is an opportunity to remain in touch with being. If you can do that, you'll be safe everywhere.
A man, who is suffering because a mutually antagonistic relationship ended, feels that it has affected his understanding. He asks how to deal with all these difficult emotions and integrate them with his understanding. Rupert suggests that a deep love of truth remain the number one priority in life and that all experience either help to investigate or express this understanding – prayer or praise, the inner and outer movement of understanding.
A woman, who feels overwhelmed by the amount of sadness and loss that she is feeling, asks Rupert to comment. Rupert suggests that we often feel sadness when something we invested our happiness in is not able to produce that happiness anymore. As she goes through these intense experiences, he suggests that she take them as messages from life to invest her peace and happiness in her being.
A woman says that when she rests in her being she then wonders about why God would want to localise into suffering. Rupert suggests that this is not something that God chooses to do, it is simply the nature of God to not just be at peace or rest, but to move or be active as well.
A man asks how to integrate the non-duality understanding into life and practical matters, such as work. Rupert suggests that he is still operating as a person, but the operating system has been upgraded, found the source of peace and can now be used in service of the understanding. He asks, ‘How does work conflict with this understanding?’.
A man asks whether the process of maturing in the understanding means losing the personal and becoming the all. He also asks about how consciousness can be itself through all of us. Rupert suggests that he think of sinking down into the essence of God’s mind. Our mind is just an illusory limitation of the only mind there is – God’s mind. In time, there are less and less psychological needs of the separate entity.
A woman asks if infinite awareness knows that it is all there is, then why does it localise to experience in form. What is the reason for this? Rupert suggests that it's not accurate to say that it desires to be in form, or that there is a reason for it, but it is its nature to express in the appearance of form. Through the finite mind, it knows the appearance of itself. There is no cause for the separate self because it is an illusion. The rope never turns into a snake; it is only a lack of clear seeing that made it appear as a snake, so we can't ask what causes the snake to appear. It doesn't.