Reconnect Inside with the Place of Peace

A woman asks how Rupert would view the ‘holy spirit’ in the non-dual understanding. Rupert suggests that the holy spirit is the link between ‘God. the father’ and ‘God, the son’. If we see infinite God and us as being separate, then the holy spirit is the connecting link. He also explains that between God and the individual is the love, the pull of grace, that draws us back into our self – our love for God is God’s love for us.

A woman asks how she can stay more in the feeling of being infinite love while living life as a human with human needs? Rupert encourages her, that rather than the understanding being in conflict with human life – the need for food, to make a living, etc. – it actually removes all the impediments that result in a dysfunctional life. It allows time and energy to devote yourself to whatever in life is of interest or value to you. The only thing you lose is whatever supports the idea that you are limited and separate. But all your skills and interests are now available to you in the service of love and understanding.

A woman asks how she can act on the impulse to share the understanding when she doesn’t know what to do? Rupert suggests she ask herself, ‘What do I love to do?’ That should give a hint. He encourages her not to worry about how many people she might reach but just to act from her love and interest. Instead of “visiting’ the place of awareness, she should consider making it her default setting.

A man asks how the infinite seems to become finite? Rupert replies that the vast space of the universe seems to become finite when a room’s walls are put up. Similarly, a mind seems to become finite as thinking and perceiving arise. Infinite awareness gives itself so completely to thinking and perceiving that this mind naturally thinks ‘I am this finite self’. Everything we know through thinking and perceiving shares the limitations of thinking and perceiving. Only the experience of being aware is not limited.

A woman shares that although her mother recently died, and her daughter has cancer, she has been navigating without fear because she aligned as awareness. But something recently changed, and now fear is back. Rupert encourages her that this natural. ‘You had a period of strong alignment with peace of awareness, but naturally, the honeymoon ended.’ He explains that the experience temporarily took her away from her self, and things seem worse because she had a taste of the peace of being. ‘You are NOT worse than you were before . . . You received a gift of a sample, and now you have to find your way back . . . till you reconnect with that place of peace inside your self.

A woman relates that despite many troubles in her life – a bad husband, etc. – she always felt that God was helping her. But now when she thinks of awareness, her conception of a helping God has changed. Rupert assures her, ‘Your life has brought you to your own understanding, which is the most beautiful gift life has given you.” He confirms for her that God and awareness are the same, that ‘God’ is just the religious name for awareness.

A woman recounts that years ago, she’d had a mystical experience in India she didn’t understand. Yesterday, during a meditation, she had it again. Suddenly, there was beauty, but everything she perceived as human faded away while awareness took over, and she felt she was either dying or going completely crazy What should she do if it happens again? Rupert tells her to just allow it, to say, ‘take me completely’. He encourages her not to worry and that ‘all the faculties of your mind and body will come back later, although that’s not important’.

A woman, who says she’s realised that physical pain cannot touch her peace, wonders if she is still identifying with the body, because, she says, ‘if I could choose each morning to live pain-free, I would make that choice’. Rupert replies that at the level of the body, it is natural to want to be free of pain, but that doesn’t necessarily mean identification with the body. Actually, because of our growing understanding, we increasingly pay better attention to the well-being of the body because the lens of dysfunction disappears.

A man expresses his confusion because, although he’s heard Rupert use terms such ‘being’, ‘consciousness’, ‘awareness’, ‘knowing’, ‘the witness’, and ‘I am’ to all be pointing to the same thing, he’s seen other teachers in spiritual literature use them differently, and now he would like some clarification. Rupert tells him that there isn’t a common agreement among teachers about the way words are used, so we must listen carefully for the teacher’s meaning. Also, people speak about these matters at different levels, often depending on who they are speaking to. ‘Don’t be attached to or impose your own definitions,’ he tells the man, ‘or you will have arguments.’

A man asks if awareness knows itself, or is there something deeper that knows awareness? Rupert replies by asking him what qualities would something have to have in order to know awareness? It would have to be present and aware. But that’s what awareness is, so to suggest there is something prior – how could we ever know there is such a thing?

A man asks if, to know awareness, you just have to abide in it and eventually you will know it. Rupert asks him a series of questions: Why ‘eventually’? What is your current direct experience? Aren’t you having that experience right now? When the man recognises that awareness is just there, Rupert affirms, ‘that’s your experience right now’.

A man asks if one can expect life to improve after experiencing one’s true nature. Rupert answers yes, particularly one’s inner life. For example, imagine someone saying something unjust about you – now you realise that you cannot be hurt by what others say or your circumstances, even if you have feelings about those things. Also, there is a gradual realignment of all aspects of our life, and we feel sufficient, and our activities in the world express the deep impact of this understanding.

A man reports that despite being with this understanding for some time, he still find areas in life that are the same as before. Rupert helps him recognise that some aspects of life have indeed improved, and he encourages him to see that some aspects usually take longer, especially relationships. Sometimes they will evolve, and sometimes they just fall away. We don’t have to be perfect, and yes there may possibly always be blind spots.

A man asks if it up to the teacher to not facilitate the projection of perfection on the teacher. Rupert says, ‘Yes, I think it is important to not present the image that one is perfect.’ I would go even further than that – I can only speak for myself, but I think even projecting oneself as a teacher is unnecessary and unhelpful. I don’t have any special knowledge. I’m more like an artist; I’m just sharing my vision of the world such as it is.’

In this humorous, warm exchange, a man says that he’s been struggling with the idea of perfection and how he should live. He asks what Rupert’s recurring life patterns are and whether he has any blind spots. Rupert responds that yes, he has blind spots, but rather than sharing personal aspects that aren’t necessary to the purposes of the event, it should be enough to know that I’m not perfect.

A woman asks if Rupert has any advice for a sixty-year-old who has not learned to be gentle to herself, even though she is gentle to others; who is not feeling connected to others, not feeling adequate, and has no clear rationale for these feelings, which leads to self-sabotage. Rupert encourages her that all her doubts, fears and judgements arise from ‘the belief and feeling that you are this bundle of qualities, which you then judge as inadequate, etc. You believe, “I am these qualities”.’ He asks her to consider how it would affect her sense of self if she traced her way back to the fact of being that is already free of these qualities she dislikes. ‘How would it be to know yourself as that all the time; to lose your judgement of yourself and other people, and learn to live happily with your imperfections?’

A man asks if emotions like sorrow and grief meant to be felt, or do we need to be detached from them? Rupert replies that this is often misunderstood about the Direct Path approach, where we initially turn away from thoughts, feelings, etc., and go directly back to simply being. That’s just the initial stage. Then, we must go back to the content of experience and infuse our human experience with this understanding, which includes thinking and feeling, as well as acting and relating. We actually open ourself up to all feelings, although we do find that our emotional life changes. We become more open, less defended. More human.

A woman who spoke earlier, clarifies that her feeling all right in light of her daughter’s cancer diagnosis sparked some conflict with her daughter with conflict, who wondered how she could feel that way while she was suffering. Rupert responds that the daughter likely misunderstands and feels at some level that you don’t love her enough. He tells her it’s up to her to reassure her daughter that she loves her, and to help her see how it is possible for to fully maintain that love and still be able to sleep at night.

A woman asks how Rupert would view the ‘holy spirit’ in the non-dual understanding. Rupert suggests that the holy spirit is the link between ‘God. the father’ and ‘God, the son’. If we see infinite God and us as being separate, then the holy spirit is the connecting link. He also explains that between God and the individual is the love, the pull of grace, that draws us back into our self – our love for God is God’s love for us.

A woman asks how she can stay more in the feeling of being infinite love while living life as a human with human needs? Rupert encourages her, that rather than the understanding being in conflict with human life – the need for food, to make a living, etc. – it actually removes all the impediments that result in a dysfunctional life. It allows time and energy to devote yourself to whatever in life is of interest or value to you. The only thing you lose is whatever supports the idea that you are limited and separate. But all your skills and interests are now available to you in the service of love and understanding.

A woman asks how she can act on the impulse to share the understanding when she doesn’t know what to do? Rupert suggests she ask herself, ‘What do I love to do?’ That should give a hint. He encourages her not to worry about how many people she might reach but just to act from her love and interest. Instead of “visiting’ the place of awareness, she should consider making it her default setting.

A man asks how the infinite seems to become finite? Rupert replies that the vast space of the universe seems to become finite when a room’s walls are put up. Similarly, a mind seems to become finite as thinking and perceiving arise. Infinite awareness gives itself so completely to thinking and perceiving that this mind naturally thinks ‘I am this finite self’. Everything we know through thinking and perceiving shares the limitations of thinking and perceiving. Only the experience of being aware is not limited.

A woman shares that although her mother recently died, and her daughter has cancer, she has been navigating without fear because she aligned as awareness. But something recently changed, and now fear is back. Rupert encourages her that this natural. ‘You had a period of strong alignment with peace of awareness, but naturally, the honeymoon ended.’ He explains that the experience temporarily took her away from her self, and things seem worse because she had a taste of the peace of being. ‘You are NOT worse than you were before . . . You received a gift of a sample, and now you have to find your way back . . . till you reconnect with that place of peace inside your self.

A woman relates that despite many troubles in her life – a bad husband, etc. – she always felt that God was helping her. But now when she thinks of awareness, her conception of a helping God has changed. Rupert assures her, ‘Your life has brought you to your own understanding, which is the most beautiful gift life has given you.” He confirms for her that God and awareness are the same, that ‘God’ is just the religious name for awareness.

A woman recounts that years ago, she’d had a mystical experience in India she didn’t understand. Yesterday, during a meditation, she had it again. Suddenly, there was beauty, but everything she perceived as human faded away while awareness took over, and she felt she was either dying or going completely crazy What should she do if it happens again? Rupert tells her to just allow it, to say, ‘take me completely’. He encourages her not to worry and that ‘all the faculties of your mind and body will come back later, although that’s not important’.

A woman, who says she’s realised that physical pain cannot touch her peace, wonders if she is still identifying with the body, because, she says, ‘if I could choose each morning to live pain-free, I would make that choice’. Rupert replies that at the level of the body, it is natural to want to be free of pain, but that doesn’t necessarily mean identification with the body. Actually, because of our growing understanding, we increasingly pay better attention to the well-being of the body because the lens of dysfunction disappears.

A man expresses his confusion because, although he’s heard Rupert use terms such ‘being’, ‘consciousness’, ‘awareness’, ‘knowing’, ‘the witness’, and ‘I am’ to all be pointing to the same thing, he’s seen other teachers in spiritual literature use them differently, and now he would like some clarification. Rupert tells him that there isn’t a common agreement among teachers about the way words are used, so we must listen carefully for the teacher’s meaning. Also, people speak about these matters at different levels, often depending on who they are speaking to. ‘Don’t be attached to or impose your own definitions,’ he tells the man, ‘or you will have arguments.’

A man asks if awareness knows itself, or is there something deeper that knows awareness? Rupert replies by asking him what qualities would something have to have in order to know awareness? It would have to be present and aware. But that’s what awareness is, so to suggest there is something prior – how could we ever know there is such a thing?

A man asks if, to know awareness, you just have to abide in it and eventually you will know it. Rupert asks him a series of questions: Why ‘eventually’? What is your current direct experience? Aren’t you having that experience right now? When the man recognises that awareness is just there, Rupert affirms, ‘that’s your experience right now’.

A man asks if one can expect life to improve after experiencing one’s true nature. Rupert answers yes, particularly one’s inner life. For example, imagine someone saying something unjust about you – now you realise that you cannot be hurt by what others say or your circumstances, even if you have feelings about those things. Also, there is a gradual realignment of all aspects of our life, and we feel sufficient, and our activities in the world express the deep impact of this understanding.

A man reports that despite being with this understanding for some time, he still find areas in life that are the same as before. Rupert helps him recognise that some aspects of life have indeed improved, and he encourages him to see that some aspects usually take longer, especially relationships. Sometimes they will evolve, and sometimes they just fall away. We don’t have to be perfect, and yes there may possibly always be blind spots.

A man asks if it up to the teacher to not facilitate the projection of perfection on the teacher. Rupert says, ‘Yes, I think it is important to not present the image that one is perfect.’ I would go even further than that – I can only speak for myself, but I think even projecting oneself as a teacher is unnecessary and unhelpful. I don’t have any special knowledge. I’m more like an artist; I’m just sharing my vision of the world such as it is.’

In this humorous, warm exchange, a man says that he’s been struggling with the idea of perfection and how he should live. He asks what Rupert’s recurring life patterns are and whether he has any blind spots. Rupert responds that yes, he has blind spots, but rather than sharing personal aspects that aren’t necessary to the purposes of the event, it should be enough to know that I’m not perfect.

A woman asks if Rupert has any advice for a sixty-year-old who has not learned to be gentle to herself, even though she is gentle to others; who is not feeling connected to others, not feeling adequate, and has no clear rationale for these feelings, which leads to self-sabotage. Rupert encourages her that all her doubts, fears and judgements arise from ‘the belief and feeling that you are this bundle of qualities, which you then judge as inadequate, etc. You believe, “I am these qualities”.’ He asks her to consider how it would affect her sense of self if she traced her way back to the fact of being that is already free of these qualities she dislikes. ‘How would it be to know yourself as that all the time; to lose your judgement of yourself and other people, and learn to live happily with your imperfections?’

A man asks if emotions like sorrow and grief meant to be felt, or do we need to be detached from them? Rupert replies that this is often misunderstood about the Direct Path approach, where we initially turn away from thoughts, feelings, etc., and go directly back to simply being. That’s just the initial stage. Then, we must go back to the content of experience and infuse our human experience with this understanding, which includes thinking and feeling, as well as acting and relating. We actually open ourself up to all feelings, although we do find that our emotional life changes. We become more open, less defended. More human.

A woman who spoke earlier, clarifies that her feeling all right in light of her daughter’s cancer diagnosis sparked some conflict with her daughter with conflict, who wondered how she could feel that way while she was suffering. Rupert responds that the daughter likely misunderstands and feels at some level that you don’t love her enough. He tells her it’s up to her to reassure her daughter that she loves her, and to help her see how it is possible for to fully maintain that love and still be able to sleep at night.