The Great Ocean of Peace Behind Thoughts and Feelings

Underneath thoughts and feelings, there is a great ocean of stillness, or peace. Thoughts may be agitated. There may be feelings of sorrow or upset. Sensations may be painful. The world may be troubled. Underneath all of this, in the depths of our being, there is silence, stillness. Allow yourself to effortlessly sink into that stillness. It is always available behind the activities of thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving. We may turn away, and feel that it is missing, just as a young child may turn away from its mother and feel that she is absent. But this peace in the depths of our being is like a constant mother – always available, always present, always the same. Soften the focus from the content of experience and sink into it. Allow your thoughts and feelings to do whatever they have been conditioned to do. Sink into the feeling of being. Rest in being, as being.

A man suggests a modfication of the King Lear and John Smith metaphor based on his understanding. Rupert suggests a clarification. There is, in fact, no distinction between John Smith and King Lear. He then explains what he means by the terms infinite consciousness, finite mind, and ego. In the metaphor, infinite consciousness is John Smith. When he goes to the theatre and assumes the part of King Lear, he takes on that character’s thoughts, feelings and costume, which is the finite mind. This limitation of infinite consciousness allows John Smith to play his part in the drama. The ego is the belief that he is King Lear, not John Smith.

A woman describes an emergency experience that afterwards brought up the ego's need for attention for her role in the response. Rupert responds that he had just been speaking of this in reference to a passage in his new book whereby an emergency requires us to act without thought, such as the experience she describes. However, afterwards the ego tends to come in and claim responsibility for that action.

Give yourself completely to God’s presence, suggests Rupert. A man shares that the path was clear when he took a year to meditate and practice, but after going back into the world, he experiences friction. Rupert suggests that we don’t need to hold onto the ‘I am’ because we only need to hold on to what escapes us. Let the feeling of being percolate through all your activities. Sooner or later, we need to go into the world where our establishment in our true nature is tested.

A discussion on differentiating the energetic vibrations of God, mind and world. Rupert replies that infinite consciousness, or God, localises itself and its activity appears as the world, as the light of the world. The world is what the mind of God looks like from a localised perspective. The world is God's body. The primary movement is the word, or logos.

A woman who is experiencing great suffering asks for help through a friend who reads her question. Rupert suggests that the friend tell her that God is closer to her than her own breathing, closer to her than her most intimate thoughts and feelings. God is not an experience; God is her being. We don’t reach out towards God, but sink back to our self, behind and underneath loneliness. Loneliness is the ripple on the ocean. God’s presence is the ocean.

A question is asked about psychic phenomena and mind, such as visions and lucid dreaming. Rupert replies that yes, these are all mind which is the activity of consciousness, or mind, is empty awareness. Thoughts are more like waves in the ocean, a movement of the ocean, or consciousness.

A man asks Rupert about his perspective on out-of-body experiences. Rupert suggests they are explainable in the consciousness-only model, not in the materialistic view. We understand that consciousness is primary, and the body and world are the activity of that. He suggests that he wouldn’t presume that these experiences are what happens at death. These are likely more dissociation. Death is the relaxing and releasing of the mind as it goes back to infinite consciousness.

A woman describes the realisation that she can't find happiness from others as separate bodies. Rupert suggests she is less invested in her persona, as evidenced by the falling away of the need for approval from others, and instead is deriving a sense of self from self as awareness.

A man who experiences the peace of his being asks about how to bring this into the world, where it gets hard. Rupert suggests that we bring our awareness of being with us wherever we go. Saying that it’s hard to do is like saying that during some movies, it’s hard to see the screen. Yes, some experiences are intense, but when we bring our being to bear – that is, the qualities that are innate in our being – to whatever situation we find ourself in we inform experience with our being.

Rupert describes the stages of recognition in, and of, awareness in response to a woman's question about her current practice of being mindful of presence of awareness for short moment whilst struggling with unhappiness. He describes that as a first step, that awareness illuminates that which is aware of thoughts and feelings. The second step is the awareness that I am this awareness. The third step is recognising what the nature of this awareness is, which is peace. Ultimately, we turn back out towards the world as that peace.

A man asks whether spontaneous action is the optimal way to live. Rupert suggests that action without reference to the past could be spontaneous or it could take time. Another way of looking at this is that there is nothing the matter with thinking. In an emergency, there is no thought. In other situations, it is thinking, but without thinking on behalf of the separate self.

A question is asked about the dark night of the soul and the appearance of energetic beings and how to deal with them. Rupert responds that he has had the experience of losing touch with the light, or luminosity, of awareness. He explains that the dark night of the soul is a loss of all external support, including God, and the feeling is utter aloneness which can be accompanied by tremendous fear and can be challenging. There can also be and experience of collective archetypal energies and appearances. Rupert suggests that identification be with the sky rather than the clouds that darken it.

A man asks if the experience of beauty comes from our true nature. Rupert responds yes – beauty is the taste of reality. It’s possible that an object or nature can precipitate a collapse of the subject—object relationship. We experience our true nature as beauty through perception and as peace through feelings. These are two ways of describing the same reality: perception and introspection.

Underneath thoughts and feelings, there is a great ocean of stillness, or peace. Thoughts may be agitated. There may be feelings of sorrow or upset. Sensations may be painful. The world may be troubled. Underneath all of this, in the depths of our being, there is silence, stillness. Allow yourself to effortlessly sink into that stillness. It is always available behind the activities of thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving. We may turn away, and feel that it is missing, just as a young child may turn away from its mother and feel that she is absent. But this peace in the depths of our being is like a constant mother – always available, always present, always the same. Soften the focus from the content of experience and sink into it. Allow your thoughts and feelings to do whatever they have been conditioned to do. Sink into the feeling of being. Rest in being, as being.

A man suggests a modfication of the King Lear and John Smith metaphor based on his understanding. Rupert suggests a clarification. There is, in fact, no distinction between John Smith and King Lear. He then explains what he means by the terms infinite consciousness, finite mind, and ego. In the metaphor, infinite consciousness is John Smith. When he goes to the theatre and assumes the part of King Lear, he takes on that character’s thoughts, feelings and costume, which is the finite mind. This limitation of infinite consciousness allows John Smith to play his part in the drama. The ego is the belief that he is King Lear, not John Smith.

A woman describes an emergency experience that afterwards brought up the ego's need for attention for her role in the response. Rupert responds that he had just been speaking of this in reference to a passage in his new book whereby an emergency requires us to act without thought, such as the experience she describes. However, afterwards the ego tends to come in and claim responsibility for that action.

Give yourself completely to God’s presence, suggests Rupert. A man shares that the path was clear when he took a year to meditate and practice, but after going back into the world, he experiences friction. Rupert suggests that we don’t need to hold onto the ‘I am’ because we only need to hold on to what escapes us. Let the feeling of being percolate through all your activities. Sooner or later, we need to go into the world where our establishment in our true nature is tested.

A discussion on differentiating the energetic vibrations of God, mind and world. Rupert replies that infinite consciousness, or God, localises itself and its activity appears as the world, as the light of the world. The world is what the mind of God looks like from a localised perspective. The world is God's body. The primary movement is the word, or logos.

A woman who is experiencing great suffering asks for help through a friend who reads her question. Rupert suggests that the friend tell her that God is closer to her than her own breathing, closer to her than her most intimate thoughts and feelings. God is not an experience; God is her being. We don’t reach out towards God, but sink back to our self, behind and underneath loneliness. Loneliness is the ripple on the ocean. God’s presence is the ocean.

A question is asked about psychic phenomena and mind, such as visions and lucid dreaming. Rupert replies that yes, these are all mind which is the activity of consciousness, or mind, is empty awareness. Thoughts are more like waves in the ocean, a movement of the ocean, or consciousness.

A man asks Rupert about his perspective on out-of-body experiences. Rupert suggests they are explainable in the consciousness-only model, not in the materialistic view. We understand that consciousness is primary, and the body and world are the activity of that. He suggests that he wouldn’t presume that these experiences are what happens at death. These are likely more dissociation. Death is the relaxing and releasing of the mind as it goes back to infinite consciousness.

A woman describes the realisation that she can't find happiness from others as separate bodies. Rupert suggests she is less invested in her persona, as evidenced by the falling away of the need for approval from others, and instead is deriving a sense of self from self as awareness.

A man who experiences the peace of his being asks about how to bring this into the world, where it gets hard. Rupert suggests that we bring our awareness of being with us wherever we go. Saying that it’s hard to do is like saying that during some movies, it’s hard to see the screen. Yes, some experiences are intense, but when we bring our being to bear – that is, the qualities that are innate in our being – to whatever situation we find ourself in we inform experience with our being.

Rupert describes the stages of recognition in, and of, awareness in response to a woman's question about her current practice of being mindful of presence of awareness for short moment whilst struggling with unhappiness. He describes that as a first step, that awareness illuminates that which is aware of thoughts and feelings. The second step is the awareness that I am this awareness. The third step is recognising what the nature of this awareness is, which is peace. Ultimately, we turn back out towards the world as that peace.

A man asks whether spontaneous action is the optimal way to live. Rupert suggests that action without reference to the past could be spontaneous or it could take time. Another way of looking at this is that there is nothing the matter with thinking. In an emergency, there is no thought. In other situations, it is thinking, but without thinking on behalf of the separate self.

A question is asked about the dark night of the soul and the appearance of energetic beings and how to deal with them. Rupert responds that he has had the experience of losing touch with the light, or luminosity, of awareness. He explains that the dark night of the soul is a loss of all external support, including God, and the feeling is utter aloneness which can be accompanied by tremendous fear and can be challenging. There can also be and experience of collective archetypal energies and appearances. Rupert suggests that identification be with the sky rather than the clouds that darken it.

A man asks if the experience of beauty comes from our true nature. Rupert responds yes – beauty is the taste of reality. It’s possible that an object or nature can precipitate a collapse of the subject—object relationship. We experience our true nature as beauty through perception and as peace through feelings. These are two ways of describing the same reality: perception and introspection.