There Is No Path or Journey to Undertake

There is no path or journey to undertake to find peace, enlightenment or God. There is no distance from the self we seem to be to the self we truly are. No need for practice, effort or discipline. When we are upset, lonely or afraid, where do we have to go, what do we have to do, to find our inherently peaceful being? Is effort needed to be aware of simply being? Awareness of being is not obscured by objective experience. Just the slightest refocusing is required, seeing the screen instead of focusing on the image, being aware of being in the midst of experience. The entire Vedantic tradition can be summed up in three words—sat chit ananda. The awareness of being is peace, is the very nature of our self. It cannot be found because it is never lost. But it can be ignored and therefore remembered; we can come back into our self.

The whole interacts with itself through its parts, suggests Rupert in response to a woman who asks about a line of William Blake’s poetry. Reality is one infinite whole that appears, through the localisation of the separate self, as the multiplicity and diversity of things. However, all things are an appearance of the one reality, therefore, they are all that one reality. There is no separation. Rupert suggests that Blake’s lines reference the Tantric path, which sees God, or the whole, in all appearances.

A man, who is translating Rupert's book 'I Am' to Chinese, asks how to best get a feel for the correct Chinese words. Rupert recommends translating from understanding, rather than words. Take each couplet and meditate on the words until the words dissolve and what is left is the understanding, which is formless and beyond words.

A woman, who is experiencing unbearable physical pain, asks how to deal with this unendurable situation. Rupert responds with three points. Firstly, a desire to be free of physical pain is not an egoic desire. It is not a desire that comes from a separate self; it is inherent in the body. Secondly, the fact that you are experiencing it, means that you are bearing it. In other words, it has been accepted by awareness. Allowing is what awareness is, not what it does, so Rupert suggests that she not practice welcoming the pain as it will conflict with her natural impulse to resist or reject the pain. Thirdly, a radical shift is not necessary. In fact, a very small shift, or going back to your self, is all that is required, whilst acknowledging that the intensity of the pain can pull you from that understanding.

Rupert responds that the ego is an activity, not an entity, in response to the question 'How is the activity of ego impersonal if consciousness is the primary mover of all movement?' Rupert further elaborates that all activity is the activity of consciousness; there is no separate self that can be held accountable for the activity of the ego, which is also always only the activity of impersonal consciousness.

Rupert suggests that desires that express happiness are the very point, in response to a woman who expresses confusion about having desires at all when she understands that happiness cannot be derived from desiring things like objects and relationships. Rupert suggests that the fact that she understands her happiness can only be found in our own being, not in objects or others, is no reason to not have desires, only that their purpose is to express happiness, not acquire it.

There is a query on how to work with uncomfortable sensations in the body that presents as a contraction, and as a 'no.' Rupert suggests to notice the sensations themselves are essentially neutral, but the commentary that goes with the sensation creates a sense of discomfort or difficulty. The words are not in the sensations, but added by thought, which Rupert refers to as 'subtitles'. He guides a woman in self-enquiry in order to experience sensations in the absence of thought, which loses the subtitles, resulting in no discomfort sensed as a contraction.

Rupert suggests avoiding extremes in challenging circumstances, in response to a man living in crisis-laden Lebanon who asks for guidance for his confusion. He has experienced a deep understanding of the path, but at the same time experiences anger and even violence arising in him. Rupert suggests that he has inherited these feelings from his culture; he is not personally responsible for them. Using the analogy of the flu, we catch the flu from the outside, but we experience it from the inside. The collective mindset of his culture has infected his mind. Rupert suggests that he find an intermediary response – something between meditating and acting out his anger – to avoid these extremes. Perhaps he should try to harness the energy and noise in his environment and turn them into physical activity and exercise.

A man asks if we should be involved in politics, in response to a statement attributed to Ramana Maharshi that our only purpose is to discover who we are. Rupert suggests that that would be our first purpose, and the second purpose would be to express the qualities inherent in this understanding in the world.

There is no path or journey to undertake to find peace, enlightenment or God. There is no distance from the self we seem to be to the self we truly are. No need for practice, effort or discipline. When we are upset, lonely or afraid, where do we have to go, what do we have to do, to find our inherently peaceful being? Is effort needed to be aware of simply being? Awareness of being is not obscured by objective experience. Just the slightest refocusing is required, seeing the screen instead of focusing on the image, being aware of being in the midst of experience. The entire Vedantic tradition can be summed up in three words—sat chit ananda. The awareness of being is peace, is the very nature of our self. It cannot be found because it is never lost. But it can be ignored and therefore remembered; we can come back into our self.

The whole interacts with itself through its parts, suggests Rupert in response to a woman who asks about a line of William Blake’s poetry. Reality is one infinite whole that appears, through the localisation of the separate self, as the multiplicity and diversity of things. However, all things are an appearance of the one reality, therefore, they are all that one reality. There is no separation. Rupert suggests that Blake’s lines reference the Tantric path, which sees God, or the whole, in all appearances.

A man, who is translating Rupert's book 'I Am' to Chinese, asks how to best get a feel for the correct Chinese words. Rupert recommends translating from understanding, rather than words. Take each couplet and meditate on the words until the words dissolve and what is left is the understanding, which is formless and beyond words.

A woman, who is experiencing unbearable physical pain, asks how to deal with this unendurable situation. Rupert responds with three points. Firstly, a desire to be free of physical pain is not an egoic desire. It is not a desire that comes from a separate self; it is inherent in the body. Secondly, the fact that you are experiencing it, means that you are bearing it. In other words, it has been accepted by awareness. Allowing is what awareness is, not what it does, so Rupert suggests that she not practice welcoming the pain as it will conflict with her natural impulse to resist or reject the pain. Thirdly, a radical shift is not necessary. In fact, a very small shift, or going back to your self, is all that is required, whilst acknowledging that the intensity of the pain can pull you from that understanding.

Rupert responds that the ego is an activity, not an entity, in response to the question 'How is the activity of ego impersonal if consciousness is the primary mover of all movement?' Rupert further elaborates that all activity is the activity of consciousness; there is no separate self that can be held accountable for the activity of the ego, which is also always only the activity of impersonal consciousness.

Rupert suggests that desires that express happiness are the very point, in response to a woman who expresses confusion about having desires at all when she understands that happiness cannot be derived from desiring things like objects and relationships. Rupert suggests that the fact that she understands her happiness can only be found in our own being, not in objects or others, is no reason to not have desires, only that their purpose is to express happiness, not acquire it.

There is a query on how to work with uncomfortable sensations in the body that presents as a contraction, and as a 'no.' Rupert suggests to notice the sensations themselves are essentially neutral, but the commentary that goes with the sensation creates a sense of discomfort or difficulty. The words are not in the sensations, but added by thought, which Rupert refers to as 'subtitles'. He guides a woman in self-enquiry in order to experience sensations in the absence of thought, which loses the subtitles, resulting in no discomfort sensed as a contraction.

Rupert suggests avoiding extremes in challenging circumstances, in response to a man living in crisis-laden Lebanon who asks for guidance for his confusion. He has experienced a deep understanding of the path, but at the same time experiences anger and even violence arising in him. Rupert suggests that he has inherited these feelings from his culture; he is not personally responsible for them. Using the analogy of the flu, we catch the flu from the outside, but we experience it from the inside. The collective mindset of his culture has infected his mind. Rupert suggests that he find an intermediary response – something between meditating and acting out his anger – to avoid these extremes. Perhaps he should try to harness the energy and noise in his environment and turn them into physical activity and exercise.

A man asks if we should be involved in politics, in response to a statement attributed to Ramana Maharshi that our only purpose is to discover who we are. Rupert suggests that that would be our first purpose, and the second purpose would be to express the qualities inherent in this understanding in the world.