What You Seek Is What You Are
- Duration: Video: 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 4 seconds / Audio: 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 4 seconds
- Recorded on: Oct 7, 2024
- Event: Seven-Day Retreat at Garrison Institute – 6 to 13 October 2024
A man shares that striving to be happy led him to spiritual practice, bringing him happiness and peak experiences, but he still feels that his job is not done. Rupert acknowledges that all his previous practices were valuable, as they brought him to the understanding that what he truly seeks is what he already is at the deepest level. Being is inherently peaceful, needs nothing, and lacks nothing. All paths lead to the recognition of the nature of being – the Pathless Path – and in this approach, we start with this great recognition.
A man asks about love, sharing that he has always personalised it as love for family, country, and so on, but senses there is a larger, impersonal meaning to love. Rupert says love is the absence of separation and the nature of reality. Behind the diversity of appearances, there is a single, indivisible reality – like a movie being an appearance of one screen. Love is completely impersonal, but intimate. It has nothing to do with liking or disliking someone, which is just a conditioning of the mind. Love is simply the felt sense that we share our being with everyone and everything.
A woman shares that she immerses herself in Rupert’s teachings and guided meditations but struggles to stay with being, especially when confronted by terrible events in the world, like children being killed and tortured. Rupert suggests placing reminders on the bathroom mirror, fridge, or iPhone to help her stay with being until it becomes second nature. He explains that such dreadful events will continue to break our hearts, but they only seem to veil the screen of being if we give them permission to do so.
A man questions Rupert’s use of the term ‘true art’, as it seems to imply other art forms are false. He shares that, for him, art is less about the object and more about the experience, and suggests that any work of art could potentially take the body-mind home to eternity. Rupert acknowledges this concern, stating he no longer uses ‘true art’. Instead, he speaks of the highest form of art, which has the power to reveal reality and give us the taste of nature’s eternity. This power may come from the artist’s experience or intuition of reality, even if the artist is not explicitly aware of it.
A woman shares that earlier that day, during meditation, she had a moment of crystal-clear clarity when Rupert quoted Meister Eckhart’s words, ‘God is at home, but we are abroad.’ She asks how to deepen this experience as it is not stable. Rupert suggests that, just as space remains the same when we move from one room to another, our being remains the same when moving from one experience to another. This experience was given as a free gift, but now she must cooperate with it, infuse her senses with the understanding that there is one infinite, indivisible reality underlying all experiences, and pierce through them with her feeling-understanding.
A woman asks if there could be other minds besides the human mind. Rupert explains that we know there are dog minds and cat minds, but awareness could create minds not amenable to human perception. While our minds perceive reality as time and space because they are configured in thinking and perceiving, other minds might be configured differently, such as in x-ing and y-ing. They would experience the same reality in a way consistent with their own minds, appearing as Xs and Ys rather than time and space.
A man asks why Ramana Maharshi moved from silence to teaching if he realised there is no suffering and no other. Rupert replies that he doesn’t know but speculates that the people around Ramana saw him living in his cave in terrible physical condition, yet without suffering. Seeing their suffering was real for them, his heart was touched, and, out of love and compassion, he shared his understanding to bring peace to those who came to him.
A woman shares her concern about whether her efforts to help her daughter, who is struggling with addiction, are truly helpful or just enabling. Rupert says that it is a very individual situation and difficult to give a general answer. He suggests that supporting her daughter financially might be helpful in some cases, but in others, it might enable the addiction. Rupert concludes that only someone who knows her daughter very well and has expertise in such situations could offer meaningful advice.
A man asks about the difference among mind, imagination, and intuition. Rupert describes the mind as a current in the ocean of consciousness, consisting of thinking and perceiving. Intuition is like a ripple from the ocean penetrating the mind’s current, bringing new knowledge. Imagination is when the mind expands beyond its usual boundaries, incorporating content that was previously outside of it.
A man shares his love for the mind and asks if recognising that the mind is an appearance within consciousness is enough or if one must turn away from its contents. Rupert acknowledges that at a certain stage, all experience is filtered through the limitations of thought and perception. To know reality as it is, he suggests turning away from thought and perception to find an experience that is not mediated through them.
A man shares that striving to be happy led him to spiritual practice, bringing him happiness and peak experiences, but he still feels that his job is not done. Rupert acknowledges that all his previous practices were valuable, as they brought him to the understanding that what he truly seeks is what he already is at the deepest level. Being is inherently peaceful, needs nothing, and lacks nothing. All paths lead to the recognition of the nature of being – the Pathless Path – and in this approach, we start with this great recognition.
A man asks about love, sharing that he has always personalised it as love for family, country, and so on, but senses there is a larger, impersonal meaning to love. Rupert says love is the absence of separation and the nature of reality. Behind the diversity of appearances, there is a single, indivisible reality – like a movie being an appearance of one screen. Love is completely impersonal, but intimate. It has nothing to do with liking or disliking someone, which is just a conditioning of the mind. Love is simply the felt sense that we share our being with everyone and everything.
A woman shares that she immerses herself in Rupert’s teachings and guided meditations but struggles to stay with being, especially when confronted by terrible events in the world, like children being killed and tortured. Rupert suggests placing reminders on the bathroom mirror, fridge, or iPhone to help her stay with being until it becomes second nature. He explains that such dreadful events will continue to break our hearts, but they only seem to veil the screen of being if we give them permission to do so.
A man questions Rupert’s use of the term ‘true art’, as it seems to imply other art forms are false. He shares that, for him, art is less about the object and more about the experience, and suggests that any work of art could potentially take the body-mind home to eternity. Rupert acknowledges this concern, stating he no longer uses ‘true art’. Instead, he speaks of the highest form of art, which has the power to reveal reality and give us the taste of nature’s eternity. This power may come from the artist’s experience or intuition of reality, even if the artist is not explicitly aware of it.
A woman shares that earlier that day, during meditation, she had a moment of crystal-clear clarity when Rupert quoted Meister Eckhart’s words, ‘God is at home, but we are abroad.’ She asks how to deepen this experience as it is not stable. Rupert suggests that, just as space remains the same when we move from one room to another, our being remains the same when moving from one experience to another. This experience was given as a free gift, but now she must cooperate with it, infuse her senses with the understanding that there is one infinite, indivisible reality underlying all experiences, and pierce through them with her feeling-understanding.
A woman asks if there could be other minds besides the human mind. Rupert explains that we know there are dog minds and cat minds, but awareness could create minds not amenable to human perception. While our minds perceive reality as time and space because they are configured in thinking and perceiving, other minds might be configured differently, such as in x-ing and y-ing. They would experience the same reality in a way consistent with their own minds, appearing as Xs and Ys rather than time and space.
A man asks why Ramana Maharshi moved from silence to teaching if he realised there is no suffering and no other. Rupert replies that he doesn’t know but speculates that the people around Ramana saw him living in his cave in terrible physical condition, yet without suffering. Seeing their suffering was real for them, his heart was touched, and, out of love and compassion, he shared his understanding to bring peace to those who came to him.
A woman shares her concern about whether her efforts to help her daughter, who is struggling with addiction, are truly helpful or just enabling. Rupert says that it is a very individual situation and difficult to give a general answer. He suggests that supporting her daughter financially might be helpful in some cases, but in others, it might enable the addiction. Rupert concludes that only someone who knows her daughter very well and has expertise in such situations could offer meaningful advice.
A man asks about the difference among mind, imagination, and intuition. Rupert describes the mind as a current in the ocean of consciousness, consisting of thinking and perceiving. Intuition is like a ripple from the ocean penetrating the mind’s current, bringing new knowledge. Imagination is when the mind expands beyond its usual boundaries, incorporating content that was previously outside of it.
A man shares his love for the mind and asks if recognising that the mind is an appearance within consciousness is enough or if one must turn away from its contents. Rupert acknowledges that at a certain stage, all experience is filtered through the limitations of thought and perception. To know reality as it is, he suggests turning away from thought and perception to find an experience that is not mediated through them.