Being and Loving Retreat Centre from the media Love Everyone for No Reason

Three thousand years of non-dual understanding can be summed up in a single sentence – namely, peace and happiness are the nature of our being, and we share our being with everyone and everything. The first part of the statement – peace and happiness are the nature of our being – refers to our inner life; and the second part – we share our being with everyone and everything – refers to our outer life. But this statement can be further distilled into a simple phrase: being and loving. Being and loving is both the nature of reality and the pathway to reality. That is the entire teaching: being and loving.

Rupert thanks his team, the sound team and Francesca.

A woman says 'I am' the calm and peace, but the love is harder to see as people are dangerous. She asks if this is conditioning. Rupert suggests if you wait for a good reason, you'll be waiting forever. Just love everyone for no reason. There is no good reason. Reason gives so many reasons for not loving.

A man asks about what presence is with regard to sensations. Rupert suggests you can take sensations as a halfway stage. Paying attention to our senses is like a sensory mantra. This is going halfway back to our true nature, but don’t spend too much time in sensation. Take the next step back to being.

A woman talks about being as being both manifest and unmanifest and that love is the action of being.

A woman describes her experience of being surrounded by peace and stillness on retreat, and the further realisation that it was not out there but she was that. Rupert agrees: you're not sitting in it, you are that. It is both concealed and then revealed but never absent. You don't have to work, it will work on you.

A woman talks about the feeling of shame and being with it. Rupert suggests that just sitting with it is too neutral. Be more active. A mother doesn’t just sit with her child when they are in pain. She takes the child into her arms and embraces it. It is the warmth of the embrace that the suffering will slowly subside.

A man who shared vulnerable and open at retreats, talks about the support he received from the community, for which he was both surprised and grateful. He noticed there was a part of him that did not want to leave the suffering because it was so real. Rupert reiterates that this is the way it works in these retreats; spending time together in friendship, somehow suffering diminishes. How it happens is not important, that it happens is all that matters.

A man says he doesn’t know how to meditate. Rupert says if someone came up to you on the street and asked you, How do you be?, what would you say? Being does not require effort or maintenance.

A woman expresses her gratitude for Rupert and the teaching. Rupert responds with gratitude in kind.

A man who had asked a question earlier in the week about his inner chaos expresses gratitude for the answer and everyone at the retreat.

A woman speaks of her experience of the reservoir of peace and asks for poetry recommendations. Rupert replies that he spent many years learning and reciting poetry, which he resented at the time, but it instilled a love of poetry and reciting, which he considers a spiritual practice. He mentions Mary Oliver, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake and Rilke.

A man shares that he’s been depressed all his life and finds he is thankful for his suffering and for the chance to bring it to love. Rupert suggests that it was its purpose, to bring you to your being. It is a call to come back home. If part of that process is to write about it, then do so, but it's not what you write about, it’s where you write from.

Rupert describes some of his feelings and perspectives of the teaching over the last week. He says he is touched by the willingness of all to go and stay on the top of the mountain.

Three thousand years of non-dual understanding can be summed up in a single sentence – namely, peace and happiness are the nature of our being, and we share our being with everyone and everything. The first part of the statement – peace and happiness are the nature of our being – refers to our inner life; and the second part – we share our being with everyone and everything – refers to our outer life. But this statement can be further distilled into a simple phrase: being and loving. Being and loving is both the nature of reality and the pathway to reality. That is the entire teaching: being and loving.

Rupert thanks his team, the sound team and Francesca.

A woman says 'I am' the calm and peace, but the love is harder to see as people are dangerous. She asks if this is conditioning. Rupert suggests if you wait for a good reason, you'll be waiting forever. Just love everyone for no reason. There is no good reason. Reason gives so many reasons for not loving.

A man asks about what presence is with regard to sensations. Rupert suggests you can take sensations as a halfway stage. Paying attention to our senses is like a sensory mantra. This is going halfway back to our true nature, but don’t spend too much time in sensation. Take the next step back to being.

A woman talks about being as being both manifest and unmanifest and that love is the action of being.

A woman describes her experience of being surrounded by peace and stillness on retreat, and the further realisation that it was not out there but she was that. Rupert agrees: you're not sitting in it, you are that. It is both concealed and then revealed but never absent. You don't have to work, it will work on you.

A woman talks about the feeling of shame and being with it. Rupert suggests that just sitting with it is too neutral. Be more active. A mother doesn’t just sit with her child when they are in pain. She takes the child into her arms and embraces it. It is the warmth of the embrace that the suffering will slowly subside.

A man who shared vulnerable and open at retreats, talks about the support he received from the community, for which he was both surprised and grateful. He noticed there was a part of him that did not want to leave the suffering because it was so real. Rupert reiterates that this is the way it works in these retreats; spending time together in friendship, somehow suffering diminishes. How it happens is not important, that it happens is all that matters.

A man says he doesn’t know how to meditate. Rupert says if someone came up to you on the street and asked you, How do you be?, what would you say? Being does not require effort or maintenance.

A woman expresses her gratitude for Rupert and the teaching. Rupert responds with gratitude in kind.

A man who had asked a question earlier in the week about his inner chaos expresses gratitude for the answer and everyone at the retreat.

A woman speaks of her experience of the reservoir of peace and asks for poetry recommendations. Rupert replies that he spent many years learning and reciting poetry, which he resented at the time, but it instilled a love of poetry and reciting, which he considers a spiritual practice. He mentions Mary Oliver, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake and Rilke.

A man shares that he’s been depressed all his life and finds he is thankful for his suffering and for the chance to bring it to love. Rupert suggests that it was its purpose, to bring you to your being. It is a call to come back home. If part of that process is to write about it, then do so, but it's not what you write about, it’s where you write from.

Rupert describes some of his feelings and perspectives of the teaching over the last week. He says he is touched by the willingness of all to go and stay on the top of the mountain.