Where Do We Find the Experience of Being?

"When you ask if I can say “I am”, I know it absolutely. But where exactly am I going to find this experience of being? Rupert says: ‘When I ask, “Can you say from your experience ‘I am’?”, you pause. Where do you go in that pause? You don’t go to sensations, thoughts or memories. You go to the self-evident experience of being. That’s self-knowledge – knowledge of yourself. Your being has always been with you. Imagine you’re a five-year-old boy and I ask the same question. You’d refer to the same experience – your being. That’s the continuous element, the golden thread that runs through all experience. Every other experience has vanished and therefore doesn’t qualify as yourself. Self-knowledge is knowledge of being, awareness of being. You’re always having the experience of being, but normally it’s so mixed up with content that you don’t see it clearly. When I ask the question, you go to the pure experience of being.’"

From event 05 - 12 October, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at Garrison Institute, 5–12 October 2025

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