"It is the person you imagine yourself to be that suffers, not you. Dissolve it in awareness. It is merely a bundle of memories and habits." (Nisargadatta Maharaj)
This might very well be one of the most, if not the most, significant and clarifying videos on non duality available. The “unexplainable” is explained. What a gift to mankind. So many other words from great teachers seem to fall into place now. I couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you, Rupert.
... fretting eases, & even ceases, careing grows, sudden appearence rapid instant signifficance apparence regularity, on & on once more a-gain it's into the breach stop gap pre repair maintainence happenin everywhere & a one true world self police-sing governance ISNESS esCity 4real kNOW time poss-abiliTeasAre righthear ...
Wow. This is amazing. What I love about this guy is that he doesn't get all hippy and trippy. He just explain it very rationally, what he says is simple, and it ... Makes. Perfect. Sense!
I have listened to this video so many times that I've lost count, but every time I feel as if it is the first time. This explanation is simply perfect. It's utterly beautiful. When you hear words of truth, illusion falls away, and suddenly you find yourself feeling happy, peaceful, centered, back home again.
Multorum Unum Then you are not serious about understanding. Which is fine. But if you truly have a desire for Truth, his videos will not be long enough for you.
yes !! simply be the awareness in the background of all sensations, feelings, experience ... these all pass by in time but YOU NEVER DO... there in lies peace.... perfect peace...!!
@@larryritter5741 I can be the awareness of thoughts, feelings and perceptions. But it is still MY thoughts, MY emotions and MY perceptions I am aware of. (Awareness is limited to my body and mind.) When and how does this awareness appear to be infinite and eternal?
I know you posted this a long time ago but well said my friend. This is an amazing 13 minutes. If the aliens or whatever, LOL, come visit her, you know what I'm saying, I would like this video to represent the "beauty, truth, and potential" of us.. . . as well as Jeffrey Mishlove interview series with Ram Dass which is an incredible hour and a half of two humans being concious, sharing, listening, teaching. 🙏
WOW! This goes a long way to clarifying the process of self-enquiry...which can seem so mysterious when reading Ramana and Nisargadatta. This is practical, down to earth, and accessible.
🙂 The "I" that is You Never was, is or will be depressed. The "I" that you Are does and will witness these subtle objects (thoughts, emotions, etc.), come and go. You can even place attention on You (the "I") when "stuck" with a persistent thought. It will minimize and dissipate. It's fun to try.
OMG we are so lucky to live in a time where we can get access to people like this!! We can’t take this for granted…in the past someone might have travelled for days to find someone in a cave, just to find out you don’t speak the same language - This just popped up on my RU-vid feed lying in bed - BRILLIANT!
Rupert always looks like the feeling you get on vacation when you spent the day in the sun, take a nice shower, soak your body in after sun body lotion and put on wide, comfy, fresh clothes to meet up with your friends again. The personification of relaxation, calm and peace. I want to travel to one of his events this year.
I too think this video is the ultimate meditation on self enquiry, awakening to self, and ending the tyranny of the separate self in one amazing 14 minute journey. Thank you
This is not Self-Enquiry in the Ramana Maharshi method. In his explanation, the "I" that has the thoughts and feelings is NOT the real Self, but the ego. One realizes that the "I", also known as the "I-thought" is the base-ego, from which all thoughts come. The goal is to ask "where does that I come from", merge with that whence it came, and the "I" disappears. This is a mistake many neo-Advaita teachers make, that the "I" is the goal. It is not. In fact, to mistake the I for the Self is a brutal trap.
You are totally right! I am very much in touch with Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi's teaching and works He Himself wrote and unfortunately His teaching is very much distorted. I'm a Tamil (like Bhagavan) born in France and when I read the translations of His works, a lot gets lost. And with these so-called teachers a lot are just misusing His teaching. It's a shame that a lot of viewers will not get the real thing. But maybe they don't want to find it. Otherwise they would read the method coming from Bhagavan Himself.
Both the I-thought and the I-I or The self are the same things, except that the I-thought is Consciousness + thought. Everything comes from The Self or Consciousness, however, the I-thought is consciousness with a mask. The mask is a thought, that is the I-thought, all this I-thought is is a thought that consciousness has that it is the body, it starts up the activity of thinking, and this thinking creates thoughts that mask the actual Self. It is consciousness in activity and this what is referred to as the mind, there is no separate ego or mind except for consciousness in activity. The I-thought comes form The self, because it is a thought from the Self, it comes from the Self associating to the body or "Thinking" it's the body.
I is itself a thought ,what happens to your I when u sleep ? Even I comes and goes as you are not aware of I while sleeping .Hence I am ,I exist is the only thing you can say about yourself .when you ask who am I ? There's absolute silence and stillness. That's what you are ,that which cannot be defined .
You are aware of the absence, the mind can find a gap of no thought cause all it knows is thought-mind. In deep sleep there are no thoughts, there is a gap but only for the mind. Awareness know itself without an object, without thought.
Summarising all of rupert’s teachings: When you ask yourself the question “am i aware”...you refer to an objective-quality less experience of being aware and a thought rises “yes”. If you stay with that experience after the thought (being aware of being aware),awareness gradually ,in time ,loses its limitations and the true nature of awareness will shine as it is .This process is called self abidance.
Eckard Tolle is worth 15 million $ and is to busy going to the bank he intellectually understands but not in his heart. Try Ramana Maharshi that's who these people are referring to. Self Enquiry. Who am i. On you tube
I will offer a clear distinction for your consideration ... Life is not conscious, but is Consciousness Itself. The world is not conscious. Consciousness appears as a world. And .... I personally would not compare the two - Rupert and Ekhart, that is.
When you realise that the "I" is not who you are then every pain, every disappointment, every failure that happens to "I" does not affect you. When you start living this truth, you have achieved enlightenment.
This is Byron Katie,Eckhart Tolle,Mooji,Sadhguru all together! Everyone of them teach us the same thing : " Reality is always kinder than you think." "It is never the situation that makes you unhappy,but your thoughts and feelings about it."
The cause of unhappiness is the egoic or passionate energies (psychological impurities: desire, anger, fear, depression, imatience etc.) which are crystallized in our psych. When they are activated due to any input they vibrate in a dense, disarmonious and painfull way which we experience it as suffering. These egoic energies plus the excessive tamas and rajas gunas that we have in our psych are responsible for our suffering. These energies impede our buddhi to be calm, pure, steady sharp, discriminative and reflect without distortion the happiness of our true SELF. Without purity of heart and mind suffering is inevitable. Self enquiry is not applied only to help us realize that we are not the thoughts, the feelings and the body but it must be practiced 24 hours seven in order the conscious mind to identify with its source and merge in it (consciousness) in order the ego with all its tendecies to dissollve once and forever.
Thank you for your words. People can only understand what they are capable of understanding, I understand completely what you said. I am working on myself daily it is the only way to be free. Bless you and all of us 🕊
@@k14michael I am dreaming that I have an ego,.but what about you? Are yoy free from lust, greed, fear, anger,.pride, impatience etc???. If not, Which is 100/% certain, then, how can you say ego doesn't exist. Do you think that these tendencies and ego are two different things? If yes then, you ignore as most spiritual instructors and teachers what really ego is. Do you know that Advaita Vedants says that the mind (Antahkarana) has four aspects, that is, Manas, Chitta, Buddhi and Ahanmkara (i.e. mind, subconscious mind, Intellect and ego)? Moreover why great spiritual beings like Sivananda, Ramana Maharishi, AMMA, Babaji, Sankara and Bhagavad Gita speak about the death or dissolution of the ego, if ego does not exit? Do you think your are more wise than them? Ignorance reins supreme this world of earthlings that are lost in their ego. And since they are so identified with their ego are unable to see it. However they speak as if they were wise.
@@atmannityananda-academia How can you fight shadows and expect to win? It’s endless. Can you really be the light by dissolving the darkness? It’s impossible. Can you calm the waves on the ocean by using an iron? You will only make more waves. “The more you prune a plant the more it grows. So too the more you seek to annihilate the ego, the more it will increase. You should seek the root of the ego and destroy it.” Ramana Maharshi What is the root of the ego? There are no roots since it never existed in the first place. Thus that understanding IS the root! Your dream of happiness of SELF is only a temporary dream as long you continue to believe that that happiness can only happen when you have completely 100% free from ego. That believe in itself is the clever manifestation of the illusory ego. It’s not much different from thinking that I will be happy when I have a Maserati. Instead of materialism now you have spiritual materialism 😅
Aren’t the thoughts you’re having about not identifying with thoughts just thoughts themselves? How can you even believe the thoughts you’re thinking that tell you that you’re not your thoughts?
When I practice self-inquiry, I end up with the experience of infinite stillness that can’t move because it’s everywhere already. It’s me. Then I experience an rushing of this infinity put into motion. Things in motion are constantly moving, changing, and flowing, but the infinite stillness is never disturbed or affected. It’s like time and space don’t seem relevant anymore. I laugh my ass off and go off the charts emotionally. Now there’s a little glimmer in everything I experience like it’s almost funny. Like I know that behind it all, it’s all one and all this motion is just a dance or a play/playing. Then I wonder what key where playing in compared to other keys we can’t even sense. It’s impossible to wrap your mind around what is really meant when you say infinity. It’s not just beyond the edge of your senses. You’re just infinity being aware of itself. Self-inquiry is the only way I’ve found to actually realize it. To actually realize what I mean when I refer to me. You go from turning your awareness towards yourself and end up getting turned inside out. “Who am I” is the one question that takes care of all the other ones. It’s makes them irrelevant.
as I watch this video what arises in me is how fucking unhappy I am! I truly loathe my life. I hate it. I've lived pretty much my entire life with debilitating crippling paralyzing: suicidal depression. the only moments of happiness in my life come to me in fleeting windows of relief, that never ever last long enough. my life is agony. I am full of: - loneliness - rage - regret - remorse - hopelessness - guilt - terror - anxiety - aloneness
Rupert provides greater dimension to "As a man thinketh, so he is" from Proverbs. When we identify with thoughts, we are subject to unhappiness because, as he says, unhappiness comes from thoughts only and not from our true nature. It could be conversely stated, "As a man does not think, so he really is."
To me, self-enquiry easily becomes a recipe for avoidance, suppression and dissociation. If I’m having a feeling I don’t like, I just perform some mental gymnastics and escape to my safe space, which becomes another detached mind construct, sprinkled over with some non-dual fairy dust. Most people struggle to connect with their feelings. Thus the first job is full identification with awareness, maybe just to sit quietly, or perhaps even safe expression which is different to acting out. Or maybe it’s a call to action, maybe not. There is no one size fits all, we are all unique. When “unhappiness” (a very vague generalised term) gets released, a natural relaxation and spaciousness tends to open up, like after a good cry, that is energetic, i.e. the life force, presence, happiness or whatever you wish to call it, can more freely flow through you and be uncovered without the need to play more confusing thinking games. Nor will it lead to the nihilism and passivity that often incomplete eastern teachings tend to generate, as they split between the manifestation and the unmanifest, generally preferencing the latter. We are background and foreground, they are interdependent, both should be honoured and both are ‘real’ in their own way.
"I" feel that you are the only person in this comment section still trying to be aware of the experience that exists. Whether it is in the form of a person, a mind, a memory, everything felt is still real. Just because the "I" is not experiencing it and is simply aware of it being experienced, that does not mean that it isn't real. Perhaps "I" simply cannot grasp this yet, but as you said, it feels like some kind of detachment or dissociation with your person-hood's feelings. Unhappiness is a reaction to an experience. In just investigating the separation of your awarenesses, that doesn't make the experience disappear or irrelevant. I'll have to keep listening and exploring. I am clearly missing something seeing as so many people are so happy with this video, but it certainly feels like the advice is "That unhappiness isn't you lol"... Which is true, but that doesn't mean you get to totally disregard it.
Wow, just wow...this is it. This is everything that a human being has to know. It's so simple. With this alone, you know everything there needs to be known to enjoy life.
When body is going through chronic pain, it will not let you to think anything else. If you tell yourself "I" am different, this body is is not "I", the pain brings you back and will tell you I = body . This method works when body is hale and healthy. But even thought of "seer" or "I" is a thought . If mind is not there then there is no thought and no "seer" thought also .
You are right but you have to understand that this method wil not make the pain leave. By doing this you realise that you are not the pain. You can see, observe and experience the pain. The mistake is to go away from the pain. Instead of thinking who am i etc, look ar the pain. The fact that you can feel, experience this pain (this sensation that is changing) is the self inqury. In the case of body pain you can not ban the pain. By although seeing that you are not the pain and not identify with it, you can take action and go to the doctor.
wow nailed it. made it so easy to understand. i only clicked about a year back with this and its been one of the happiest years in a very long time. i just stopped giving negative thoughts any time, quit moaning in my mind and focused on the good stuff. i was searching for happiness for a long while and it was along side me all the time, i just didn't find it for complaining and worrying. i found it in the end though ;)
In my experience this explanation is not true Self Enquiry. To explain it in simple words, it is as the same if we would imagine that we have no memory, and realized that nothing in our experience exists. If we follow this line of thinking then we are avoiding what is. And yes we are powerful to do this. But the key moment in Self Enquiry is that we are NOT the I who is asking the question, and more importantly we are NOT the I who appears as an answer in our perception after looking for it. Both are the mind. True I comes when we hold onto this false I long enough so the power of Grace can destroy it. After this only true I remains. As long as we have thoughts and are forced to do the enquiry, we are not finished.This happiness and bliss that are coming from this instant fix and that look permanent are just in the mind. And as we experience they have beginning and end.
i agree. he is making mistakes because he has not attained and therefore only has an intellectual understanding. the intellect can only go so far and ends up contradicting itself.
I think the title of the video is misleading. If you have read any of Rupert's books, you will realise that his knowledge is not purely intellectual, but is in fact experiential. He fully understands , as expressed in this video, that it is the mind asking who I am, and the mind realising what I am not. This is only the first stage in self-enquiry. Having realised that I is not our body, thoughts, feelings, etc., then we can start the search for the real I, or consciousness. The interviewer is obviously very inexperienced in terms of spiritual seeking, and Rupert has therefore given her a simple introduction to the process of self-enquiry.
@@albertcilliers6930 he is calling the hiatus between two unhappy moments happiness and the most precious thing in life, which is utter bullshit. the fact that you have found quietness and peace for a while changes nothing. life will create its problems and you will find yourself immersed in frustrations again. even the understanding (only intellectual at this point) that you are not this cluster of habits and memories, does very little to change our deep-rooted tendencies, let alone our perception of reality or the nature of our true Self. there is nothing wrong with the title of this video. self-inquiry is a genuine thing. im just not convinced that he is a Self-realised being. i think he is intellectualizing it and believes he experiences his true Self because he has become so adept at describing the process of self-inquiry. because he has trained himself to a certain level of moderation in life he mistakes that for peace. he believes his own words and ideas, to the point that it is making him act all peaceful and genuine...lol. he might even have had glimpses of his true Self, but glimpses are momentary and afterwards we are left back in our usual preoccupations and worries. there is nothing in his words that sound to me as if they are coming from true Self.
This is the difference between Advaita and Buddism. As per Advaita, the self-inquiry leads to loss of Jiva (Ego-I) and you realize the atman (True-I). The nature of true I is ever-present Truth-Aware-Bliss (Sat-chit-ananda). It is not an in-between feeling. As per the Theravada Buddism, the self-inquiry leads to loss of I ( No-self or Anatta in Pali) and thats it !! No-self, and that is your enlightened state. Mahayana takes it further to state that no-I state is Bodichitta (Realized or aware mind). All these traditions are pointing to an aware state, which can not be intellectually described, and likely the common state of final realization. I think Spira is trying to give the novice interviewer a simplified glimpse of the whole process without complicating too much.
This is a great video. What's he is talking about in this video "I" experienced many years ago after the a relationship fell apart. Once you have an moment of grace like that, you can tell if somebody is speaking from intellectual study or whether the are speaking from direct knowledge. Rupert Spira is most certainly speaking from direct knowledge. I am glad that people like him are out there teaching and helping share this information.
In my experience, self-enquiry is just holding all your attention on the thought I. There is nothing else to it, in my opinion. It's very hard, but it works. Just keep driving attention back at I.
Evan Cary thank you. I feel the I-thought in parts of my body very strongly. Having said that, I don't know how to be situated in the self because I haven't had that experience. Many teachers often say - be situated in the self. your thoughts on this?
Thank you Rupert. This is exactly what I have been exploring through writings and this video is a wonderful clarifier. Thank you! PS The sound has been really low on the last few videos you have posted. Quite difficult to hear even on full volume - pleeeease can you make them a bit louder!
I love hearing the sound of her realizations! I bet her face was beatific as she grasped the ideas. This all illustrates the classroom maxim that, ''The only dumb question is the one not asked''. She had the courage to ask the question that (probably) most all those folks were asking themselves. And even if some had previously ''gotten'' the idea- we can all use a ''refresher'' exercise! The beauty of the clarity of this exchange keeps me coming back to this vid. again and again.
That quarter hour of skillful pointing, was as precise as a laser. This is a gift of clarity and goes back into my ''favorites'' cache for some future re- savoring!
Thing is though, your still miserable when your unhappy, even if you can equate with what he's saying so that's fine buts it's not going to change the chemical changes making your mood very low, eg, if you lose everything due to outside forces then its not going help. U can try and be happy but when cold, homeless or in pain, I don't think this helps at all, , you need tangible physical positive changes that effect this physical realm, Just being honest.
let me boil it down if you strive to be objective about your "self" you will begin to IDENTIFY WITH OBJECTIVITY and not a "self" OBJECTIVITY IS NEVER UNHAPPY if it was it wouldn't be objectivity
It is the same practice to "separate" your core from your thoughts and feelings and "empower" yourself to take control over your life experiences in the moment instead of allowing your thoughts and feelings to take over and control your life. This has been around for centuries! The "i" simply exists in the core and does not suffer from whatever thoughts and feelings we have passing by....we do not embody or hold on to anything...I like the way he explains it!
When you know thyself there is no suffering for you. The pearl of immortality is in the abyss of the ocean of subconsciousness. And it is guarded by a 5 headed Dragon my friend. So dont think it is easy to get that. That's why be very serious and cautious.
Am I missing something? I don't seem to get it,Of course I only have a eighth grade education possibly this could be my problem. All I hear is a bunch of words with no conclusions, however he must be communicating something as I read all the comments by other people that seem to get it. And seem to have enjoyed this lecture. Maybe I'll try listening to it again.
Howard Manley Don't look for conclusions. What he's doing is offering an experiment you can try. He's not propounding some proposition about how things are (except in the mild sense that he's hinting at the type of discovery you're likely to make if you try the experiment - "and if you try this, x is the likely result"). Just try doing what he says and see what happens :) (Nothing might happen the first time, but give it a reasonable try, like you would anything else recommended by a friend, for example.)
OPEN AND CLOSE YOUR HAND.NOTICE THE CHANGE,BUT WHAT IS LOOKING DOES NOT CHANGE.LIKE A MIRROR ON THE WALL WHICH REFLECTS EVERYTHING BUT REMAINS UNCHANGED!NO THING
He is saying that we are not our feeling and thoughts because they keep changing and we are not. OK, I am fine with that but one could still feel unhappiness; the thing would be that we are not identifying ourselves with that (there is unhappiness, instead of I am unhappy). I don't see the bridge from "we are not our thoughts and feelings" to "the cause of unhappiness is identification with thoughts and emotions".
Happiness is an emotion but it is ALSO a state of being.We constantly make actions to get closer to a state of happiness(fulfilling dreams/aspirations) and also further away from a state of unhappiness(fear of pain/suffering). You are right happiness itself is constantly fluctuating from happiness to unhappiness but our DESIRE to be happy is always consistent.We do not do things to feel sad,angry,miserable etc...Even when we feel positive emotions such as excitement,thrill,joy. We feel happiness from the sensations of those emotions and we want more of those sensations in order to feel happy.A gold fish wants to be in water instead of land because it is the gold fish's natural state.Similarly, we do things in order to be happy because it is also our natural state(we do actions that help us to get closer to a state of happiness and further away from a state of unhappiness). the bridge from "we are not our thoughts and feelings" to "the cause of unhappiness is identification with thoughts and emotions". Even though we are not our thoughts and emotions we can still feel the sensations of these emotions. We are not pain but are still able feel pain even though that is not who we are. The problem with your logic is here "(there is unhappiness, instead of I am unhappy)." you are re-arranging the structure of the words but the conceptual idea is the same.When you feel unhappiness you are still in a state where you are unhappy. ..there is unhappiness=I am unhappy differentiating between the two would be illogical because they are one and the same.
the bridge from "we are not our thoughts and feelings" to "the cause of unhappiness is identification with thoughts and emotions". Even though we are not our thoughts and emotions we can still feel the sensations of these emotions. We are not pain but are still able feel pain even though that is not who we are. The problem with your logic is here "(there is unhappiness, instead of I am unhappy)." you are re-arranging the structure of the words but the conceptual idea is the same.When you feel unhappiness you are still in a state where you are unhappy. ..there is unhappiness=I am unhappy differentiating between the two would be illogical because they are one and the same.
chillagma I am unhappy is a thought if you say to yourself "who is this thought appearing to?" you say " to me", then you ask "who am l?"which will then destroy the ' I am unhappy 'thought, or the ' I ' thought. Foa moment you may experience stillness, self awareness, presence and or no thought. Practicing this process continually will eventually kill the the ' I ' thought, the root of all thinking, the ego and in its place have silence, stillness, peace, love happiness or in one word satchitananda. ( check out who am I? Sri Ramana Maharshi )
As I see it, unhappiness (and anything else for that matter) is a mental weather sysem that comes and goes. You are not the weather system but the space (or sky) in which it appears. Suffering happens when you believe to be a part of the weather system and attach yourself (velcro) to it, I am ___________ (fill in the blank). When it rains, do you say to yourself I am rainy? Of course not because you see rain as an event you are witnessing and experiencing rather than it being you. it is part of the conditioning we are all exposed to as human beings. Your I am-ness has always been there before, through and after every mental weather system so therefore it can't be any of them. When it rains we get wet and it is okay until we believe that the wetness we feel means "we are rainy". It is insanity when you think about it but when you inspect your conditioning you will find more insane things.
Too heady. Also it’s not possible to give attention to the one who is aware (as he claims) because attention comes “after” awareness not before it. We can be aware of attention moving outwardly to objects and others or inwardly to sensations, thoughts, perceptions and energies. He still refers to the “I” in the context of mind. But in reality there is no “I” that can be found or even observed by attention because feeling-attention is the presumption of “I” it’s the root of “I” and it cannot be seen because it is perfectly subjective - or a subject with no objective “other” to be perceived.
I've been following Rupert for a few years now and I don't know of any such groups. Such a thing seems as if it might be a bit counter productive perhaps as you would just be getting comments from others in the same boat as you. To me, knowing about something is not Knowing it and there are so many people who confuse the two. I would recommend going to the source instead. There are several teachers who "Know" rather than "know about" like Rupert now and the internet makes it so simple to find them. There is also Stillness Speaks.com and Advaita Vision.com which are two excellent ND web sites. I think that Rupert uniquely articulates non-dualism and is my favorite living ND teacher.
