259. Rupert Spira, 2nd Interview

From an early age Rupert Spira was deeply interested in the nature of reality. At the age of seventeen he learnt to meditate, and began a twenty-year period of study and practice in the classical Advaita Vedanta tradition under the guidance of Dr. Francis Roles and Shantananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the north of India.

During this time he immersed himself in the teachings of P. D. Ouspensky, Krishnamurti, Rumi, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta and Robert Adams, until he met his teacher, Francis Lucille, in 1997. Francis introduced Rupert to the Direct Path teachings of Atmananda Krishnamenon, the Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism (which he had received from his teacher, Jean Klein), and, more importantly, directly indicated to him the true nature of experience. Rupert lives in the UK and holds regular meetings and retreats in Europe and the USA.

Books:

• The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience
• Presence, Volume I: The Art of Peace and Happiness
• Presence, Volume II: The Intimacy of All Experience
• The Ashes of Love: Sayings on the Essence of Non-Duality
• The Light of Pure Knowing: Thirty Meditations on the Essence of Non-Duality
• Transparent Body, Luminous World: The Tantric Yoga of Sensation and Perception (Book and six MP3 CD Box Set – 30 Hours of Audio)
• The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter
• Being Aware of Being Aware (The Essence of Meditation Series)

Rupert’s YouTube Channel. Interviews can be listened to here and watched here.

Rupert lives in UK and holds regular meetings and retreats in Europe and USA.

For all further information see http://www.rupertspira.com.

Interview recorded 10/25/014 at the Science and Nonduality Conference.

Transcript of this interview

1st BatGap interview with Rupert

YouTube Video Chapters:

• 00:00:00 – The Self-Knowing Nature of Consciousness
• 00:03:58 – The Experience of Awareness
• 00:06:46 – Directing Attention Inward
• 00:09:32 – The Experience of Being Aware
• 00:13:08 – The Nature of Self-Abidance
• 00:19:37 – The Unnamable Reality of Experience
• 00:20:10 – Does consciousness need a mind or a nervous system to know itself?
• 00:23:45 – The Nature of Consciousness
• 00:26:14 – The Experience of Being Aware
• 00:28:31 – The Experience of Consciousness Being Aware of Itself
• 00:31:30 – Knowing Oneself and Consciousness
• 00:35:01 – Sinking Attention into its Source
• 00:38:26 – The Relaxation of Attention and the Shining of Peace
• 00:42:23 – The Illusion of Separate Self and the Fabrication of the World
• 00:45:10 – The Test of Reality
• 00:48:47 – Experience as a Coloring of Consciousness
• 00:52:40 – The Collapse of the Distinction between Consciousness and its Objects
• 00:55:43 – Compassion for those in difficult circumstances
• 00:59:33 – Matter as a Perception
• 01:02:13 – Living with Love and Awareness
• 01:05:21 – The Universal Feeling-Understanding
• 01:08:49 – Treating the World with Kindness
• 01:11:59 – The Longing for Happiness
• 01:15:16 – The Source of Longing for Happiness and Awareness
• 01:18:47 – Stepping in the Direction of Discovery
• 01:21:32 – The Mud Puddle and Living the Words
• 01:24:46 – The Natural Style of Functioning
• 01:28:01 – The Presence of Consciousness in Experience
• 01:32:10 – Trusting Experience and God’s Infinite Being
• 01:35:33 – A Beautiful Gift to Humanity
• 01:38:07 – Listening during your commute