Rupert Spira

[grapevine]

The Eternal Now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tPExMBsj4U&t=3s (9:27)
A brilliant explanation that I came across quite by chance and was so charmed I was compelled to post.

Rupert Spira is an English philosopher, author and potter, based in Oxford, UK. He is a proponent of nondualism and what he terms 'the Direct Path'

[grapevine]

An Introduction To Non-Duality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwXosKVO2yI (6:00)
An introduction to Non-Duality by Rupert Spira. Non-duality is a contemporary, experiential approach to understanding the nature of reality and the self, involving silent meditation, guided meditation and conversation. It requires no affiliation to any religious or spiritual tradition, only an interest in the nature of experience, and the longing for love, peace and happiness.

[ZenBaller]

Beautiful. The way he radiates that calmness with mental clarity has helped me a lot during the last decade. Probably the only nondual teacher with the characteristics of eloquence and depth.

[Wind]

I quite like him. He is an excellent calming speaker and teacher, but more than that he is a great writer. I have read through a couple of his meditative books and have more to go through. I think his ideas and perceptions are better expressed there in written form, although some of his videos, especially older ones are quite good and helpful. I have my issues with the "direct path" because I think it misses some key parts from advaita vedanta and thus can become even spiritual bypassing, but it still is a helpful step on the pathway.

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Here is one good quote I copied from reddit to summarize my issues with it too:


This is another challenging topic. One which is ripe for consideration and reflection.

Neo Advaita and Direct Path teachers are fine for a certain class of seekers. They are fine for those who are fulfilled by philosophy and conceptual knowledge with some experiential insight coming through satsangs, or the limited depth of Self-inquiry possible without purification or meditation. They do not offer a path to samadhi, which both Hindu and Buddhist masters state leads to nondual realization. Without the concepts and teachings of those who have actually experienced samadhi, Nonduality and Neo Advaita teachings have no experiential basis. They simply wouldn't exist, since it is the default experience of everyone that the world is full of duality. I feel these teachings offer a path to Self-improvement at best, not Self-realization. There is an epistemological difference between philosophical concepts and realization. These teachings offer conceptual knowledge and philosophy - not realization.

Self-realization is the absence of mental conditioning, which reveals the transcendent nature of the Self. Our knowledge of the Self is 'veiled' by attachments, koshas, the elements, the gunas, energy, etc. and most essentially our mental conditioning. This mental conditioning are karmic patterns that takes effort to overcome and purify, because it takes our effort to create them. We have been conditioned since birth, and previous births to believe we are an individual jiva, and have fed into this belief with our mental energy and actions through attachment/aversion, egoism, fear and the rest of the kleshas. It takes energy and effort to overcome the attachments and impurities that veil the Self, because it takes our continued energy and effort to create them. Neo-Advaita and Direct Path teachers hardly mention rebirth, karma, and mental conditioning as hinderances to understanding Advaita, because it goes against the highest truth of Advaita teachings that they exclusively share. This is only half of the philosophy of Advaita - the other half is of rebirth, purification, devotion, sadhana and effort. Check out this video. It does a great job of explaining why we need to have a sadhana in order to reach Self-realization, and truly understand the truth embodied in Advaita Vedanta philosophy.

Another issue is the focus of Neo-Advaita and Direct Path teachings on Self-inquiry as a sadhana. Self-inquiry is certainly a valid means of spiritual practice which can lead to liberation, however very few seekers have the level of awareness and detachment necessary to practice it successfully without supplementary practices. Self-inquiry is an advanced formless meditation practice. It is very subtle and challenging to tease out the "I" sense, let alone abide in it throughout daily life. What many people find as the "I" sense is limited to their physical, mental or energetic body - they do not have subtle enough awareness to discard the more gross appearances of "I" to find the "I-I" in the Heart which Sri Ramana refers to in his teachings. Direct Path teachings also share 'awareness games' or 'tricks' that are a poor substitute to the actual experience of nondual consciousness. These 'tricks', like Douglas Harding's Headless Way, offer unique perspectives on awareness, however only at a superficial level.

Additionally, Self-inquiry cannot be sustained in these teachings because karmic patterns continuously pull practitioners to the world and their attachments. Neo Advatins and Nonduality practitioners do not feel the need to work on their attachments to the world, yet say they are the nondual consciousness... It's a complete contradiction to be attached to the world, yet claim you are nondual consciousness. By default we are attached. We must work to overcome that attachment as Buddha, Pantanjali, Sri Ramana and other Masters state. Purification of our ego through yogic practices, and formal sitting meditation are necessary for most seekers to create sustained and powerful enough awareness to inquire successfully into the "I", and overcome the habits and tendencies that interrupt continued abidance in the Self. Self-inquiry is also not the best path for many seekers. The Direct Path sounds appealing and easy, but is not suitable for many personality types. Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga, and Raja yoga are all other very fruitful and powerful paths that give amazing gifts in their own practice depending on the temperament of the person.

Ah, the thing that hurts my Heart the most at these teachings is that they miss out on the bliss of our Self nature. Sri Ramana and the scriptures say that our nature is Sat-chit-ananda: being, consciousness, bliss. So beautiful is this bliss that we are. It is a joy and sweetness so intense and beautiful. People constantly seek that bliss through fulfillment in the world, but that supreme joy is not in the world - it's in our Hearts. It makes me sad that Nonduality and Neo Advaita practitioners will likely never experience this bliss, except for the very, very rare ones and only temporarily, because they do not do practices that allow their nervous system the opportunity to create this joy. The default state of our nervous system is a seed for a higher state of being, one in which we can experience bliss, joy, higher intuition, samadhi and tremendous inner strength. But we must create this evolution for ourselves through yoga, meditation, spiritual practice and sadhana. It's a choice the Divine has given us. Do you take your birthright of Sat-chit-ananda, or be content with the conditioning of the world and mind?

To sum it up, Nonduality and Neo Advaita teachings do not offer complete paths for Self-realization. They offer Self-improvement at best. We are born imprinted with karmic patterns that take effort and sustained practice over a period of time to overcome, because we sustain them from moment to moment until we reverse those patterns. Although, the veil of duality is ultimately unreal, our mental conditioning makes it real, and paradoxically we must appear to work within duality to realize our nondual nature. Moreover, the sadhana of Self-inquiry is a challenging practice suitable for mature aspirants. Most seekers need purification and meditation to supplement their Self-inquiry practice given in the other paths of yoga and meditation. Lastly, and most regrettably, these paths do not offer a way to attain the bliss and higher states of consciousness like samadhi that actually reveal the nondual nature of reality as Sat-chit-ananda.

[grapevine]

The Fastest Path to the Deep Peace of Being
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I find this leads to hyperawareness, which is a very strange feeling if you're not used to it.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

A brilliant explanation that I came across quite by chance and was so charmed I was compelled to post.

It's interesting what he explains, and how he explains it, but it's not quite true .

So many times we hear philosophers/mystics/channels say, 'there is no time', or, 'time is an illusion'. Beyond and above this dimension (like in the spirit world) that's true, there is no time. There's no space either: it's a realm of consciousness, of spirit. In that state, only the Eternal Now exists. Down here, however, in [I]the third dimension, we have space (matter), and so we have time (a continuum) -- which I argue has multiple dimensions of its own.

The two constants (Physical Time and the Eternal Now) are impossible to reconcile; they belong to different realities, are mutually exclusive, and one cannot be imposed upon the other.