Rupert Spira on Innate Happiness, True Nature, and the Morality of Enlightenment

08/28/22 • 75 min

Rupert Spira is a non-dual teacher and joins us to discuss the cause of suffering, the path to returning to our innate happiness, the realization of our true nature, and we also explore whether awakening has a moral dimension.
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:10 What is suffering?
2:30 What veils our innate happiness?
2:35 What is the mechanism by which thoughts and feelings veil our happiness?
5:28 What is our true nature?
7:40 Isn't "I am" merely another piece of content?
10:04 Experience as a property of being
10:57 There's never a point in which there's no awareness
19:57 Non-materialist physicalist idealism
24:04 Consciousness as non-local
25:47 An experiment in inquiry
30:40 Experience, awareness, and the brain
37:41 Is awareness independent the brain?
42:54 The risk of reifying consciousness as a thing
44:52 The silence of understanding and the mind bringing itself to its own ending
46:38 The stages of awakening
51:24 Direct and progressive paths, and how purification and defabrication fit in
56:16 Rupert's definition of enlightenment
57:04 The insights of the second stage of awakening
1:00:41 One taste and recognizing aware being is the nature of everyone and everything
1:05:03 How does ethics fit into the realization of true nature?
1:09:00 World peace would have to be based on a truth we can all agree on
1:13:34 Where to find and follow Rupert Spira
1:14:30 Outro

Previous Episode

Loch Kelly on Awakening and Shifting into Freedom

Loch Kelly is a meditation teacher and licensed psychotherapist that teaches awakening through small glimpses many times throughout daily life. He joins us to discuss the nature of suffering, paths to freedom from suffering, and how we can shift into the free and joyous consciousness that's already always here.
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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5VYkm1i...
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:34 What is suffering?
5:02 Do resistance, contraction, and immersion in thought fit into your understanding of suffering?
8:11 What are the stages of awakening?
17:13 Emptiness
22:16 One taste, vipassana, and approaches to awakening
26:32 Moving from witness consciousness to one taste
31:48 Differences in subtle energy and head oriented people
35:10 Glimpse practices for non-dual awareness
50:08 A map of awakening
55:36 The importance of working with parts to stabilize awakening
1:01:17 What is nirvana/enlightenment?
1:05:58 Everything being OK when you're not OK
1:08:15 Loch's overview of the pragmatics of the effortless mindfulness approach
1:14:53 A glimpse: What's here now when there's no problem to solve?
1:25:05 How to continue practicing through the stages of awakening
1:27:55 Are there risks with practicing pointing out instructions?
1:30:10 What is Loch's experience given his years of practice?
1:38:01Outro

Next Episode

Philip Golabuk on Freedom from Suffering, the Well-Ordered Soul, and Philosophical Counseling

Philip Golabuk is founder of PhilosophyCenter, where he offers philosophical counseling, self-study courses, and LIFECOACH Training. Their mission is to encourage and facilitate the self-work that leads to greater awareness, creative expression, and personal evolution as well as a deeper appreciation for the miracle, mystery, and opportunity of being alive. Philip is a member of the National Philosophical Counseling Association, has taught college level philosophy courses, and has worked as part of a community outreach program to inmates in jail and prison.
PhilosophyCenter: https://philosophycenter.net/
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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5VYkm1iU0tmbBvJohdTZcv?si=4be5c4df79fc4aa8
ApplePodcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mu/id1640125881
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LucasFMPerry
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:15 What is suffering?
3:58 How do we meet pain skillfully?
5:50 What is our true identity?
8:41 How to practice self-inquiry into identity?
12:55 What does non-local mean?
16:57 Is awareness our true nature?
22:05 What is philosophical life coaching?
25:12 How does working with beliefs fit into freedom from suffering?
30:45 The relationship of truth to freedom from suffering
38:47 What does a disordered soul look like?
40:07 What should you do if you suspect you have a disordered soul?
44:50 Is living from the level of true nature sufficient?
51:30 What is enlightenment?
53:00 Parting words
54:30 Outro