Dissolving the Belief That ‘I Am a Body'

Is there something we can do to dissolve the belief that ‘I am a body’? A woman says that during meditation she can sense old beliefs and feelings associated with the body start to dissolve, but the old conditioning of believing and feeling solid, dense and limited quickly comes back.
Rupert explains that having recognised the felt sense of the body as just a cloud of sensing, once or twice is not enough. It takes time to erode this very well-born habit.
These old habits are deeply conditioned in us - we've been practising them for so long. But every time we do go back there we weaken that habit. So keep questioning it by asking yourself, "Is that true? What is my actual experience?" Every time you go back to your actual experience you erode the power of your old beliefs.
Gradually over the months, these beliefs and feelings that spring back so quickly, lose their power. They begin to show up less and less. At the moment ,your beliefs trump your experience. But in time, your experience begins to override your beliefs.
Timestamps:
0:00 Eroding The Belief That I Am A Body
0:53 Dissolving Old Beliefs
1:20 Changing Your Beliefs
2:17 Weakening Old Habits
2:50 Reconditioning The Mind
3:17 Frustrated During Meditation
4:15 Walking Meditation
6:55 Experience Overrides Limiting Beliefs
This clip comes from one of Rupert's in-person retreats at The Vedanta - 3rd to 10th of June, 2022.
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RS22093e

[@thegloriousbothand]

splitting the non-physical self from the physical self is deeply fragmenting, unhealthy, dualistic, and spiritualizes the trauma response of disassociation. if you go too far with this you could end up spending years coming back into your body, grounding, and realizing there is no split between spirit and matter - that this is a false, rigidly dualistic divide. please be careful and consider seeking out fully embodied spirituality. we need it badly 💓

[@sven888]

Very interesting and would love a further more in depth explanation.

[@nathanfreeman7362]

I had this experience about a week ago, after eating just a half gram of mushrooms my experience transformed into a more aesthetic awareness of being aware of my environment as myself being everything. I didn't perceive anyone as being more important than everything else. It was almost scary in that the people I was around seemed like they would have also known, and I would have said to them "why didn't you tell me?" but I'm sure they would have looked at me funny and not known what I was talking about.

[@ilmariforsnas]

Who we are is not our body... thank you for this. And we are not even our mind. We can know this, if we are still. We can know... I am undertaking _Steps to Knowledge_ to get in contact with this knowing, which is described in the book as an experience, not an idea. "I seek experience not answers" - Step 183. I love this book. It's by Marshall Vian Summers.

[@johnchapman5125]

Thanks a lot for this.

[@Alios_World]

Thanks. I needed something new. I'm 66 and had seen almost everything. This will last awhile!

[@NevillesRightHand1905]

❤ Thank you for the confirmation that with persistence we do dissolve the old instilled beliefs. I am not the body, I am the spirit wearing the body. Thus, everything I experience in spirit (everything I imagine within), I must experience in flesh also. Everywhere I go in spirit (the state of being I assume) the body must follow. If you want to see changes on the outside, there is nothing to change but the state of Self within. We are pure, divine consciousness and the creators of our realities. Creation us finished and everything we can imagine already exists. If we want something, then all we need to do is to assume it is already ours, and so it is. Everything we desire, desires us also. ❤🙏💫

[@franciscosifuentes3007]

Beautiful

[@hemamalinirs1002]

Rupert ❤ Bless me to wake up to BEING 🙏

[@WildSatsang]

Rupert is pointing to a very potent exercise here. I was actually going to make a video on it till I found Rupert already had! Beautiful!

[@darrenyoung4509]

Thanks Rupert! :)

[@consciousnessbasedcosmos]

The belief and experience that the body and the world is dreamlike comes only at the end or near the end when the ego is totally dissolved. So long as the ego still is, the belief and experience that the body and world is physically real will still be there. That is reason why the practice of who am I or the I am meditation are targeted at the inner sense of awareness or being. They are not targeted at the body. So there is no need to be concerned so much about the body. Just let it be and continue working on the inner side.

[@scottcw31]

We are the Awareness that inhabits the body

[@sven888]

Exactly. You do mean the one universal awareness right?

[@emendatus1]

Keep in mind that it is an automatic, subconscious belief! That's why it is not so easy.

[@dogindagrass]

The mind transcends the body spirit transcends mind

[@I-Am-Aware]

As usual, I love what you're sharing, Rupert. Thank you. I just had an image appear--of "ego" being imagined as character off-stage, with a long hook with which it "grabs" our essential nature on stage and yanks it back once more, saying, "You are mine!"

[@kjmusic2000]

Eckhart Tolle “Gateway of the inner body!!!!!! 5:34 post

[@Da_Xman]

Cease "trying"...persist...just be and ✨KEEP GOING✨...!

[@waldwassermann]

It could also be simply said that the purpose of the body (the meaning of life/why we live) is love. That's essentially the Christian view (and I guess the Tantric in some regard) and it is also the most widely accepted view. In other words. The purpose of life is thus not negation (through dissolving the belief that I am a body). Instead. The purpose of life should be seen as a celebration (we live for love). My suggestion. Celebrate and dance and love! And don't you forget. The world is more complete because of you!!! 🙂:-)

[@versoturner5777]

It's very easy to see what he's talking about when you understand that everything you know is a concept because even language is a concept. So when doing this practice see that. I know I wasn't born thinking in English language... because I had to learn it. So when I meditate, I look from a place of completely not knowing. It helps.

[@pilargarcia6724]

Muchísimas gracias!!!❤️🙏😊

[@Deepakyadav-vp8xx]

You have not surrender. In meditation you have something gaming. That's why you getting these type of problem.

[@sven888]

I think it is better to say “ I am not just the body“ rather than “ I am not the body“. ♥️

[@NewComments]

You are everything, so you are also the body.

[@sven888]

@@NewComments Correct. It is oftentimes said that we are not the body which is incorrect. The correct saying is that we are not just the body but the Self which embodies itself as everything.

[@richardharris2494]

And... Do not get frustrated with yourself!!!

[@alejandrosaez1772]

You are either the full conciousness experience or you are the full empty experience. Both are really the same and appear whole and undivided. Beleiving you are a part (a body for example) in isolation is a thought based illusion. Saying I'm not the body is still ignorance because it implies the belief that a body is a real object in space and time that can or cannot be identified with.

[@dmiller4511]

If we are all One, then please tell me how something (body) is not One.

[@SabiazothPsyche]

Whenever a human says, "I am", he is giving testimony that he becomes of the body; and therefore, be of the body! for the " I " is the psychic active force, that is facilitated to integrate with the " am ", which is the soma. Hence, I = psychic active force; and am = soma. So that in the instance of integration, the I then becomes from its am; and in this way, the "I am" is complete and mentalized to be!

[@ionagibbons9906]

Thé body is it’s own intelligence and leads the no body experience it’s the mind that can think you back. So getting immersed in body and it’s weight feeling heart beat breath blood flow gives body the power to take over be what ever it wants enter into formlessness. Trying to break body down with mind won’t help you override the head that can think itself into being the HQ. Head is empty like infinite space just hollow head no brain just space body is anything you want to be ash, a giant, or no body no form or light form. It’s body that is the teacher it’s body that empties mind.

[@sapien6230]

Does Rupert think all objects are a form of energy in an energy field that is the fabric of the universe?

[@TheAmbamatamantrasvideos]

'My body' indicates you have it, but you are something else; like you say 'my book' you have it but are not the book.

[@malabuha]

The real challenge is to accept the fact that you are the body. When it expires, I as a person, as an individual, expire with it. As if I never existed. I think that's a healthier way to discover what consciousness is. What spiritual teachers call illusion is life that is happening as it is, in a feritle medium we know consciousness to be. It is as real as it gets. Losing a life is a real thing. Yeah, you are consciousness, yeah, you are a mental construct, yeah you are a body, all at the same time. It's unnatural to try to deny any of your parts, because there is no way out of consciousness, the great illusion. I would love to see an enlightened person handle a bear attack. No fear of dying? No fear of pain? No anxiety about leaving your family behind when you can still help them out? If none of the above applies to you, I think you are ready to expire haha

[@chiselcheswick5673]

Good points and agree. Even if the mind ego and idea of self is an illusion it's still something... It's a construct of the parts that make us. I dunno maybe there is an experience to be had that shows really what he is explaining but I have yet to be convinced.

[@jimpanse1638]

Yes if none of that applies to you you are not enlightened you are just mentally ill. Humans arent evolved to be detached. We are very much concerned about ourselfes for a very good reason, otherwise we would have gone extinct a LONG time ago.

[@Alex722]

In that situation instinct and flight or fight mode rules. So in a bear attack, even a person who is very soft mentally, doesn’t even have time for anxiety and thoughts like “I’m gonna leave behind my family”. Only survival matters so you’re more alert and in the present than any other time. Sure presence errs to the animal side of us, in such attack, but still you become totally present, if not then chances of survival are minimal. An “enlightened” person if he survives after the attack, won’t make this a drama story and start thinking what could have happened if… Danger is gone, everything is fine the end. The fear you feel in that situation is instinctual and has a purpose for survival. It’s not caused by psychological factors and mental narratives.

[@malabuha]

@@Alex722the dread that overcomes you is undeniable anxiety about leaving behind people who still depend on you. You get busy surving, not at peace that you are immortal awareness which enlightenment brings. And if you do not survive it, maybe you get lucky to discover that you are the immortal awareness all along in which case it comes to you naturally. No need to fight for it or prove it

[@MrMafiaboss1234]

The falsehood that is the brain, the body and materialism was exposed and destroyed in God-Consciousness by Supreme Truth-Intelligence a long time ago. In the most direct and simple words: God told me I am not the body. Believe me or not, but that’s the most Powerful refutation that can possibly exist of the body belief.

[@link2pk]

❤🙏

[@wattaura7621]

"Taking it to the streets" ~ Michaell McDonald 😊 "I Am you're God" , as a mantra. ....to be perceived. 😅

[@haunteddeandollsuk]

i’m lying in my bed now and i feel by brain is not connected to my body it’s weird😮 i’m feeling my body and skin is just a vehicle , it like a empty car shell without all the motor and stuff under the bottom, without the steering wheel seats in the car etc it’s strange ! maybe a body is just a vessel and when the body dies the energy of us goes somewhere else

[@allonszenfantsjones]

serious question: how is this different from biofeedback training?

[@sven888]

Can you explain what is biofeedback?

[@robinaguenkel7534]

👍🇩🇪

[@SuhVamp]

Rupert, Doing that or not Doing that?

[@ayeam5822]

We simply must pay attention to the words that we use. We SAY things like 'MY body' all the time. Enquire as to WHO that MY is that the body BELONGS to? see with ABSOLOUTE clarity that simply saying 'MY body" implies that you are the POSESSOR of said body and NOT the body itself, does it not?. We don not purchase a bottle of water for the BOTTLE, we purchase for the water INSIDE the bottle. I am not for 1 minute suggesting you should DISREGARD the body completely but worshiping a teapot without any desire to DRINK the tea inside seems an unnecessary use of our temporary experience on this paradise called earth. 🙏 @4w4reness

[@jurek46pink]

Dziękuję ! So clear and obvious now - for me.

[@jgarciajr82]

These non dual people crack me up 😂 They're both needed. The teapot needs the tea. The bottle needs the water as the water needs the bottle. It's not one or the other. The mind lies the body doesn't.

[@ayeam5822]

@@jgarciajr82 hmmmmm, let's look at THAT word NEED......... have you never cupped your hands together to drink water? Have you never made a cup of tea, pouring boiling water directly from the kettle into a mug with a teabag in it? Come on my friend!!!!!! You KNOW very well what I am waxing lyrical about.

[@sourabh369]

Please give me some advice to save myself from delusion? How can I know my true Self?

[@sourabh369]

@Aye am

[@anthonykology1728]

whom is lugging.. whom around?

[@johndick5887]

un programming takes time.....re wiring takes time. relax....don't try so hard. don't ask yourself if things have changed. You are saying I'm spirit and not a body. PERIOD>>>END OF DISCUSSION>>>>>END OF ASKING IF I NOW HAVE CHANGED. Simply state THE FACT. and so it will be.

[@leelanjoy]

Dualistic teaching.

[@Iamnotajournalist]

You don't exist without body 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@athena3865]

Retired professional nurse here. Not to mention I have had my own horrendous experiences with physical pain and near death. When I was taken to ER via ambulance from a dangerous fall while out in public, it was hardly a cloud experience. I believe I fell from having my head in the clouds...

[@jimpanse1638]

You are your body, if your body is sick your fancy spirit or whatever wont do anything. There is no higher consciousness. We are what is processed in our brains. Have you ever met mentally ill people they are absolutely not themselfes anymore.

[@jgarciajr82]

What's new happening to non-duality? They're trying to figure out how to heal the body and not bypass it 😂

[@Magik1369]

You are not a body ultimately but what this guy is failing to tell you is that right now you are a body or rather are inhabiting a body. "I am not the body only" is the proper identification. The subtle aspects of a human being are so tightly integrated with the cells and structure of the body that one would be a stupid fool to dis-identify with it. One must take care of and love one's body and then develop an identity that includes yet transcends the body. All other teachings are false and come from the minds of the un-awakened and unenlightened.