Rupert Spira on Why the Direct Path Is the Path for Our Time

Rupert Spira shares his personal story with Mark Matousek, describing how he integrated his love of truth and his love of beauty after meeting his teacher Francis Lucille. He discusses pitfalls on the path of knowledge, why he avoids the word "enlightenment," and how recognition of our true nature relieves suffering.
The Seekers Forum is an online community founded by author and teacher Mark Matousek, known for his Writing to Awaken method of self-inquiry as well as his two award-winning memoirs and other books. At The Seekers Forum, topics related to creativity, spiritual practice, and ethical well-being are explored through writing and discussion. Find out more at theseekersforum.com
About Rupert Spira
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 studying and practicing the teachings of the classical Advaita Vedanta tradition under the guidance of Dr. Francis Roles and Shantananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the north of India, which he continued for the next twenty years. 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 Atmanada Krishna Menon and to Jean Klein and the Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, 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 U.S. In these meetings, he explores the perennial non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, such as Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Hinduism, Buddhism, mystical Christianity, Sufism and Zen, and which is also the direct, ever-present reality of our own experience. It is a contemporary, experiential approach involving silent meditation, guided meditation and conversation, and it requires no affiliation to any particular religious or spiritual tradition. All that is needed is an interest in the essential nature of experience, and in the longing for love, peace and happiness around which most of our lives revolve.
Rupert is author of The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience. Being Aware of Being Aware, and Presence: The Art of Peace and Happiness. Prior to becoming a spiritual teacher, Rupert was a world-renowned potter and ceramicist whose work is in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and other major venues. He lives in Oxford, England with his wife and son.

[@caddyjackson4863]

Super fascinating to hear Rupert’s story and perspectives outside what I am used to hearing! Thanks 🙏🏻

[@tslow1829]

Grateful to Mark and Rupert for this very profound dialogue. 🙏

[@LennySchoenbach]

0:17: ⚡ Rupert Spira's early exposure to nonduality and spiritual teachings shaped his interest in the spiritual path. 6:22: ⚖ Conflict between love of Truth and beauty, struggle to integrate teachings and artistic ambitions. 11:31: ⚖ Discussion on the lack of traditional devotion in the direct path to truth. 17:02: ⚡ Rupert Spira discusses the absence of spiritual materialism in his meetings and the focus on happiness and self-discovery. 22:22: ⚖ Lack of ego in the community of truth seekers, focus on sincerity and truth seeking. 28:05: ⭐ Exploring inner peace through self-identity transformation amid suffering and world challenges. 34:35: ⚡ Importance of recognizing new age misconceptions around the direct path in teaching non-duality. 39:46: 💡 Understanding of shared being eliminates need for teachings in religious and spiritual traditions. 45:08: 🌟 Fulfillment lies within us, not in external experiences; hoping for external enlightenment leads to disappointment. Recapped using Tammy AI

[@philipjjacobs]

An interesting talk. Rupert and I both had the same teacher in Dr Francis Roles and we both studied Ouspensky, Advaita Vedanta and Rumi`s Mevlevi tradition together for many years. For myself what we studied was both fully inward and outward looking and complete. Both Dr Roles and our non dual guide the Shankaracharya Shantananda Saraswati said that the quickest route to realisation was through developing our talents and the things we love. This approach really appealed to me as an artist as I so love things of beauty and I love the dance of life. So from this perspective: living your life and Self Realisation are not seen as two separate things.

[@joevelasquez2757]

Thank you so much for this

[@comentario-ur8rd]

Just because the self is impermanent and constantly changing, it doesn't mean it isn't there. Like the old tale says: "Don't believe the absurd, no matter who says it" - quoted by Jack Kornfield

[@oliviapendergast1]

The “self” is real only in that it is a collection of thoughts feelings and perceptions but there is nothing in between that rising and falling phenomena that we assume is there

[@annemieke711]

the Self is complete unchanging ! otherwise it would not be infinite . Only the sense of a person is changing ! You , the Self are unchanging !

[@MrResearcher122]

Thanks.

[@francesclare8335]

Wonderful 🙏

[@HiluT]

❤

[@MarkStevenMatousek]

Thanks. I hope you'll follow my page! Lots of other great interviews there.

[@ravindramurthy3486]

In the final analysis, when the so called journey is from "me" to "I", we recognize that this "journey" is along a path-less path, there is neither direct nor indirect path. Understanding in its final culmination should end in "seeing" this fact.

[@sunbeam9222]

Some groups are like that , on repeat: " there's no one here, nothing to do " or " we're spiritual beings having a human experience" might as well tell me to go to a cave and never come out. I still like form. I enjoy it. I actually was kindly asked to leave once for saying that.

[@MarkStevenMatousek]

Nowhere does Rupert spout these cliches, nor does he speak against "form" and celebrating embodiment in ANY sense.

[@sunbeam9222]

@@MarkStevenMatousek where did I say he spread those cliches? I'm not talking about Rupert, it's a reference he makes about some new age groups round mid video.

[@MarkStevenMatousek]

@@sunbeam9222 My mistake! Apologies.

[@sunbeam9222]

@@MarkStevenMatousek no worries at all.

[@bellaluna7012]

i also think it is dangerous to say to people there is nothing to do because you are totally disregarding how they feel.it could put them into a mental health crisis. I'm an artist too and i had the same problem with devotional practice. i have a love of perception and experience and artists have direct enquiry into subject object relationship.

[@SisypheanRoller]

That's true, but I think that's a risk that any subversive and novel message carries in its time. People will misunderstand no matter how hard you try. You can add some disclaimers or explicitly point out things you do not imply, but at the end of the day, the way a message is taken depends on the receiver as much as (if not more than) it does on the sender.

[@chrisbusby4395]

New age nonsense like Tony Parsons.there Ive said it for you :)

[@sunbeam9222]

You've said it for you. Enjoy that echo.

[@MrResearcher122]

@@sunbeam9222 He's made a good point. It's a new path because it seems, with respect, a path of with a mishmash of traditions, but with a modern branding. As the presenter said it, it can become a very commercialised approach. He says that at 17: 11

[@sunbeam9222]

@@MrResearcher122 ohhh I think I misunderstood. I'm sorry. Just checked Tony Parsons. I think I get it now ;) Sorry.

[@cps_Zen_Run]

Consciousness is an emergent property of a complex brain. The brain creates the mind, which creates the self, I, and me. In reality, there is no self, I, nor me. There never has been a self, I, or me, nor ever will be. It’s all a story. It’s that simple. No looking, seeking, nor pathway required.

[@pattyronco4217]

So it is by a story that you dismiss a story and than inaccurately qualify consciousness and dismiss it? What kind of insanity is this!?😂

[@fingerprint5511]

Conciousness is not of the brain. There is no me, mine, self or Ego projection people call God. All is phenomena arising and ceasing in Conciousness.

[@fingerprint5511]

​@pattyronco4217 no, it is awareness that observes the phenomenon arising and the Ego saying, this is me, mine, self, but it's not as it us dependent on something else to appear whereas awareness is always present and doesn't change or is dependent on anything.

[@pattyronco4217]

Why did you say no to what I wrote?

[@renko9067]

Yikes. Just no.

[@gregoryswanepoel6328]

utter utter crap this is not non duality

[@shastasilverchairsg]

44:25 What does hope mean to Rupert? R: Hope is always hope for the wrong thing. What we are hoping for to happen is already happening. It is already present. If we are hoping for something, that thing is by definition not present now. So we must be hoping for some kind of objective experience in the future. So if we are hoping for something to happen in the future (including our deepest desire for happiness) which will finally bring us peace or fulfilment, this hope betrays the fact that our desire for peace and fulfilment is still invested in objective experience. And if our desire for peace and happiness is invested in objective experience we are destined for disappointment. Peace and happiness cannot be found in objective experience, so to continue to hope for some marvellous enlightenment experience that is finally going to make us happy is a recipe for disappointment. What we long for, what all people long for above all else, namely peace and fulfilment (enlightenment is just the exotic word for fulfilment) lies in our Being, but in order to access it, we need to recognise our Being, how it essentially is. For most of us our Being is so thoroughly mixed up with the sense of experience that we don't know ourself clearly. It is for this reason that our innate peace and joy is not fully felt, and it is for this reason that we project it onto an object in the future, and we hope that this object/relationship/teacher will happen. It won't.

[@djdollase]

Consider both these gentle men my teachers. Have experienced both “live and in person”. They represent different POVs on the spiritual path: Mark is a traditional Buddhist “seeker” and Rupert is post-grad Non-dual who knows there is no seeker to seek. Have seen this video before a year or two ago and very interesting to watch again.

[@sunbeam9222]

It's not been a recipe for disaster to me. Experiencing with those things and concepts and what have you got me to see what happiness wasn't. Removed a lot of suffering. I still experience with wanting things, but the non getting it or losing it doesn't bring me the type of suffering I experienced in the past, far from it. Here it comes great! Here it leaves ok!