Source Text
It seems that every generation produces a few unusually clear voices that call us back to our essential, undivided nature. Rupert Spira is such a voice, and the collection of essays in these two volumes are his songs, his hymns of remembrance and celebration.
We are repeatedly challenged to investigate the apparently dual reality of a separate-inside-self and separate-outside-world. When we carefully observe our actual experience, the common-sense distinction of self and other dissolves like a line drawn through the air. Once the apparently separate self, which is a process of seeking and resisting, is clearly seen through, it loses its foothold in both our thinking and feeling. An apparent veil thins and eventually dissolves, revealing what is always already here: a Presence which is both the witness to and the substance of all experience. We recognise this seamless, intimate knowing of ourself, both with and without form, as love.
In many ways the contemplations in this book follow a similar approach, exploring a single theme with gentle but somewhat relentless devotion. In fact, even now there is some reluctance to commit to the form of a finished book something whose nature does not lend itself readily to the written word. I would prefer the form of music, which dissolves as soon as it is uttered, leaving its true content as a formless perfume in the listener’s heart. This book is a meditation on the essential nature of experience, taking us on a journey into its heart. It is inevitable, therefore, that there is a certain amount of repetition. For a mind that seeks new ideas, stimulation or entertainment, this repetition may seem frustrating at times, but for one who seeks the heart of experience it will not be experienced as such. Instead, we may see these contemplations as an ever-deepening exploration of experience, giving way in time to an immersion in its essence. In this exploration layers of subtlety and meaning are uncovered, but we never rest for long on any particular formulation. Each new understanding dissolves the previous one, only to find itself being dissolved in time. In fact, the potency of words which attempt to explore and express the nature of experience lies in their dissolving quality rather than their ability to formulate something that cannot accurately be put into words. It is in this spirit that I hope this book will be read.
Introduction: The Search for Happiness
If we were to conduct a poll of all seven billion people living on earth, asking what they most wanted in life, almost all would answer, ‘Happiness.’* Some may not answer as directly as this, saying instead that they want, for instance, an intimate partner, a family or more money, but all these are desired only for the happiness that they produce. In fact, most activities are undertaken with a view to obtaining happiness.
However, after some time, although we may still possess the desired object – whether it is a physical object, a relationship, an activity or a mental state – the experience of happiness that it seemed to produce begins to fade. This alone should be enough to indicate that happiness is not a result of the acquisition of objects, relationships or states. If happiness were related to objects, then as long as the object remained, happiness would remain. Instead of receiving this simple message, we simply discard the object that once seemed to produce happiness and seek another one in its place, in the hope that it will redeliver the happiness that is now missing. In fact, this pattern of seeking one object after another in an attempt to secure happiness, peace or love is the basic pattern of most people’s lives.
Either our search in the conventional realms of work and money, food and substances, or sex and relationships will increase to an obsessive level, resulting in various degrees of addiction, or we will turn our attention away from the conventional field of possibilities and begin a spiritual search.
The spiritual search is usually undertaken as a result of the failure of the quest to secure happiness, peace and love in the conventional realms of experience. Instead of happiness, which seems to be available only in fleeting glimpses, we now seek a permanent state of enlightenment. In fact, our search for…
We are given a glimpse of that same happiness, which we now call awakening or enlightenment, but just as we previously mistook the acquisition of objects and relationships for the source of happiness, we now confuse these new states of mind for enlightenment. These brief glimpses, like the previous moments of happiness, are soon eclipsed by the…
For some this failure is experienced as a time of despair or crisis. There are no further directions in which to turn and yet the search has not been brought to a satisfactory end. The usual means of bringing the search to an end, or at least avoiding the discomfort of it, through substances, activities and relationships or subtler meditative states of mind, may have temporarily numbed it,…
AI Summary
Presence, Volume I by Rupert Spira , John J. Prendergast (Foreword) presents key insights from the contemplative tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.