October 7, 2013

I Am: Special Guest Teaching by Rupert Spira

WELCOME back to our Guest Teaching Series after last week’s wandering. This is the twenty-third edition of the GTS, and our guest’s second appearance here. This week’s post is written by my closest spiritual mentor and beloved friend, Rupert Spira. He is a brilliant and luminous man, and both qualities shine through every word of this work. It is a pure expression of supreme clarity that comes to us via a long poem. Rupert says this poem will end up on his website in due time, but for now, it’s an Awakening Clarity exclusive, and I’m tickled to death to be able to bring it to you. Many of you will recall that Rupert was with us back in January as our first guest, when the GTS was little more than an idea.

Me introducing Rupert Spira is like a small town mayor introducing the President of the United States. The crowd quickly becomes restless and discontent. “Get that little man off the stage, and bring on the President, would you?” I’m sympathetic to that, thus I promise not to stay here very long.

WHAT do you say about someone who’s barely with us? I say that because when you talk to Rupert, hear him, or read him–it’s evident just how little of Rupert is actually present. He is, as Francis Lucille says, a transparent being. Presence flows through him unencumbered. In the absence of Rupert, Presence has taken his place.

When Presence appears as Rupert it’s always clear as a bell and right on target. It is gentle and kind, yet passionate enough to jump you like a tiger if you try to dodge the truth. The body-mind we call Rupert has a huge historical, cultural and mystical context through which these marvelous teachings are stratified and filtered before they reach us. The personality, the Presence, and the context all come together in a heart-awakening presentation that is being felt around the globe, and right here in my own apartment. Rupert generates a deep resonance with the wakefulness lying within each of us–and that resonance somehow helps to vent off whatever clouds are obstructing it.

So that’s why I love Rupert Spira. If you’re new to this teaching, you’ve been missing out on a still-rising mountain of Nonduality, a spiritual master in his prime; a crystalline carrier of truth. Of course, if you have been missing it up to now, the great news is that it’s never too late. Just join in with us right here, right now, which is always the perfect place, and always the perfect time.

I want to encourage you to pursue the many links at the bottom of this page. They are openings into an uncharted world where fear is unknown and oceanic freedom abounds. This path is as straight a lane to the Gateless Gate as we could dare ask for. Read this intricate weaving of wisdom poetry slowly and thoughtfully. Drink it in, line by line, verse by verse. Stop. And then go. And stop again. When you’re done, start over. It has the power to really move us; indeed it speaks from Presence Itself, and is inviting us to come Home. It can help us see the obvious, the self-evident, the simplest thing imaginable. Let’s accept this invitation together, all One of us.

And now…

I Am
by

Rupert Spira

I am

I have no words to express Myself but all words express only Me

I have no meaning but impart meaning to all that is perceived

I am without beginning and end but all things begin and end in Me

I have no name but am called by all names

I have no form but all form indicates Me

I have no origin but am the origin of all things

I am without division but all divisions exist in Me

I exist by Myself

I am the longing in sadness and the longed for in all longing

I am the expecting and the expected in all expectation

I am the restlessness of the restless

I am the peace of the peaceful

I am happiness

I cannot be contemplated but am the object of all contemplation

I am imperceivable yet you perceive only Me

I am full but have nothing

I am empty but contain all

I give away everything but am never diminished

I receive all but never expand

I am everyone’s lover

I shine

I speak but am silent

I move but am motionless

I see but cannot be seen

I hear but cannot be heard

I taste but cannot be tasted

I smell but cannot be smelt

I touch but cannot be touched

I smile

Whatever appears appears in Me but I never appear

I am the silence in music and the music in silence

I am concealed in the world but reveal the world

I am the womb and the tomb of all that exists

I offer and contain in one gesture like an open bowl

I give Myself unconditionally to all things

I receive all things without choice

I am empty

I am the knowing in all that is known

I am the experiencing in all that is experienced

I am the allowing of all seeming things

I am pure sensitivity, openess and availability

I am the sun in the moon

I am the friendship of friends

I am knowing and unknowing

I am dark in the day and bright at night

I am luminous

Time borrows its continuity from My ever-presence

Space borrows its permanence from My unlimitedness

All colours borrow their light from Me

All lovers borrow their love from Me

All things borrow their existence from Me

I am abundant

I am eclipsed by you but you are illumined by Me

I am ‘yours’ and ‘mine’

I am the ‘yes’ in the ‘no’

I am the ‘now’ in the ‘then’

I am the ‘here’ in the ‘there’

I am the ‘me’ in the ‘you’

I am the ‘this’ in the ‘that’

I am the ‘always’ in the ‘never’

I am

I am the uncertainty of all things and the certainty of uncertainty

I am the security of insecurity

I am the true in the false

I am the dignity in pride

I am the reality of an illusion

I am the existence of all that exists

I am an open secret

I move but am motionless am motionless but move

I am concealed in boredom but am not boring

I am veiled by doubt but am not myself in doubt

I live beneath fear but am neither afraid nor frightening

I abide in Myself

If you look in front I am behind

If you look behind I am in front

If you look above I am below

If you look below I am above

I hide Myself but reveal Myself

I dance

I am immanent and transcendent

I am the bright, self-luminous emptiness of the mirror

and the dancing colourful images that appear in it

I am the light in all experience

I break open the body and spread it across the world

I break open the world and hold it dismembered in my heart

I am pregnant with the universe

I am the isness of things

And the amness of self

I am the unknown in the known and the known in the unknown

I am the love in hatred and the hope in despair

I am the same in all difference and different in the same

I think but cannot be thought about

I feel but cannot be felt

I cannot be approached but am always present

I cannot be known but know all things

I do not exist but am never absent

I am nowhere and everywhere

I am nothing and everything

I play

I am the love with which I am loved

I am the desire with which I am longed for

I am the knowledge in ignorance

I am the answer in the question

I give Myself and receive Myself perpetually

I lend Myself to all seeming things

I forget Myself for the joy of discovery

I divide Myself for the beauty of friendship

I hide Myself for the pleasure of seeking

I look for Myself for the pleasure of finding

I find Myself for the pleasure of knowing

I know Myself for the pleasure of being

I am Myself for no other reason

I shine

I become ugly for the sake of beauty

I become hostile for the sake of love

I am cruel for the sake of kindness

I am vast and bright

I am the heart of the heart

I am the voice of a child

I am wonder, astonishment and delight

Time and space move through Me but I do not move through them

I live in the space between thoughts but I play in your thinking

My abode is the moment between breaths but I dance in your breathing

I am never experienced yet you experience only Me

I never repeat Myself but am always the same

I am utterly vulnerable but cannot be harmed

I am made of nothing but cannot be destroyed

I have no defences but am your refuge

I have no goal but am the fulfilment of every desire

I have no feelings but am open to all feelings

I have no thoughts but all thoughts are an image of Me

I am kindness itself

I am undisturbable and am thus peace itself

I am without resistance and am thus happiness itself

I am one with all seeming things and am thus love itself

I shine in the mind as ‘I’

I shine in the heart as ‘you’

I shine in the world as ‘it’

But I only ever know Myself

Of the known I am the knower

In the knower I am the knowing

As the knowing I am and know Myself alone

I render all experience knowable

But am not Myself an experience

All seeming things are My names and forms

But I have no name or form

In ignorance I come and go in the world

In wisdom the world comes and goes in Me

In love all is Me and I am all

But for Myself there is no I or all

I am neither beyond nor within

I am the relationship in all relationships

I am the understanding in all meaning

I am the permanent in all impermanence

I am the experiencing in all experience

I am the thinking in the thought

I am the feeling in the felt

I am the seeing in the seen

I am the hearing in the heard

I am the touching in the touched

I am the smelling in the smelt

I am the tasting in the tasted

I give continuity to the world

I am happiness itself

I am lost in the world and the world is lost in Me

I am abundant yet empty, empty yet overflow

I am homeless at home everywhere

I am helpless but help all things

I have no cares but I care

I have no desires but long for your heart

I wait without waiting

I cannot be recognised but recognise Myself in all things

I have no substance but am the substance of all things

I have no experience but am all experience

I depend on nothing but all things depend on Me

I am never found but never lost

I am the embrace of lovers and the love in an embrace

I am your call and you are My echo

I sing

Whenever you think of Me it is I that am thinking of you

I was not born but all are born of Me

I do not die but all things die in Me

I have no cause but cause all things

I do not last in time but all time lasts in Me

I am ordinary but extraordinary

Whatever is seen I am seeing Myself

Whatever is heard I am hearing Myself

Whatever is touched I am touching Myself

Whatever is smelt I am smelling Myself

Whatever is tasted I am tasting Myself

Whatever is thought I am pondering Myself

Whatever is felt I am feeling Myself

Whatever is experienced in any way I am always only experiencing Myself

I enjoy

I am the present in the past

I am the mirror of Narcissus

I am youthful but not young

I am ancient but not old

I am a fool but not foolish

I am a child but not childish

I am alone but not lonely

I am closer than your breath but further than the stars

I am intimate but impersonal

I am infinite

I am not something but not nothing

I am not somewhere but not nowhere

I am not ‘me’ but not ‘other’

I do not exist but am not non-existent

I am desired and yet feared

I am longed for but avoided

How strange

I project the mind within Myself, the world within the mind and the body within the world

I dissolve the body into the world, the world into mind and mind into Myself

Existence is a movement of My breath

I take the shape of thinking and seem to become a mind

I take the shape of sensing and seem to become a body

I take the shape of seeing, hearing, touchng, tasting and smelling

And seem to become a world

But always remain Myself

I am, know and love Myself alone

My eternity appears as time to the mind

My infinity appears as space to the senses

But I know only My own eternal dimensionless being

I become something then nothing then everything but always remain Myself

I can be separated from all things but no thing can be separated from Me

The world is My mirror and I am its lover

I am peaceful like the sky

I am open like the sea

I am empty like space

I shine by Myself

I play

I enjoy

I am

Details on Events

LINKS

Rupert’s website

(lots of free audio/video/print material)

http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/home

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rupert-Spira/367182747762

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/Rupert%20Spira

About Rupert

http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/about/rupert-spira

Rupert’s online bookstore

(books, DVDs, downloads, events and retreats, etc.)

http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/store

To sign up for webinars

http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/webinar

Media by and on Rupert at Nonduality Press

Presence, The Art of Peace and Happiness

(Volume I)

on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/7rka4sk

Presence, The Intimacy of All Experience

(Volume II)

on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/865a6op

The Transparency of Things

on Amazon http://amzn.to/QeC2g1

The Transparency of Things

(DVD with Chris Hebard)

on Amazon

A great interview on Buddha at the Gas Pump

http://batgap.com/rupert-spira/

A series of fine interviews on Conscious TV

(search the directory)

http://www.conscious.tv/consciousness.html

‘Teacher listing’ on Stillness Speaks

http://www.stillnessspeaks.com/rupert_spira/

Rupert’s ceramic arts website:

http://www.rupertspira.com/home.aspx?intContentID=1

Rupert’s ceramic arts Wikipedia bio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Spira

Housekeeping Notes:

Please join us on August 17, when Rupert’s wife, Ellen Emmet, will be our guest teacher. I’m so looking forward to that. Ellen radiates freshness and clarity.

I want to welcome Iliana Anderson to my hometown of Columbia, South Carolina. Iliana is an Awakening Clarity reader who first wrote me while she was living 8,000 miles away, in New Zealand, where she owned a small retreat, Aurum, which is Latin for gold. We had a good bit of correspondence, during which I found out that her mother lives quite close to me. Iliana is in town to visit Mom and will then be on her way to attend a retreat with Rupert at Omega Institute. We’ll now have a chance to meet and chat about all things Nondual and Kiwi. She’s also acting as a messenger, by carrying a book from my hands to Rupert’s. What a world! All One of us indeed.

P.S. I’m very pleased to share that Iliana discovered her True Nature about an hour into our lunch. Much fun.