I am sitting in a retreat led by Rupert Spira this week, at home, online. Rupert Spira teaches the direct path and pathless path to non-dual awareness or naturally being. I relate to his teachings very strongly and find that his style is similar to the style of my first and main meditation teacher Rob Nairn. There is a combination of incisive intellectual insight and experiential practice based in decades of meditation practice in their teaching that I find engaging, instructive and, with practice, transformative. Both teachers strip away the historical dogma and present the essence of the teachings with clarity and simplicity.
Rob’s teaching domain was primarily the working of the finite human mind that we experience day to day. The arising, display and liberation of coarse thoughts, emotions, sensations and the reactive habitual patterns triggered in response. In my view, this is important work to gain insight into and transform the habitual patterns in our life that cause us to suffer so that we are able to navigate the finite human mind with acceptance of how things are – wisely, happily and in peace. I will be forever grateful to Rob for his teachings, his kindness and unfailing support. For me, this was important preparatory work in order to engage with the teachings of Rupert Spira.
Rupert’s teaching domain is the infinite, unchanging loving awareness which is the true nature of the finite human mind. He draws on the Advaita Vedanta tradition within which much of his own meditation training took place, but also draws on other wisdom traditions including Christianity and Buddhism. He is in an exciting conversation with contemporary philosophers and scientists about conscious (ie. non-material) nature of reality. For me, these teachings picked up from where Rob’s teachings left off and have led me to make naturally being or being awareness my practice and a growing experience in my day-to-day life over the past two years. I sat three of Rupert’s seven day retreats in 2023, two online and one in person and am planning to do at least three this year.
Naturally being arises when we trust the doing activity in the mind to unfold itself effortlessly, and then surrender to being. Trusting the mind and the mind’s experience to unfold itself is key, which means letting go of the delusion that we control what is unfolding in the mind. It requires unconditional acceptance of things as they are. It involves us letting go of our agendas for our meditation practice. It requires us to be ok with not knowing and confusion, and to surrender the ego-centric preferences of self-referential thinking. It can be an uncomfortable process. However, it is well worth it, for the experience of natural luminous peace, joy and love that is our true nature. We discover that it is always there in the background and generally overlooked in favour of the content of our experience.
Here is a short guided Naturally Being practice (3 mins)
So, over the past few years, I have been exploring how to create the conditions in my practice and in my life for naturally being to spontaneously happen. Some of my growing understanding has contributed to the development of the Mindfulness Association’s Level 4: Wisdom course . I will be sharing some of what I have learned at our Naturally Being two, five or ten day retreat, taking place at the Purelands retreat centre at Samye Ling, and online from the evening of Friday 26 April. In my experience, naturally being happens spontaneously when I am in nature, feeling safe, totally at ease and gently moving. We will be taking advantage of the beautiful backdrop for the retreat of the White Esk Valley to be in nature.
Here is a short video about the retreat (3 mins)
Kind Wishes
Heather