Rupert Spira - Enlightenment, Happiness & Non-Duality | Modern Wisdom Podcast 349

Everything that you are aware of is constantly changing, but that which is aware of it remains consistently present throughout all changing experience. In fact, that aware presence that we refer to when we say I is the only element of experience that never changes. (wind blows)

I actually want to start at the end, to perhaps give us an idea of where we're heading. How do you define enlightenment?

I would suggest that enlightenment is, um, a rather exotic term that has, um, acquired all sorts of, um, uh, e- e- exotic and superfluous meanings for people. But that it really refers to something very simple, and well within everybody's grasp. And, and it is, uh, simply this. The recognition of the nature of one's essential being, or self.

So it's innately linked to some sort of truth.

It, y- you, we could say it is, it is the truth about what we essentially are. Now, when I say, "What we essentially are," I mean, that aspect of ourselves that i- i- never disappears, cannot be taken away from us, is, is inherent or integral to us. So for instance, uh, the current conversation that you and I are having is not inherent in us. It, it started a few minutes ago, and it will come to an end. It's not part of our essential being. And, and indeed, no thought that we have ever had is essential to us. All thoughts appear, they exist briefly, and they vanish. Likewise, our feelings how ever, uh, however intimate or deep a feeling may be, it is still something that is added to us, it lasts a while, and then it vanishes. The same is true of any relationship or activity. So if one were to imagine removing everything from our self that is not essential to us, what would remain would be what I refer to as our essential irreducible self or being. The recognition of its nature is what is referred to in the religious and spiritual traditions as enlightenment or awakening.

So it feels a lot like that is casting off rather than learning more. It feels-

Absolutely.

... it feels like we need to get rid as opposed to acquire.

Well, it's actually not even necessary to get rid of anything. It, it, it is simply necessary to see clearly that all those elements of our experience, uh, namely thoughts, feelings, activities, relationships, sensations and perceptions are not essential to us. We don't actually have to get rid of them, or change them, or discipline them. We just have to realize they're not essential to us. The, the, um, analogy that I sometimes use to illustrate this is the analogy of the, the screen and the image. That no image, no movie is essential to the screen. If you closed down all your programs, your emails, your iPhotos, your notes, your YouTube clips, your Word documents, you closed down all the programs that you have running through the day, w- what, what remains? What, what can't you close down? You even remove your screensaver, which is not essential. It seems to be there always, but actually, it's not essential to the, uh, to the screen. What, what remains? Just the transparent empty screen. So yes, it's a similar process. It, it's a process of, um, removing from one self rather than adding to oneself.