Rupert Spira - The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter

In this book it is suggested that consciousness is the fundamental, underlying reality of the apparent duality of mind and matter, and that the overlooking, forgetting or ignoring of this reality is the root cause of both the existential unhappiness that pervades and motivates most peoples lives and the wider conflicts that exist between communities and nations. Conversely, it is suggested that the recognition of the fundamental reality of consciousness is the prerequisite and a necessary and sufficient condition for an individuals quest for lasting happiness and, at the same time, the foundation of world peace.

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 a twenty-year period of study and practice in the classical Advaita Vedanta tradition under the guidance of Dr. Francis Roles and Shantananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the north of India.

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. Francisintroduced Rupert to the Direct Path teachings of Atmananda Krishna Menon, the Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism (which he had received from his teacher, Jean Klein), 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 USA.

THE NATURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

SAHAJA PUBLICATIONS

PO Box 887, Oxford ox1 9pr

www.sahajapublications.com

A co-publication with New Harbinger Publications

5674 Shattuck Ave.

Oakland, CA 94609

United States of America

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright Rupert Spira 2017

All rights reserved

No part of this book shall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval system without written permission of the publisher

Designed by Rob Bowden

Printed in Canada

ISBN 978-1-68403-002-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file with publisher

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poets pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

CONTENTS

One of the great mysteries of human existence is so basic that most people never think to ask about it: Can we ever know who we really are? Simply posing the question runs into an obstacle if we believe that who we are is a walking package of billions and billions of cells. Cells are little bottles of salt water that process chemicals in totally predictable ways. The same goes for brain cells, and no matter how closely you stare at a CT scan or fMRI of the brain, the hot spots that light up seem a long way from Shakespeare and Mozart. Nobody has convincingly shown how glucose or blood sugar, which isnt all that different from the sugar in a sugar bowl suddenly learns to think after it passes through a thin membrane and enters the brain.

Rupert Spira belongs to a completely different branch of investigation, which takes Who are we? as an interior question. Being human isnt about cells and chemical reactions but about exploring the essential nature of ourselves and the world. Following this path, even science reaches non-dual conclusions. The great pioneering physicist Max Planck, who coined the term quantum, insisted that Mind is the matrix of matter. He elaborated on the point, speaking to a London reporter in 1931: I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.

Needless to say, modern science didnt follow Plancks lead quite the opposite. We are in the midst of a headlong rush to solve everything in life through technology and compiling mountains of data for supercomputers to digest. But the total inability to explain consciousness by building it up from molecules, atoms and subatomic particles is a clear failure of science. To claim that discovering more and more complex particles will eventually lead to the emergence of mind is like saying that if you add enough cards to the deck, they learn to play poker.

In short, one can divide the argument between the mind first position and the matter first position. Far and away, the matter first camp prevails at the present moment, since everyone accepts that the physical world out there exists without question. Spira says, in his typically quiet, patient voice, that matter first and mind first are both short-sighted. Taking the simplest possible fact to be true that there is only one reality Spira concludes that there is also only one explanation for reality. In these essays he maintains unwaveringly that the only reality is pure consciousness, and everything else, including mind and matter, is a modulation of that reality. A thought is something consciousness does it is not an entity in its own right; likewise an atom. Nature goes to the same place to produce the smell of a rose and a spiral galaxy.

The beauty of this position, which Spira expresses with eloquent conviction, is that the thorny question Can we ever know who we really are? leads to the answer Yes. To be more precise we could say, Yes, but, because finding out who we really are doesnt come in words, but only as an intimate experience, an awakening. And although that experience confronts us at every moment and invites us in, it cannot be compared to any other experience. It lies outside the physical domain and the mental domain at the same time.

Where would such a place be located? Everywhere and nowhere. How do you get there? The journey doesnt require you to go anywhere but here and now. Those answers, however frustrating, are the truth. Theres an ancient backlog of discussion on this paradox of starting anywhere and getting everywhere, sometimes called the pathless path. The time-honoured advice, echoed in every spiritual tradition, has pointed inward. The basic notion is that beneath the restless surface of the mind is a deeper level that is unmoving, silent and at peace. This journey relieves our sense of self of all superimposed limitations and reveals its true reality. Illusions fall away. The ego loses its grip. With the experience of the true nature of the Self, a transformation takes place. The key is to transcend our misguided sense of self, and then the light dawns.

In an ideal world, everyone would obey the Old Testament injunction to Be still and know that I am God. Not that religious terms are necessary: the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore declared:

Listen, my heart, to the whispering of the world.

That is how it makes love to you.

In other words, intimate contact with the Self is everywhere, and its allure is the same as loves.

If we cannot hear what the world whispers, there is another way, pointed out by Tagore again:

I grew tired of the road when it took me here and there.

I married the road in love when it took me Everywhere.

To begin with, the outward world seems to be infinite and inexhaustible, but if we pursue it far enough we inevitably come to the conclusion that it is consciousness itself that is infinite and inexhaustible. The outward journey wears itself out, and then the inward one beckons.