Discover the profound wisdom of Rupert Spira, a renowned spiritual teacher known for his eloquent insights on awareness, the nature of reality, and human experience. These quotes offer a glimpse into his deep philosophical perspectives and can inspire and enlighten anyone seeking inner peace and clarity.
25 Rupert Spira Quotes on Awareness, Happiness, and Our True Nature
“I am that which knows or is aware of all experience, but I am not myself an experience. I am aware of thoughts but am not myself a thought; I am aware of feelings and sensations but am not myself a feeling or sensation; I am aware of perceptions but am not myself a perception. Whatever the content of experience, I know or am aware of it. Thus, knowing or being aware is the essential element in all knowledge, the common factor in all experience.” – Rupert Spira
“Happiness is simply to allow everything to be exactly as it is from moment to moment.” – Rupert Spira
“Looking for happiness in the body, mind or world is like looking for the screen in a movie. The screen doesn’t appear in the movie, and yet, at the same time, all that is seen in the movie is the screen. In the same way that the screen ‘hides’ in plain view, so happiness ‘hides’ in all experience.” – Rupert Spira
“Many of our ideas and beliefs about ourselves and the world are so deeply ingrained that we are unaware that they are beliefs and take them, without question, to be true.” – Rupert Spira
“We take that which is unreal to be real and that which is real to be unreal.” – Rupert Spira
“Only that which is always with you can be said to be your self and if you look closely and simply at experience, only awareness is always ‘with you’.” – Rupert Spira
“It is impossible to experience the appearance of awareness. We are that awareness to which such an appearance would occur. We have no experience of a beginning to the awareness that is seeing these words. We have no experience of its birth. We have no experience that we, awareness, are born. Likewise, in order to claim legitimately that awareness dies, something would have to be present to experience its disappearance.” – Rupert Spira
“I’ve been operating according to the idea that it is almost impossible to let go of mental patterns that operate unconsciously and that I have to know such a pattern of thinking first in order to let go of it and abide in my true nature. Leave all those mental habits and patterns alone. The self that is apparently operating, that seems to know these patterns and that would ‘let go of them’ is itself simply one such pattern.” – Rupert Spira
“No formulation of the reality of experience is completely true. Once we acknowledge this, we relieve words of the impossible burden of trying to express the nature of experience and, as a result, leave them free to be spoken and heard in playful and creative ways that evoke Reality itself without trying to frame or grasp it.” – Rupert Spira
“Our true nature of eternal, infinite awareness is never completely forgotten or eclipsed by objective experience. However agitated or numbed objective experience may have rendered our mind, the memory of our eternity shines within it as the desire for happiness, or, in religious language, the longing for God.” – Rupert Spira
“The apparent separation of experience into two essential parts is similar to imagining that a screen is divided in two when two images appear on it side by side. If thinking imagines that the screen is only contained in only one of the images, then thinking will also have to imagine a substance that is ‘not the screen’, out of which the second image is made.” – Rupert Spira
“In fact, we don’t know objects; we just know ‘knowing’. And who is it that knows ‘knowing’? ‘Knowing’ is not known by something or someone outside or other than itself. ‘Knowing’ is known by ‘knowing’. In other words, all that is experienced in the experience of an object, other or world is ‘knowing’.” – Rupert Spira
“This perpetual longing for happiness – which can, by definition, never be fulfilled because that very search itself denies the happiness that is present in our own being now – condemns us to an endless search in the future and thus perpetuates unhappiness. It is for this reason that the poet said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.”” – Rupert Spira
“Nor have we, aware presence, ever become sad, angry, anxious, depressed, in need, agitated, jealous, etc. At the same time, we are intimately one with all such feelings when they are present. Although we are the substance of all such feelings, just as the screen is the substance of all images, we are inherently free of them. Unhappiness is made out of our self, but our self is never unhappy.” – Rupert Spira
“What remains when we have let go of all thoughts, images, memories, feelings, sensations, perceptions, activities and relationships? Our self alone remains: not an enlightened, higher, spiritual, special self or a self that we have become through effort, practice or discipline, but just the essential self or being that we always and already are before it is coloured by experience.” – Rupert Spira
“The belief that we were born, that we change, evolve, grow old and die is simply a belief to which the vast majority of humanity subscribes without realizing that they are doing so. It is the religion of our culture.” – Rupert Spira
“Love, peace and happiness are inherent in the knowing of our own being. In fact, they are the knowing of being. They are simply other names for our self.” – Rupert Spira
Reflections of the Top 5 Rupert Spira Quotes
1. “Happiness is simply to allow everything to be exactly as it is from moment to moment.” – Rupert Spira
This quote emphasizes the importance of acceptance and presence. True happiness comes not from external conditions but from embracing each moment as it is.
2. “I am that which knows or is aware of all experience, but I am not myself an experience.” – Rupert Spira
Spira underscores the distinction between awareness and the objects of awareness. This understanding is crucial for realizing our true nature beyond transient experiences.
3. “Only that which is always with you can be said to be your self and if you look closely and simply at experience, only awareness is always ‘with you’.” – Rupert Spira
This quote guides us to recognize that awareness is a constant presence, unlike fleeting experiences. It is an invitation to explore the deeper aspects of self-identity.
4. “Looking for happiness in the body, mind or world is like looking for the screen in a movie.” – Rupert Spira
Spira uses a powerful metaphor to illustrate that happiness is intrinsic and not dependent on external factors. Just as the screen is ever-present in a movie, happiness pervades all experiences.
5. “We take that which is unreal to be real and that which is real to be unreal.” – Rupert Spira
This profound statement challenges our conventional perceptions and beliefs, urging us to discern the true nature of reality from illusions.
Related Figures
- Eckhart Tolle
- Ramana Maharshi
- Mooji
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
- Adyashanti
- Deepak Chopra
- Ken Wilber
- Alan Watts
- Pema Chödrön
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Conclusion
Rupert Spira’s quotes offer profound insights into the nature of awareness, happiness, and reality. Reflecting on these timeless teachings can lead to a deeper understanding of our true nature and inspire a more peaceful, contented life. Let these words guide your journey toward inner peace and self-realization.
