Learn with University of California San Diego (UCSD) professor and CHI Scientific Advisory Board member, Dr. Paul Mills, as he explores the meaning of non-duality with Rupert Spira, author of The Transparency of Things. During this interview, Paul and Rupert discuss that although we have constructed a world of duality, in reality, the distinction that our mind is different from matter does not exist. Ultimately, embracing and understanding that there is no separation between all things and recognizing our mind as unlimited self-awareness leads to a greater sense of wellbeing through reacquainting ourselves with the true nature of self.
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The Science of Healing Summit
March 15-19, 2021
Please join Dr. Paul Mills and Dr. Shamini Jain as they co-host the Shift Network’s The Science of Healing Summit, March 15 – 19, 2021. We hope you can join us as we explore and learn from our esteemed colleagues about the science of healing. Be on the lookout for information in the coming weeks!
Learn More About the Speakers
Bio courtesy of https://chopra.com/bio/rupert-spira
From an early age Rupert Spira was deeply interested in the nature of reality. At the age of 17 he learned to meditate and began studying and practicing the teachings of the classical Advaita Vedanta tradition under the guidance of Dr. Francis Roles and Shantananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the north of India, which he continued for the next 20 years. Rupert lives in the UK and holds regular meetings and retreats in Europe and the U.S. In these meetings he explores the perennial non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, such as Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Hinduism, Buddhism, mystical Christianity, Sufism and Zen, and which is also the direct, ever-present reality of our own experience.
Paul Mills, Ph.D. is a long-standing National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported clinical investigator with expertise in psychoneuroimmune processes in wellness and in disease, with a current focus on integrative medicine. He is director of the UC San Diego Clinical Research Biomarker Laboratory and Co-director of the UC San Diego CTRI’s Translational Research Technology (TRT) Laboratories Program. He is currently serving as director of research at the Chopra Center for Wellbeing.
An enlightening interview
What is this?
edgar allen poe — all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream
The physicists discuss fields and particles and energy and matter- a deterministic approach to life . The neuroscientists look for neural correlates of consciousness, so they can recreate a brain using a computer model and discuss all of the brain regions & delineate their duties. Let’s suggest that science can only go so far due to limitations of causality. Not everything is a result of cause and effect. We must include the nonlinear nature of the cosmos in any discussion. What about the philosophers and those attempting greater understanding through concepts related to the nature of duality and dualism? Okay, let’s begin looking at how any human might be functioning. What are aspects of nature that we hold in common? How do we arrive at adulthood programmed to function according to society’s orientation? What is being human? What is personal consciousness? What is experiencing?
Let’s go with a concept that we are in Awareness before a body, during body existence, after body. We live being what is flowing through without getting attached or contracted by events. We receive millions of photons of energy every instant. Each experience just is. There are no opposites within our experiences. All are what is flowing. By 36 months of age, we are conditioned and have fit into a cultural mold. We perceive that which is as ‘not ok’ or ‘very ok’. Then, we are operating as a separate illusory me seeing images and thinking in opposites. Hence, duality has become my dualism with fear and joy being primary motivators for the next experience.
Everything is within Awareness [A]. Consciousness [CS] arises from Awareness. We have a personality by age three and a personal consciousness [pc]. However due to an apparent felt separation, we identify with our name, form, personality– an established delusional “i”. The end product of ‘i’ is a false knowing filled with a delusional reality. On the physical, our brain becomes limited in processing due to input from conditioned sensory data.
We record images as data input by our sensory apparati. We believe these images are the physical reality. Whatever we sense has a form and name. So, we are experiencing separation with a physical body due to limited imaging. Of course, languaging with names and images is convenient for communicating. We are the information age, however, this makes for a delusional existence filled with subject/object comparison, division, separation, confusion and difficult challenges. As we are conditioned from utero, we apparently begin to have memory stored. Plus, we are linked to all previous forms via our genetic inheritance. These factors lead to more limitations, so before too long, we are thoroughly conditioned with limited sensing, perceiving and thinking. We prejudge, we are biased. Adding to those influences are the cultural style, educational approaches, the media and the internet. Hence, we operate with tunnel vision and a narrowed range of operation and are motivated by fear and joy.
Everything appearing is CS. If one wants to consider the possibility that CS can be at rest, then it would be potential energy. Whatever form it manifests as, it still is CS. Any delusional human may consider her doing as indicating her own personal consciousness present, but that is the veil of illusion confusing the nature of what is. The common confusion is that a seeker may think she has understanding of this illusory world of form without realizing that she is the illusion, too. We are not separate from the dream or illusion. The illusion is a result of genetics, conditioning and the formation of a me by age 36 months. As the me gains more possessions, it is strengthened, and the veil becomes more dominant in reinforcing the confusion of the apparent separate self.
Our body is in Awareness, the ground of all that is. We are not in a body. Our body appears to us as a series of sensory perceptions and concepts. We assume the body is an appearance in conscious attention, when we feel it and think of it. We identify ourselves with these experiences of objects, the body being one. The observer that has these experiences is usually labeled as having personal consciousness[pc]. When we attempt to observe this personal consciousness, we don’t because of its subjective nature. When viewing, we experience objects only. Attempting to view a subjective nature, leads to nothing. We are left with knowing only “I am”. We understand that we exist. What preceded “I am” and follows is a mystery. Therefore, our true nature is the experiences that we encounter through this life interval. Anything else is conceptual, impermanent and therefore not the ultimate truth. So, all that we think is illusory, because we think within a context that we are separate beings in control of our destiny with the ability to make choices from an illusory basis of free will. This assumed personality delusionally believes that it operates unilaterally. Unfortunately and for unknown reasons, we seem unable to make consistent decisions that guarantee any continuing sense of peace and happiness. Meanwhile, we experience life events arising independently bringing what feels like pain, disharmony and continued suffering. We appear as robots running through the same habits, addictions, routines, patterns passed from previous heritage. As they behaved, we behave. As they assumed, we assume.
“Any feeling of freedom arises from our moment to moment ignorance of prior causes of our thoughts/actions. The phrase ‘free will’ describes what it feels like to identify with certain mental states as they arise in pc. Thoughts simply arise unauthored, and yet author our actions. This doesn’t mean that conscious awareness and deliberative thinking serve no purpose. Decisions, efforts and will power are causal states of a brain. But any next ‘choice’ one makes will come out of the darkness of prior causes that we, the conscious witness of one’s experience, didn’t bring into being. A person’s “choices” merely appear in one’s mind as though sprung from a void. From a perspective of conscious awareness, we are no more responsible for any next thing than being born was a choice.” [sam harris ‘free will”]
Initially we are the “I am” without form/identity. Then, energy arises and a thought of “I am” appears. With that, a form exists which eventually identifies itself leading to bondage. This is the living dream. So for complete understanding, a reverse process will need to arise signaling a return to an original nature. Potentially, an awakening may be accompanied with a knowing that one is neither the apparent body nor the personal consciousness. The seeker is the sought.
Actually, we may shift this perception of there being someone who is a separate entity with limitations and responsibilities, who at some point may evolve into an “enlightened being” with understanding. Possibly, there is no special someone adorned with pure knowing; more likely, we are an appearance that arises at some point, and then disappears at a different point, i.e., a perceived object. Or, we can consider that what appears is the nature of the cosmos and is beyond our grasp of understanding. We are what is. This keeps it in perspective and keeps it simple without too many concepts that are relative and limited. Anything generated by so called human intelligence is completely relative and short sighted. It’s opinion and lacking in insight, a projection of one’s conditioning and heritage.
The human brain didn’t evolve on its own; it was following what exists within CS. The use of an interface kept improving to keep up with what the user thought she wanted to do. We own the latest version of an interface, because we are participating in the latest understanding that humans have attained.
If we look back over this life, one may note that the most positive, life-changing events happened unexpectedly. Probably, these milestones were not as a result of some master plan set in motion at age 16. Things arise without any person directing the energy. It happens. Life happens even though we may think we created it. Consider this approach–
“Nothing ever happens. This whole apparent creation is simply an appearance. It has absolutely no meaning. It’ll never get any better nor worse. It’s always like this. And the only purpose we may uncover is the invitation for the truth within to awaken and rediscover that there is only one. The invitation then turns to celebration. Nothing is going anywhere, and no one needs to go anywhere since this is it. ” [tony parsons “invitation to awakening”]
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Suggestion: for the next month, let’s consider the concepts ‘free will’ and ‘choice’. When there is an opportunity, be still and inquire about these two. Investigate the how and why of each and if they are truth. Below is a suggested guided meditation that investigates concepts. If this resonates, read the meditation into a smart phone, so that it is available for listening.
Relax with soft, spacious breathing. Focus at the tip of the nose. Feel the breath. Melt into silent, soft, spacious, stillness. Breathing slowly, deeply while resting in the present instant, allows for connection with the energies of the cosmos. Our answers arise within this connection.
We can investigate concepts like choice and free will. Consider a definition for these two concepts.
“Do I believe any definitions totally?” “Is this truth?” ” Do I know absolutely that this is truth?”
“Do we have control over any thought that appears?” “Does a thought arise whenever alleged free will activates?”
“Is free will apart from thinking?” “What controls thinking?”
“Do you believe that you are the author of all thinking that seems to appear?” “If so, where’s the energy of thinking arising from?”
“Do you totally believe that the concept ‘free will’ impacts how you function throughout every day?”
“If we have free will, why isn’t everyone happy and at peace most of the time?”
“Is any consideration of free will more than a collection of thoughts and thinking?”
Maybe we realize that this concept can be dropped from our vocabulary. Let’s let it go easily this instant.
Now, focus attention on the tip of the nose. Feel the breath being silent, soft, spacious, still while sinking into our seat. Be what is this instant.
[Note: Substitute ‘choice’, or any other concept, for ‘free will’ and record again. Thank you.]
Enjoy. [part two will be at equinox.]
Rupert, Your beautiful & inspiring words resonate with me completely! You have confirmed what I have always known to be true; that I’m joyful and fulfilled when I’m connected in LOVE & BEAUTY. Today you have given me much more clarity… beginning right now I will stand more firmly grounded in the love and beauty that I know to be my true nature and essence.. I will BE this so that I will hopefully better teach and guide others. So simple really… I’ve been making it all much too complicated! Thank you for your wisdom and your timely message.
Concepts and influences on well being– no concept is truth. Perceiving one’s well-being may be an exercise in delusional mentation. Duality and dualism are conditioned perspectives that usually lead to an illusory reality. It is our challenge to recognize the nature of conditioned thinking and perceiving and ways that they skew our conclusions concerning ‘what is’.