You Are the Happiness You Seek

You Are the Happiness You Seek

Talk
Wednesday, November 16, 2022 - 19:00 to 20:30
Spiritual
Wellbeing
Alternatives says: 
Uncovering the deep happiness within
Description: 

In this talk, Rupert Spira distils the message of all the great religious and spiritual traditions into two essential truths: happiness is the very nature of our self or being, and we share our being with everyone and everything.

Drawing on numerous examples from his own experience, Rupert will demonstrate that to seek lasting happiness through objects, situations and relationships is destined for failure and disappointment, and he will guide you to recognise that we are already the happiness we seek.

Could there be any greater discovery in life than to know that we are already that for which we long?
 

'I’ve gained deeper understanding listening to Rupert Spira than I have from any other exponent of modern spirituality. Reality is sending us a message we desperately need to hear, and at this moment no messenger surpasses Spira and his transformative words.’
Deepak Chopra

'Let Rupert Spira, one of the finest teachers of the present time, gently guide you home to your innate peace and happiness.’
Peter Russell, author of Letting Go of Nothing

About the speaker, Rupert Spira

Soon after this he met his first teacher, Dr. Francis Roles, who was himself a student of Shantananda Saraswati the Shankaracharya of the North of India,. Under Dr. Roles’ guidance he learned mantra meditation and was introduced to the classical system of Advaita or Non-Duality. This formed the foundation of his interest and practice for the next 25 years.

During this time he read everything available by the Russian philosopher, P.D. Ouspensky, and learnt Gurdjieff’s Movements. During the late 1970s he attended Krishnamurti’s last meetings at Brockwood Park close to his childhood home and was deeply impressed and influenced by his intellectual rigor and fierce humility. Throughout these years he also studied the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj on a continuous basis. Towards the end of the 1980s he had a brief encounter with the teachings of Da Free John whose early writings made a deep impression on him.

During the late seventies and early eighties Rupert trained as a ceramic artist under Henry Hammond and Michael Cardew, two of the founding fathers of the British Studio Pottery movement. He started his first studio in 1983 making pieces that are to be found in private and public collections around the world.

A turning point in the mid 1990s led Rupert to an American teacher, Robert Adams, who died two days after he arrived. However, while visiting, Rupert was told about another teacher, Francis Lucille.

Several months later Rupert met Francis. The first words Rupert heard him say were, “Meditation is a universal ‘Yes’ to everything.” Although this is the sort of phrase anyone on the spiritual circuit might come across, nevertheless it was pivotal moment in Rupert's life. “At this moment I realized that I had arrived home, that this encounter was the flowering and fulfillment of the previous thirty years of seeking.” When Rupert asked Francis at that first meeting what to do next, he replied, “Come as often as you can.”

Over the next twelve years Rupert spent all the spare time that work and family commitments would allow with Francis, exploring the sense of separation as it appears in the mind in the form of beliefs and, more importantly, how it appears in the body as feelings of being located and limited. Francis also introduced Rupert to the Direct Path teachings of Atmanada Krishnamenon, and the tantric approach of Kashmir Shaivism, which he had received from his teacher, Jean Klein.

Of the essence of these years, Rupert writes, "The greatest discovery in life is to discover that our essential nature does not share the limits nor the destiny of the body and mind.

I do not know what it is about the words, actions or presence of the teacher or teaching that seem to awaken this recognition of our essential nature as it truly is and its subsequent realization in our lives but I am eternally grateful to Francis for our friendship."

Rupert lives in Oxford and holds meetings and retreats worldwide.

Timetable: 
7pm
Talk starts
8.30pm
Talk ends
Venue: