Rupert Spira: Guided Meditation on the Self of All Selves

I woke up in the middle of the night and Anesto's question, "What is the one thing I can do?" came back to me. So I wanted to explore that more fully. All our experience is accompanied by the sense of ourself. The sense of being myself accompanies and pervades all experience. You always feel you are yourself. And this sense of always being myself is enshrined in common parliament. When somebody asks you how are you, you say I am well. You don't say well. You say I am well. Somebody asks you what are you doing? You you don't say meditating. You say I am meditating. You don't say having breakfast. You say I am having breakfast. You don't say walking down the street. You say I am walking down the street and so on. And this this I am that is appended to every experience betrays our our deep feeling that our s our self accompanies all experience. There is no experience that is not pervaded by ourself. Whatever that is. Right now you are having the feeling of being myself. Indeed, even if we if we could hear and speak while we were dreaming or even while we were deeply asleep and somebody were to ask us what we were doing or what our experience is. We would say we wouldn't just say dreaming. We would say I am dreaming. Even in deep sleep, we wouldn't say sleeping deeply. We would say I am sleeping deeply. What does this We know what sleeping deeply refers to. We know what dreaming refers to. We know what eating breakfast refers to. We know what walking down the street refers to. We know what talking to a friend refers to. We we know what thinking refers to. We know what sadness refers to and so on. But why do the words I am accompany everything we say about ourself? What do they refer to? What do the words I am refer to? That is the one thing you can do. Find that out. Everything that is added to the I am cannot be what we essentially are. I am not always thinking, but I always am. I'm not always talking, but I always am. I'm not always walking down the street, but I always am. I am not always meditating, but I always am. So finding out what this I am refers to is is more important than anything else including meditating. Meditating is something we do. It is not what we are. So be more interested in knowing what this I am refers to than in than in anything else. How do we explore the I am in the same way we explore anything? By giving our full attention to it, completely immersing ourself in it. Our conviction that I am [clears throat] comes from an experience. We don't guess that I am. We don't infer that I am. We know beyond any shadow of a doubt that I am. So our statement I am comes from the experience I am. What is that experience? Don't say I don't know. If you didn't know, you would say I am not or I'm not sure. But you don't. You say I am for certain. What experience gives you that certainty? Just immerse yourself in that. I want to try to to give you an analogy to make this really clear. Imagine the space in this room were conscious or aware and we were to ask the space in the room about its about itself. Tell us about yourself. To begin with, it might respond, I am large. I am square. I am light. I am old. I am clean. I am full of people. I am tidy and so on. It wouldn't answer. large light square, old. He would answer, "I am large. I am light. I am square. I am old." And so on. Now, we know what the room would be referring to when it says, "I am large." It's referring to the walls. We know what the room refers to when we when it says I am light. It refers to the light. We know what the room refers to. When it says I'm full of people, it's referring to the people. But if we were to say to the space in the room, no, what are you referring to by the words I am? Not the large walls, not the light, not the numerous people. But what are you referring to when you say I am? I am accompanies the feeling of being large, light, square, old, clean, tidy, full of people and so on. But what is the I am that you refer to in all these statements? And the space in the room would ponder for a while. Why do I say I am all the time? What does the I am refers to? Refer to doesn't refer to the walls, to the light, to the people and so on. It refers to myself, the space. And now the space begins to give its attention to itself alone. Not to the walls, not to the light, not to the people. From what experience do I derive from what what experience enables me to say I am? It is my experience of myself. The space's experience of itself. prior to and independent of its qualification by the walls, the light, the people and so on. What is the space's pure experience of itself? It's exactly the same when we say I'm thinking, I'm walking, I am cold, I am tired and so on. That's like referring to the walls, the light, the people and so on. But what is your experience of yourself? The experience from which you derive the certainty I am. What is its nature? It's like the space giving its all its ex all its attention to itself. What is my nature? Am I really defined by the walls, the light, the people, the age and so on? So we give our attention to ourself. We immerse ourself in the experience from which we derive the certainty I am. Is that experience really qualified by thoughts feelings sensations perceptions activities relationships? Or is it just the pure experience of being unqualified shining with the knowing of itself? Now as the space in this room, the space that seems to be in this room abides in itself, giving its love and attention to itself alone. Two things may happen. One, it suddenly recognizes that it is not and never has been limited to, contained within, or generated by the four walls of this room. But is already and always the vast space of the universe in which everything exists, out of which everything arises and into which everything vanishes or it is gradually divested of the limitations that it that seemed to qualify it, the limitations of the walls, the light, the people and so on. And as it is gradually divested of all these elements of its experience with which it associated or identified itself, it begins to feel that it expands and what was previously outside of it. the buildings, the fields, the trees, everything outside this room. It increasingly feels that all of these are inside it, within it, pervaded by it, made of it. It's exactly the same with us as we give our love and attention exclusively to ourself. There are two possibilities. One that we suddenly recognize what I essentially am is everpresent, unchanging, unlimited, self- knowing or more commonly our sense of our self is gradually ually divested of all the elements of experience with which we previously associated or identified ourself with. And as a result, there is this feeling of expansion, the loss of limitations. We now feel that everyone and everything that we previously felt were outside of ourself are now contained within ourself. We are not the vast space in which everything arises. We are the the infinite being in which everything moves and lives and has its apparent existence. We are the self of all selves, the identity of all things. The amness of all selves, the isness of all things. We are that out of which everything emerges in which everything exists and into which everything vanishes. infinite aware being, God's being, the only being there is that shines brightly in us at all times and under all circumstances as the knowledge I am. Thank you.