Rupert Spira: Can We Go to Our True Nature Through Effort?

Sue’s Comments last week inspired the selection of this talk, especially her concluding remarks on “effort”.

She wrote:

Another concept that has been very helpful to me recently is the realization that meditation is truly a “practice” and must be regularly practiced to gain the benefits. The benefit does not lie in what happens during a meditation, but what happens in the rest of your life. Repeated practice changes the brain and builds the skills that will benefit one in the rest of life. At least that’s my understanding. 

I sometimes wonder what to make of my perception that so many others seem to function and thrive without engaging in all this deep work. Or maybe they and everything else in my world are just manifestations of the stories my mind is creating? And what is the purpose of having to work so hard to remember who we really are, as you put it? These are the areas where I get fuzzy in my understanding.

Who is making the “effort” is the question being asked in today’s recorded talk. Rupert Spira addresses this very succinctly.

“Effort is just what Grace (Awareness) looks like, from the point of view of the separate self….So there is no conflict between making efforts and grace. We feel the efforts we make to return to our true nature, we feel “I am taking the journey back to our true nature”. We don’t yet know that it is (Grace) reeling us in… No, the separate self does nothing. There is no separate self either to do something or not to do something…So if you feel that you need to make the effort, make the effort, but know that it is always (Awareness) that is doing.”