Being Myself by Rupert Spira (Deep Book Summary + Infographic)

This is a book summary of Being Myself by Rupert Spira from The Essence of Meditation Series (Amazon).

🔒 Premium members have access to the companion post which includes bonus book summary content and a distilled actionable guide: How to Be with “Being Myself” by Rupert Spira (+ Infographics)

Here’s a short video intro:

Quick Housekeeping:

All quotes (in quotation marks) are from the author unless otherwise stated.
I’ve added emphasis in bold throughout for readability/skimmability.
All content is organized in my own themes (not the author’s chapters).

Book Summary Contents: Click a link here to jump to a section below

About the Book
Screen Analogy (+ Infographic)
Objects & Experience
Suffering & Peace
Ego & Being
Awareness, I am, & Being Myself
Enlightenment

**Nonduality in a Nutshell: Being Myself by Rupert Spira (Book Summary)**

About the book Being Myself

“Being Myself is a contemplative exploration of the essential nature of our self. Everyone has the sense of ‘being myself,’ but not everyone knows their self clearly. In most cases, our sense of self is mixed up with the content of experience and, as a result, its natural condition of peace and happiness is veiled.”

“The contemplations in this book are taken from guided meditations that Rupert Spira has given during meetings and retreats over the past several years. They were originally delivered spontaneously but have been edited for this collection to avoid repetition, and to adapt them from the spoken to the written word.”

Screen Analogy

“The word ‘existence’ comes from two Latin words, ex, ‘out of’ or ‘from,’ and sistere, ‘to stand,’ indicating that something that exists ‘stands out from’ its background, just as an object in a movie seems to stand out from the screen.”

We are not the images on the screen:

“No thought, image, feeling, sensation, perception, activity or relationship is essential to us, just as no movie is integral to the screen on which it appears.”
“Just as the screen upon which a movie plays is never itself fragmented by the appearance of objects and characters, so our essential self or being is never divided, modified or harmed by experience.”
“Experiences, like movies, come and go. Our essential self, however, never appears or disappears.”
Just as the screen is neither separate from the movie nor limited by it, we are not separate from experience, nor are we limited or conditioned by it.
“If we look for the screen in an image, we will never find it, although all we are seeing is the screen.”
“Just as the screen never appears as an object in the movie, we never appear as an object in or of experience.”
Nothing ever happens to awareness. It is never changed, moved, or harmed by any experience, just as a screen is never stained or tarnished by the content of a movie.
“Nothing in a movie is distinct from the screen or has its own independent reality.”
“Everything in a movie is a coloring of the screen. Existence is a movement of being.”

We are the screen:

“We are like an aware screen upon which the movie of experience is playing and with which it is known.”
“We are the colorless, unlimited, unconditioned, self-aware screen upon which all experience plays, with which all experience is known and, ultimately, out of which all experience is made.”
“Just as a screen is colored by the images that appear on it, our knowledge of ‘being myself’ is qualified or conditioned by thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, activities and relationships. And just as the images change constantly but the screen remains the same, so experience changes all the time but the fact of ‘being myself’ is always the same.”
In the absence of any inherent sense of lack, our being is naturally fulfilled, needing nothing from experience to complete itself, just as nothing in a movie adds anything to or takes anything away from the screen.
“All that is necessary is to allow our self to emerge from the background of experience, just as, when an image fades on a screen, the screen seems to emerge. Of course, the screen does not really emerge; it was fully visible all the time. It just seemed to be obscured by the image.”

Objects & Experience

“Pure knowing is knowing that has no objective content. Whatever it is that knows our thoughts is itself inherently free of all thoughts. Whatever it is that is aware of our feelings and sensations is itself prior to and independent of all feeling and sensation. Whatever it is that knows sights, sounds, tastes, textures, and smells is itself free of all seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling.”

Objects of Experience:

“A person is a collection of thoughts, images, feelings, sensations and perceptions. Each of these is an object of experience that we, awareness, are aware of.”

“In most cases, our sense of self is mixed up with the content of experience: thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, activities and relationships.”
“All feelings, states, conditions, activities or relationships are added to me and then removed from me. They are not part of what I essentially am.”
“All thoughts and feelings, irrespective of their content, whether they are pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, arise and pass away. Even our most intimate and treasured feelings are not always present, and something that is not always with us cannot be essential to us.”
“I am aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions, but am not myself any such object. I am that which knows or is aware of them.”
“Thought abstracts discrete objects and selves from the reality of God’s infinite and indivisible being.”
“Even time and space are objects of experience, for they appear and disappear in awareness … In the absence of thought there is no experience of time, and in the absence of perception there is no experience of space.”
“The same is true of our perceptions of the world: sights, sounds, tastes, textures and smells. All of these appear, exist, evolve and vanish. None are essential to us.”
“We do not think of things because they exist; they seem to exist because we think of them.”
“Our thoughts, sensations, and perceptions change constantly, but awareness itself has not changed.”
“Beneath our thoughts and feelings, and their expression in activities and relationships, we are all the same.”
“When a feeling arises … we overlook our being in favor of the feeling.”
“As we engage in an activity we may become completely absorbed in or identified with it, but when it stops, our self or being simply remains as it always is.”
“Our self can only know something at an apparent distance from itself. We cannot separate our self from our self in order to know it as an object of experience.”
“No relationship is essential to us. No matter how intimate, none are indispensable. In fact, without reference to thought in this moment, one would have no knowledge of having or being in a relationship. This does not imply that relationship is not valid or desirable but simply that our essential self or being is prior to and independent of it.”
“Divested of the qualities of experience, our self has no characteristics and therefore no limitations of its own.”

Experience:

“Being aware or aware being is ever-present. No experience qualifies, conditions, changes, moves or harms it. There is never any more or less of it. It cannot be enhanced or diminished. It cannot grow old, tired, sick or lonely. It is always in the same pristine, ageless, thought-less, feeling-less, gender-less condition.”

“All experience is made of our self, but our self is not made of any particular experience.”
“It is not necessary to change or get rid of any particular experience.”
“It is only necessary to stay in touch with one’s essential self or being in the midst of all experience.”
“No thought, image, feeling, perception, activity or relationship is continuously present. Only the experience of being aware remains with us all the time.”
“Our self is said to be irreducible because we cannot go further back in our experience than being aware.”
“Do not give your self away to experience.”
“We lose our self in experience and our innate peace is temporarily obscured.”
“All experience is a temporary coloring of unconditioned, unlimited, self-aware being.”
“Experience is the activity of being; being is experience at rest.”
“There is just the current experience, appearing now.”

Suffering & Peace

“The great secret that lies at the heart of all the main religious and spiritual traditions is the understanding that the peace and happiness for which all people long can never be delivered via objective experience. It can only be found in our self, in the depths of our being.”

Suffering:

“When we allow our self to be defined by our thoughts, feelings, activities and relationships, we lose touch with our true nature and seem instead to become a temporary, finite self or ego, a separate person. Our suffering begins with that belief.”

“Having tried for most of our life to relieve our suffering through the acquisition of objects, substances, states of mind, activities and relationships, we eventually come to understand that the belief in being a separate person is the sole cause of that suffering.”
“Suffering ensues when we allow awareness of objects to eclipse awareness of being.”
“The depth of the suffering depends upon the extent of the amnesia, that is, the degree to which we allow the current feeling or experience to veil the peace and happiness at the core of our being.”
“If we are unhappy or feel any sense of lack, instead of seeking to fulfill our longing, we should seek the source of our longing. The source of our longing is ‘I,’ ‘myself,’ the one who is unhappy. If we go deeply into that sense of ‘I,’ we will, either gradually or suddenly, be divested of the limitations we have acquired from experience, and that for which we were in search will be revealed as our very own self.”
“We never gain or lose anything from the drama or experience. The drama only turns into trauma when we get lost in it or become identified with it.”
“When we are absorbed in the content of experience, we seem to lose touch with our being and are thus deprived of its innate peace and joy.”
“When our self or being sheds the qualities it inherits from experience, it loses its agitation and its essential nature of peace is revealed.”

Peace & Happiness:

“Once infinite being has contracted into the form of a person, it loses touch with its innate peace and happiness. For this reason, suffering and the search for happiness inevitably accompany the forgetting of our self. This search can never be satisfied by the acquisition of an object, substance, activity, state of mind or relationship. Peace and happiness are the very nature of our self when it is no longer limited by experience.”

“Having lost our self in experience and overlooked our innate peace and happiness, we embark on a search for them in the world, without realizing that all we really long for is to be free of the limitations we have acquired from experience and to return to our true nature.”
“It is only the extent to which the knowledge of our self is veiled by the content of experience that accounts for the varying degrees of peace and happiness we feel.”
“Happiness is revealed when we allow awareness of being to outshine awareness of objects.”
“The peace and happiness for which we long above all else, and habitually seek outside ourself, reside in the simple knowing of our own being as it is.”
“Sooner or later we see with absolute clarity that the peace and happiness for which we long above all else can only be found within our own being and, as a result, we return to our self from the adventure of experience.”
“Happiness is unconditional because it is not caused by or dependent upon anything that does or does not take place in experience.”
“There is either happiness or the longing for happiness, but never its absence.”
“We cannot know happiness; we can only be it. We cannot be unhappy; we can only know it.”
“The experience of happiness is our being shining in the midst of experience. That is all anybody ever truly seeks; we are simply seeking our own being.”
“The knowledge of our own being, its knowledge of itself, is not only the most profound knowledge possible but also the most precious. It is the source of the peace and happiness for which we long above all else, and the foundation for the resolution of all conflicts.”
“The ‘peace that passeth understanding’ is inherent in our own being—it is our own being—and is not derived from objective experience.”

Ego (Separate Self) & Being (Essential Self)

“When ‘I am’ becomes ‘I am this or that,’ it seems to cease being infinite and become finite. The separate self or ego is an apparent and ultimately illusory limitation self-assumed by infinite being.”

Ego (Separate Self):

“All experience is limited by nature, and this mixture of self with the qualities of experience gives rise to a limited sense of self. This is the apparently separate self or ego on whose behalf most thoughts and feelings arise and in whose service most activities and relationships are undertaken.”

“Feeling incomplete, the separate self or ego is given to a sense of insufficiency, inadequacy and unsatisfactoriness, and in an attempt to recover its natural condition of wholeness, it seeks fulfillment through the acquisition of objects, substances, activities, states of mind or relationships.”
“Little does the separate self realize that what it truly longs for is not to defend or fulfill the entity it imagines itself to be, but to be divested of its apparent limitations and return to its natural condition.”
“The separate self or ego is the apparent entity that arises from the intermingling of our self with the limitations of experience.”
“The mixture of God’s infinite, self-aware being and the qualities of experience produces the illusion of a temporary, finite, individual self or ego.”
“Only something that is finite can lack something.”
“The identification of our self with the content of experience creates the separate self or ego around which most of our lives revolve.”
“The personal self is not one kind of self and God’s infinite being another kind of self. The personal self is simply God’s infinite being mixed with the limitations of experience.”
“A person is a temporary name and form of intimate, impersonal, infinite being.”

Being (aka Essential Self, I, God’s presence, pure consciousness):

Unlimited, universal, irreducible, infinite, indivisible, transparent, perfect, whole, empty awareness, self-aware, pure knowing, silent, still, inherently peaceful, impersonal yet intimate, unconditioned, unconditionally fulfilled, open, unqualified, essential, remains in its pristine condition, ever-present, its nature is ease.

“Consciousness without form or objective attributes.”
“Lacking nothing, holding on to nothing, seeking nothing.”
“Prior to and independent of thoughts, feelings, and the condition of the body.”
“Shines equally in all experience, irrespective of its content.”
“Shines in each of us as the knowledge ‘I’ or ‘I am’.”
“The most ordinary, intimate, and familiar experience.”
“The background from which everything that exists stands out.”
“Both transcends experience and is immanent within it.”
“The being you share with everything and everyone.”
“The being in all beings is the same being. We share our being.”
“The essence of anything is that which cannot be separated from it.”
“The ever-present factor in all temporary, changing experience.”
“The knowing element in all changing knowledge and experience.”
“Pervades all experience.”

Awareness, I am, & Being Myself

“The is-ness of all things and the am-ness of all selves is the same infinite, indivisible, self-aware being, known in religion as the presence of God, in science as consciousness, often referred to as awareness and commonly known as ‘I’ … This reality, shining on the inside as the knowledge ‘I am’ and on the outside as the knowledge ‘It is,’ is modulated by thought and perception and appears as a multiplicity and diversity of objects and selves, just as everything that appears in a dream at night is the activity of a single, indivisible mind.”

Awareness:

“We are awareness! We cannot be taken there; we cannot go there. I cannot go towards myself because I already am myself.”

“Being aware is what we are, not what we do.”
“Only awareness is aware, therefore only awareness knows or is aware of itself.”
“Awareness’s knowledge of itself is its primary knowledge.”
“Awareness lies behind and is present in the midst of all experience.”
“Experience is the activity of awareness.”
“Experience always takes place in the same place: the placeless place where awareness is, where I am.”
“No experience leaves a trace on awareness and nothing can harm, modify, or destroy it. Therefore, it is without fear.”
“Things don’t have their own existence; being has things. Selves don’t have awareness; awareness has selves.”
“In awareness’s experience of itself, there is no knowledge of birth or death.”

The name “I,” the knowledge “I am,” or the sense of “being myself”:

“Everybody can say from their own direct experience, ‘I know that I am’ … Our essential self or being shines in each of us as the sense of ‘being myself’, the feeling of being or the pure knowledge ‘I am’. This knowledge is described as pure because, before becoming qualified by the content of experience, it is devoid of any objective quality. It is transparent, empty, silent and at peace.”

“‘I’ is the name that anything that knows itself gives to itself.”
“Before we know what I am, we know that I am.”
“Before we know anything else, we know that we are. We know our own being. We know that I am. The knowledge ‘I am,’ the awareness of being, is the mind’s primary knowledge. This knowledge is the same for everyone.”
“The being that shines in each of our minds as ‘I’ or ‘I am’ is not a personal being or self. It is the single, infinite, indivisible, impersonal being, refracted into numerous apparent selves without ever becoming fragmented. We all share the same being.”
“Our knowledge of our self is awareness’s knowledge of itself.”
“The knowledge ‘I am’ is not sophisticated or mysterious. It is the most ordinary, intimate and familiar experience there is.”
“Our knowledge of our self before it is qualified by experience.”
“The element of experience that is unchanging or unchangeable.”
“A portal for one who is lost in experience, indicating the way back to our essential being and its innate peace.”
“An opening in the mind through which we may pass on our return from the adventure of experience.”
“Seems to be an experience in the mind, whereas it is in fact an absence in the collage of objective experience.”
“Gives us direct access to the reality of pure awareness behind and prior to the mind.”
“A treasure that we all carry around with us without realizing it. It is our true wealth.”

About Myself:

“Everything we know about our self is added to the simple knowledge ‘I am’.”

“Before we know that I am a man or a woman, of such-and-such an age, married or single, a mother, father or friend, before we know anything about our self, we simply know that I am.”
“I am not always twenty-four, forty-five or sixty-eight years old, but I always am. I am not always five feet four or six feet two, but I always am. I am not always lonely, unhappy, tired or cold, but I always am. I am not always single or in a relationship, but I always am. I am not always walking down the street or reading a book, but I always am.”
“In the pure knowledge ‘I am’ there is no experience of age, gender, shape, size, weight, nationality, location, solidity, density, or history.”

Enlightenment

“Terms such as ‘enlightenment,’ ‘awakening,’ and liberation have become so laden with association and misunderstanding that the truth to which they point is often overlooked.”

Understanding enlightenment:

“The word ‘revelation’ comes from the Latin revelare, meaning ‘to lay bare.’ Enlightenment is simply the laying bare of our essential being—not how our being might become if we meditate for long enough or practice hard enough, or if we follow one teacher or tradition as opposed to another.”

“The divesting of our being of the qualities it seems to have acquired from experience is referred to as ‘enlightenment’ in the traditional literature. Our being sheds the limitations of experience that seemed to obscure or ‘endarken’ it.”

Enlightenment is nothing new, extraordinary, exotic, or mystical:

“There is nothing exotic or mystical about enlightenment. It is simply the recognition of something that was always known, indeed is always known, before it is clouded by experience.”

“Enlightenment is not a new or extraordinary experience to be attained or acquired; it is simply the revelation of the original nature of our self or being. Nothing could be more intimate and familiar than our being, which is why it feels like coming home. In the Zen tradition it is referred to as the recognition of our original face.”

No attaining enlightenment or becoming enlightened:

“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 colored by experience.”

“What is traditionally referred to as enlightenment is not an evolution or a development of our self. It is simply the revelation of the self that lies at the heart of all experience, irrespective of its content, the self we always and already are but have overlooked due to the clamor of experience.”
“Awareness is not a spiritual, metaphysical, or enlightened awareness to which only certain special people have privileged access. It is the ordinary, intimate, familiar awareness with which each of us is currently aware of our experience … Nor is this a description of how we might become if we meditate for long enough or practice hard enough.”
“No one becomes enlightened. Our being is simply relieved of an imaginary limitation and, as a result, its natural condition of peace and happiness shines.”
“Our essential nature or self is prior to all becoming.”
“We cannot become what we are; we cannot be what we are not.”
“There is no higher or lower, enlightened or unenlightened self.”

Ultimately, no such thing:

“There is no such thing as an enlightened person. In the ultimate analysis, there simply is no independently existing person in the first place to be enlightened or not.”

“Neither the Buddha nor Ramana Maharshi nor Meister Eckhart was enlightened.”
“It would be better not to look for any signs of enlightenment, but if we were to, the best we might find would be a causeless peace and joy that accompanies all experience, irrespective of its content.”

🔒 Premium members have access to the companion post which includes bonus book summary content and a distilled actionable guide: How to Be with “Being Myself” by Rupert Spira (+ Infographics)

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