you are the happiness you seek   rupert spira
SAHAJAWhenever we are seeking happiness, it is in  
fact our innate happiness that is seeking us. The happiness we seek is the happiness we are.’    
– rupert spira‘
Rupert Spira is renowned for his ability to  
guide people to a direct experience of their  
innate happiness or true nature. He is a teacher  
of the Direct Path, which is the epitome of the  
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. You Are the  
Happiness You Seek  
  
 Uncovering the Awareness of Being
rupert spiraIn this book, 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,  
Spira demonstrates that to seek lasting happiness through  
objects, situations and relationships is destined for failure  
and disappointment, and skilfully guides the reader to  
recognise that we are already the happiness we seek. This book is for anyone who yearns for lasting happiness  
and is open to the possibility that it is continuously available  
within ourselves, irrespective of our circumstances. Could there be any greater discovery in life than to know  
that we are already that for which we long? How may we find lasting peace and happiness? ‘I’ve gained deeper understanding listening to Rupert Spira  
than I have from any other exponent of modern spirituality. ’ 
deepak chopra‘Rupert Spira’s articulate and very intimate style of teaching  
is truly transformational. I’ve read and treasure all of his books. ’  
– rhonda byrne , author of The Secret and The Greatest Secret  
 
‘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
*     *     *
SAHAJA
$21.95    £15.99     SPIRITUALITY   
ISBN  978  -1-  68403  - 012  - 5 
www.sahajapublications.comYou Are the Happiness You Seek Cover with 12.2mm spine.qxp_Layout 1  21/01/2022  17:39  Page 1you are the happiness you seek   rupert spira
SAHAJAWhenever we are seeking happiness, it is in  
fact our innate happiness that is seeking us. The happiness we seek is the happiness we are.’    
– rupert spira‘
Rupert Spira is renowned for his ability to  
guide people to a direct experience of their  
innate happiness or true nature. He is a teacher  
of the Direct Path, which is the epitome of the  
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. You Are the  
Happiness You Seek  
  
 Uncovering the Awareness of Being
rupert spiraIn this book, 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,  
Spira demonstrates that to seek lasting happiness through  
objects, situations and relationships is destined for failure  
and disappointment, and skilfully guides the reader to  
recognise that we are already the happiness we seek. This book is for anyone who yearns for lasting happiness  
and is open to the possibility that it is continuously available  
within ourselves, irrespective of our circumstances. Could there be any greater discovery in life than to know  
that we are already that for which we long? How may we find lasting peace and happiness? ‘I’ve gained deeper understanding listening to Rupert Spira  
than I have from any other exponent of modern spirituality. ’ 
deepak chopra‘Rupert Spira’s articulate and very intimate style of teaching  
is truly transformational. I’ve read and treasure all of his books. ’  
– rhonda byrne , author of The Secret and The Greatest Secret  
 
‘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
*     *     *
SAHAJA
$21.95    £15.99     SPIRITUALITY   
ISBN  978  -1-  68403  - 012  - 5 
www.sahajapublications.comYou Are the Happiness You Seek Cover with 12.2mm spine.qxp_Layout 1  21/01/2022  17:39  Page 1you are the happiness you seek 
You Are the  
Happiness You Seek
Uncovering the Awareness of Being
rupert spira
SAHAJA
sahaja publications  
 
P  O Box 887, Oxford ox1 9pr  
www.sahajapublications.com  
 
A co-publication with New Harbinger Publications  
5674  Shattuck Ave.   
Oakland, CA 94609  
United States of America   
 
Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books  
 
Copyright © Rupert Spira 2022   
All rights reserved  
 
No part of this book shall be reproduced or transmitted  
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including  
photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval system  
without written permission of the publisher  
 
Designed by Rob Bowden  
 
Printed in U.S.A.  
isbn  978–1–68403 –012–5 
 
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Printed on paper made from wood sourced from  
responsibly managed forests and recycled materials  
 
 T o be open to the source of all happiness is the highest religion. j. krishnamurti  contents
Acknowledgements                                                                                     ix  
introduction           A Silent Prayer                                                    1  
chapter one              The Search for Happiness                                   5  
chapter two            Know Thyself                                                    15  
chapter three          Are You My Self? 21  
chapter four           The Art of Self-Enquiry                                    27  
chapter five              The Essence of Meditation                                33  
chapter six               The Ultimate Prayer                                         43  
chapter seven          The Silent Presence of Awareness                       53  
chapter eight           The Open, Empty, Aware Space                        65  
chapter nine             Peace and Happiness Is Our Nature                  71  
chapter ten              A Belief in Separation                                       77  
chapter eleven         There Is Only One Self                                     83  
chapter twelve         Who Is It That Suffers? 91  
chapter thirteen      Our Innate Happiness                                      99  
chapter fourteen     Suffering Is Our Own Activity                        107  
chapter fifteen        The Way of Surrender                                      117  
chapter sixteen        Take Refuge in the Now                                  125  
chapter seventeen    Attending to Painful Emotions                        133  
chapter eighteen      The Unity of Being                                         147  
chapter nineteen     The All-Pervasive Spirit                                   157  
conclusion                  An Invitation                                                   173  
Quotation Sources                                                                                   179 acknowledgements
I would like to thank all those who have helped with the editing, designing  
and publishing of this book, including all those who have attended my  
meetings in person or online, the responses to whose questions are woven  
into its pages. In particular, I would like to thank Caroline Seymour, Jacqueline Boyle,  
Bridget Holding and Lynne Saner for their editorial work, and Rob Bowden  
for preparing the manuscript for publication. I would like to thank Ruth Middleton and Francesca Rotondella, without  
whose support in the background I’m not sure this book would have ever  
emerged, and Stuart Moore and T om Tarbert for their generosity and kind -
ness. I would also like to thank everyone at New Harbinger Publications for  
their continued help and support. introduction
A Silent Prayer
And the end of all our exploring  
Will be to arrive where we started  
And know the place for the first time. t. s. eliot
It is mid-afternoon on the 20th of March 2020 , and a silent, invisible intruder  
has brought humanity to a standstill. Almost overnight I have cancelled all  
live speaking engagements for the foreseeable future and have transferred my  
activities online. My first online retreat, with five hundred people from  
around the world, will shortly begin. When holding a meeting or retreat, I do not plan what I am going to  
say. I often sit quietly in an attitude of unarticulated prayer that my under -
standing, such as it is, might formulate itself in response to the moment. And this is no ordinary moment. I check my emails, and my attention is attracted to one whose subject is  
World Happiness Day . A friend has sent me a message letting me know that  
today, the Spring Equinox, has, since 2006 , been designated by the UN an  
international day of happiness, in honour of the understanding that ‘the hap -
piness, well-being and freedom of all life on earth is the ultimate purpose of  
every human being, nation, and society’. *   
     How poignant and how ironic, when the world finds itself plunged into  
a crisis which will bring untold distress and hardship to so many people, that  
this day should be consecrated a day of happiness, well-being and freedom. The familiar objects, activities and relationships that we take for granted  
are rapidly being removed from us: the freedom to earn a living, to socialise  
and to travel, a plentiful supply of food and goods in shops, education for  
our children and grandchildren, and security for our future. * See https://www.dayofhappiness.net.you are the happiness you seek
     But what about happiness? Can it be given and withdrawn? If so, by whom  
or what? What is its cause? Is it something that is taken in from the outside,  
or does it originate within us? Is there such a thing as lasting peace and happi -
ness, or is this destined to alternate with suffering for the rest of our lives? These questions have troubled the minds of innumerable people for thou -
sands of years, and as I ponder them I recall the first time they formulated  
themselves in my mind. It was 1980  and I was twenty years old, living on  
the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall in the South West of England, study -
ing pottery with Michael Cardew, then eighty years old and one of the  
founders of the British Studio Pottery movement. It was a somewhat monastic existence, and in many ways life at Wenford  
Bridge – Michael’s home and pottery – resembled an apprenticeship with  
an old Zen master. However, I had a friend, and, although we rarely saw  
each other due to the remoteness of my circumstance, her presence in my  
life was a source of consolation and happiness. Every Friday evening after dinner, I would walk a mile or so up the hill  
to the phone box on the edge of the village of St. Breward, beneath which  
the pottery was situated, and call my companion. It was something of a ritual  
whose anticipation and memory, as much as the event itself, sustained me  
throughout the week. On this occasion, the quality of her first ‘Hello’ conveyed everything  
I needed to know. The brief conversation that ensued simply confirmed it. Little did I know then that her parting words were to be one of life’s great  
gifts to me. Later that night, lying awake in bed, as the initial wave of confusion and  
sorrow began to subside, I kept asking myself how a person can be the source  
of happiness one moment and the source of misery the next. For the first  
time in my life, I became acutely aware of the extent to which I had invested  
my happiness in my circumstances, in this case in a relationship. I had already been interested in spiritual matters for some time, and since  
my mid-teens had been studying philosophy and practising meditation in  
the Vedantic and Sufi traditions at Colet House in London, under the gui -
dance of Dr. Francis Roles. However, this event injected intensity and  
urgency into my interest; it became a passion. 2introduction
     It was obvious that I loved happiness above all else. It was also clear that  
nothing objective is certain or secure, and clearly does not unfold according  
to one’s own wishes and expectations. And now the absurdity and futility of  
investing one’s desire for lasting happiness in objective experience was ines -
capable. I fell asleep that night with a simple question in my mind, ‘How  
may one find lasting peace and happiness?’  
     Almost exactly forty years later, circumstances are again demanding this  
question be addressed. However, on this occasion it is not just my personal  
circumstances that have precipitated the question in my mind, nor is it in -
dividual happiness that is at stake. It is the shared circumstances of each one  
of us that requires a response, and our collective happiness that is calling for  
attention. The universe had responded to my silent prayer. Our online retreat began  
with this question, and the exploration of it evolved into this book. It is my  
hope that this book will take you from your self, who seeks happiness,  
to the happiness that is your self. Rupert Spira  
April 2021  
3 chapter one
The Search for Happiness
Happiness, being found to be something final and  
self-sufficient, is the end at which all actions aim. aristotle  
 
we seek happiness above all else  
 
Imagine a survey in which all seven billion of us were asked what we want  
in life above all else. Most of us would respond that we desire better health,  
increased income, an intimate relationship, improved living conditions,  
a family, better work or preferably no need to work at all, and so on. Some  
of us would ask for less tangible things: enlightenment or knowledge of God. Whatever our priorities, most of us would select from a relatively short list  
of possibilities. However, if a second question then asked why we desire what we do,  
almost all of us would respond, in one way or another, that we seek the  
object, substance, activity, circumstance or relationship because we believe  
it will bring us peace and happiness. In other words, what we really long for is not a particular experience for its  
own sake, but for the peace and happiness that we believe we will derive from it. If we knew that the house we were about to buy, the person we were about  
to marry, the journey we were about to embark on or the job we were about  
to begin would make us miserable, we would no longer want it. We wish for  
these things only insofar as they are considered a source of happiness. Even those who voluntarily undergo great hardship for the sake of  
a moral, political, religious or spiritual ideal do so ultimately for the sake  
of happiness, even if, in extreme cases, that happiness is postponed until  
after death. The desire for happiness is, therefore, the driving force in most of  
our lives. you are the happiness you seek
This longing for happiness takes us on a great adventure in the realm of  
objective experience. By ‘objective experience’ I do not refer to physical  
objects alone but to any experience that has some kind of form, including  
all thoughts, images, feelings, sensations, perceptions, activities and rela -
tionships. Although any of these may seem to afford moments or periods of happi -
ness, sooner or later they come to an end, the old dissatisfaction resurfaces  
and the search begins again. Once the search in the conventional realm of objective experience has  
failed to deliver lasting happiness sufficiently often, many people turn to a  
religious or spiritual tradition. In this case, the goal, however we may con -
ceive it, is the same: peace, joy, fulfilment, contentment or wholeness. Only  
the means have changed. Even those of us who seek enlightenment on a  
spiritual path, or God on a religious path, do so only on account of the peace  
and happiness we believe we will derive from it. If someone were to ask us whether we would prefer to be enlightened or  
happy, we would obviously choose happiness. If we believed that enlighten -
ment would bring us misery, we would never seek it. It is only because it is  
believed that enlightenment will bring happiness that we are willing to devote  
our lives to seeking it. Likewise, if we believed that knowledge of God would  
make us miserable, no one would seek God. The only reason we were seeking enlightenment or God in the first place  
was that all other possible sources of happiness had failed us thus far. It is  
often as a last resort that we turn to the search for enlightenment or God,  
in the hope that its fulfilment will finally relieve us of our suffering and  
provide happiness. Therefore, the desire for happiness is the highest desire, and as such it is  
unique: it is the only thing we seek for its own sake. I use the word ‘happiness’ as the goal of this search simply because it is the  
common word for the absence of suffering or the end of seeking. I refer to it  
this way because I believe, rightly or not, that this word most accurately con -
veys for the majority of people that for which they long above all else. It is also  
a word to which everyone can relate, and it refers to an experience with which  
everyone is familiar. In particular, it is non-denominational and devoid of cul -
tural overtones. It does not have to be believed in and is its own evidence. 6the search for happiness
     However, any word inevitably has its limitations, depending upon our  
particular associations with it, especially in relation to that for which we all  
long above all else. If the word ‘happiness’ does not evoke in you that which  
you love and for which you long above all else, please substitute it with  
another: fulfilment, contentment, peace, love, truth, beauty, joy, salvation,  
liberation, enlightenment or God. Whether we feel a strong yearning in our heart or just the slightest sense of  
dissatisfaction – the feeling that something is missing which, when found, will  
finally bring about the happiness for which we long – we are on a great search. However we conceive or name the goal of that search, its source is always the  
same, namely, the desire to bring our current dissatisfaction to an end. If happiness is what we all love and long for above all else, then the in -
vestigation into its nature and cause must be the greatest endeavour on which  
one could embark. happiness is inherent within us  
 
Happiness is always experienced inside us; it is never put in from the outside. It may seem to be connected to or triggered by external events, but unlike  
the food we eat, the water we drink or the air we breathe, we do not take it  
into ourself from outside. It originates within us, it is experienced within us  
and, when it disappears, no residue of it is dispersed into the outside world. Happiness is entirely an interior experience. If happiness is always experienced within, albeit triggered by objective  
experience, mustn’t it lie in potential in us all the time? And if so, shouldn’t  
it be possible to have direct access to it, and to remain constantly in touch  
with it, without the need for our external circumstances to be configured in  
a particular way? If it were possible to be in touch with our inherent peace and happiness  
without being dependent on external circumstances, would that not be the  
greatest discovery one could make? One might argue that unhappiness  is also always experienced inside us  
and must, therefore, lie latent within us at all times. According to this view,  
our inherent happiness or unhappiness would simply be triggered by cir -
cumstances, depending on the extent to which they conform to our desire  
or expectation. 7you are the happiness you seek
     Although most people may not formulate it to themselves in this way,  
this is the common view of happiness and suffering. They are considered  
equal and opposite emotions, alternating in varying degrees in our lives,  
depending upon our circumstances. In the absence of understanding the nature of happiness and how it may be  
found, our culture has conditioned us to believe and even expect that the  
constant cycle of happiness and unhappiness is normal and unavoidable. Why is this? We do not expect to cycle through periods of health and sickness  
on an almost daily basis, let alone numerous times within a single day. If we  
are sick, we consider it a signal from the body that something is wrong and  
needs attention. Unhappiness is to the mind as sickness is to the body. It is a state of  
disharmony and imbalance. It is a signal that something is amiss and  
requires attention. However, in the absence of any understanding as to the  
real cause of unhappiness, our culture can only offer consolations and dis -
tractions. We all feel that health is the natural state of the body. Why do we not  
feel that happiness is the natural state of the mind? In this book, I will suggest  
that it is, that happiness is the very nature of our being or self and, as such,  
lies in potential within us, accessible by all people and at all times, with the  
possible exception of those times when the safety and well-being of the body  
are compromised. From this point of view, suffering is understood as the veiling or obscur -
ing of our innate happiness. Thus, there is either happiness or the veiling of  
it, but never its absence. All that is necessary to access our inherent happiness is to go directly into  
the depths of our being, behind the obscuring layers of thought and feeling. This is the great understanding that everyone should have from an early age. What could be more important in life than to know that we are already that  
for which we long? This understanding is the essence of all the principal religious and spiri -
tual traditions. However, in almost all cases it has been lost, or at least  
obscured, by layers of superfluous doctrines and practices that arose around  
the simple and direct insight upon which they were originally founded. 8the search for happiness
     All the methods that are given in the various traditions have the ultimate  
purpose of facilitating access to the latent peace and joy that lies at the heart  
of all beings. The reason for so many different approaches and practices is  
not the complexity or inaccessibility of what is being sought. It is due partly  
to the differences between the cultures in which this understanding was orig -
inally formulated, and partly to the differing responses required to address  
people’s particular difficulties and objections. In each of these responses, this single understanding was refracted into  
numerous ideas and methods. However, when we distil these various ap -
proaches, they all indicate, in one way or another, that happiness is our na -
ture, or that we are happiness itself. the end of the search  
 
Everybody knows the experience of happiness. However, not everybody  
knows that happiness is the very nature of our self and can be found in the  
depths of our being. As a result of this overlooking of the essential nature of  
our self, a great search is initiated in the realm of objective experience. In the epic poem The Mathnawi , Sufi poet and mystic Jelaluddin Rumi  
tells of a man in Cairo who dreams of a treasure buried under a certain house  
in Baghdad. The man sets out on an arduous journey and, after numerous  
trials and adventures, reaches Baghdad and finds the house that appeared to  
him in his dream. He knocks on the door and an elderly man answers. The  
traveller relates his dream and the owner of the house replies, ‘That’s strange,  
last night I dreamt of a house in Cairo under which a great treasure was bu -
ried’. The man from Cairo recognises the description of the house as his own  
and returns home. And sure enough, under his own home he finds a great  
treasure. All those years he had been sitting on it without realising it. This is the archetypal trajectory of everyone’s life: the great search for  
happiness in the realm of objective experience and the return to the treasure  
of one’s own being. The out-breath and the in-breath. The adventure of be -
coming and the return to being. The unfolding of one’s life on the horizon -
tal dimension of time and the periodic plunge into the vertical dimension  
of being. Nature provides numerous such moments: the end of seeking upon the  
fulfilment of a desire; a moment of astonishment; the unbearable grief at the  
9you are the happiness you seek
loss of a loved one; the rapture of sexual intimacy; a moment of intense  
danger; a glance from a friend; the silence of the forest; the peace of deep  
sleep. Our lives are punctuated by such moments, hairline cracks in the world  
which, although not discernible on the surface of experience, are portals  
through which we pass out of time into eternity, only to be eclipsed again  
by the content of experience. The memory of such times awakens in us a nostalgia, a longing for  
something that is not past and forgotten but present and veiled. It lies not  
in the annals of the past or the promise of the future but in the depths of  
being. Impelled by this longing, we embark on a great search – outwardly in  
the realms of objects, substances, activities and relationships, and inwardly  
in states of mind – frequently sampling its perfume but never finding its  
source. It pervades the content of experience but is never graspable as an ex -
perience, like a rainbow whose source can never be found. However, it can -
not be found not because it is so far but because it is so close. At the heart of all the world’s great religious, spiritual and philosophical  
traditions lies the simple, direct means by which it may be recognised:  
becoming must subside in being. Most of the time the drama of experience eclipses awareness of being. Now awareness of being outshines the drama of experience. Awareness of being is known in each of us as the sense of ‘being myself’  
or the knowledge ‘I am’ before it is coloured or qualified by experience. Therein lies the peace of our true nature. When our self is divested of all the  
limitations it acquires from experience, that for which we long above all else  
shines by itself. In the Christian tradition, the same understanding is illustrated in the  
parable of the Prodigal Son. In this story, the youngest son of the king is dis -
satisfied with life at home and embarks on a great adventure in the world,  
seeking fulfilment. In spite of his numerous experiences, nothing fully sat -
isfies him and he ends up in despair, reduced to looking after pigs and eating  
their food, until at last he ‘comes to his senses’ and remembers the abundance  
of his home. This is symbolic of one who has exhausted the search for fulfilment in  
objective experience and recognises, or at least intuits, that they are looking  
for happiness in the wrong place and must return ‘home’. That is, they  
10the search for happiness
remember the peace and happiness that is the nature of their being and re -
solve to return there. This remembrance is not the memory of something that we once  
possessed and have now lost, but the recognition of something that lies  
deep within us but that, until now, has been veiled and was thus inac -
cessible. Some of us have to go to the brink of despair before recognising that we are  
seeking peace and happiness in the wrong place. For others, a relatively mild  
dose of failure, loss or sorrow is enough to prompt the intuition that objective  
experience can never be a source of lasting peace and happiness, and to initi -
ate an investigation into the nature of our self. Either way, there comes a point in many of our lives when we under -
stand, or at least intuit, that the peace and happiness for which we long can  
never be found in an object, substance, activity, circumstance or relation -
ship. This understanding does not imply that we lose interest in the world  
or that we no longer engage with objects, activities and relationships, but  
simply that we no longer do so for the purpose of finding peace, happiness  
and love in them. No one would be reading this book if the search for happiness in objec -
tive experience had succeeded. In fact, one who is reading this book is almost  
certainly doing so precisely because this search has failed sufficiently often  
that they are at least beginning to suspect that they may be looking in the  
wrong place. At some point a crisis is precipitated in our life in which we realise that  
we have tried everything – the conventional objects that are on offer in the  
world, and the less conventional states of mind that are available in the  
religious and spiritual traditions – and seen that nothing has ever, or could  
ever, give us the lasting happiness we seek. As a result of this we may have the courage and the clarity to face  
a simple, unavoidable fact: nothing can make us happy! Likewise, we under -
stand for the same reason that nothing can make us unhappy , unless and  
until we give it the power to, in which case it will do so. T o seek peace and happiness in objective experience is destined to fail. It is a recipe for disappointment and, in time, despair. 11you are the happiness you seek
the original pandemic  
 
At the time of writing, many people are concerned that they may be infected  
with a virus that will cause sickness and possibly death to themselves or their  
loved ones. I do not mean to disparage such concern, or the attempts that  
individuals, communities and nations are taking to minimise the spread of  
the virus. I only want to point out the attention we give to this virus whilst  
ignoring another malady that has infected the vast majority of people with -
out their realising it. This malady is the belief that peace and happiness is dependent upon ex -
ternal circumstances. We have allowed a single belief to steal our innate hap -
piness, to rob us of the one thing we love above all else. And yet, so  
ubiquitous is this condition that we do not even realise it as such; we consider  
it the natural state. This syndrome has a simple symptom: suffering! Our suffering, whether  
it be an intense emotion of hatred, anger or jealousy that erupts temporarily  
in response to a particular circumstance, or simply a mild but chronic feeling  
that something is missing, is the litmus test that indicates we have overlooked  
our essential nature or being and that, as a result, its innate peace and hap -
piness has been obscured. Just as physical pain is a signal from the intrinsic intelligence of the body  
letting us know that the body requires attention, so suffering is a message  
from the happiness that lies in the depths of our being: ‘You are looking for  
me in the wrong place! I am not caused by anything outside of you. I am  
the nature of your being; there is no other place to find me. T urn towards  
me and I will take you into myself.’  
     As the Sufi mystic Bayazid Bastami said, ‘For thirty years I sought God. But when I looked carefully I found that in reality God was the seeker  
and I the sought.’  * Whenever we are seeking happiness, it is in fact our  
innate happiness that is seeking us. The happiness we seek is the happiness  
we are. The great understanding that lies at the heart of all the main religious  
and spiritual traditions consists of two essential insights: happiness is the  
very nature of our self, and we share our being with everyone and everything. 12* As quoted in James Fadiman and Robert Frager, Essential Sufism  (HarperCollins, 1997 ). the search for happiness
     The second insight will be touched upon towards the end of this book. As regards the first, in order to liberate this happiness from its hiding place  
in the depths of our being and bring it out into our lived and felt experience,  
it is necessary to go to one’s essential being or self and recognise its nature. This is why self-knowledge stands as the foundation of all the major  
religious and spiritual traditions. It is the great understanding that gives us  
access to the peace and happiness that is our very nature. 13 chapter two
Know Thyself
Every living being longs always to be happy, untainted  
by sorrow; and everyone has the greatest love for their self,  
which is solely due to the fact that happiness is their real  
nature. Hence, in order to realise that inherent and  
untainted happiness, which indeed one daily experiences  
when the mind is subdued in deep sleep, it is essential  
that one should know oneself. ramana maharshi   
 
In the Christian tradition it is said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is within you’. What is the kingdom of heaven if not a realm of eternal happiness? The es -
sential message of Christianity is that this realm of eternal happiness lies  
within us; it is the nature of our being. In the Vedantic tradition of India we find the same understanding con -
densed into three Sanskrit words, sat chit ananda . Sat refers to being, chit to 
knowing, consciousness or awareness, and ananda  to peace or happiness. Thus, sat chit ananda  means simply that to know the nature of one’s being  
is happiness itself. In Buddhism it is said that the very nature of one’s mind is inherently free  
from any imperfection. Cautious not to objectify happiness as a state of mind,  
the Buddhist teaching refers to it simply as the end of suffering. Thus, all that  
is required to access that happiness is to know the nature of one’s mind. Indeed, if we were to distil the essential understanding contained in all  
the great religious, spiritual and philosophical traditions into a single phrase,  
it would read something like this: ‘Happiness is your nature’ or ‘You are hap -
piness itself’. It follows that in order to access the peace and happiness for which all  
people long above all else, all that is necessary is to understand the nature of  
one’s self. For this reason, the words Know Thyself  were carved onto the  you are the happiness you seek
entrance to the temple of Apollo in Delphi, thus standing at the very origin  
of Western civilisation. We all seek happiness, but most of us seek it in objective experience . In the approach that is being suggested in this book, we seek peace and hap -
piness at its source , namely, in our self or our being. For this reason it is some -
times referred to as the direct path to peace and happiness. a softening of attention  
 
What does it mean to know oneself? In the early 1980s, I went with my  
brother Andrew to a series of Alfred Brendel’s recitals of Beethoven’s piano  
sonatas in London. During these recitals my attention was in general fully  
absorbed in the music, but from time to time I noticed a softening of its focus. On one occasion, my attention relaxed sufficiently that I became aware  
not only of the music but of the fact that I was listening to the music. In other words,  I became aware that I was aware . There was nothing extraordinary about this. On the contrary, the fact of  
simply being aware, or awareness itself, was clearly the most familiar and inti -
mate aspect of my experience. However, I had previously overlooked it, so  
exclusively focused was I on my experience – on this occasion, the content of  
the music . In time, my attention was again drawn to the music, but I noticed that  
at certain points during the recital it spontaneously disengaged from it and  
returned effortlessly to the fact of being aware. It even felt at times as if my  
attention were being pulled backwards, away from its content, towards the  
fact of simply being aware, or awareness itself. After some time, I noticed that I had the ability to travel backwards and  
forwards with my attention, between the music in the foreground and the  
presence of awareness in the background. I began to explore this new faculty, and at some point it became clear that  
in between the background of being aware and the foreground of the music  
there was an intermediary layer of experience, a middle ground, so to speak,  
of thoughts, feelings and sensations of the body. There were now three elements of my experience: one, the external world  
(consisting of the concert hall, the audience and the music); two, my mind  
16know thyself
and body (comprising the internal world of thoughts, feelings and sensations);  
and three, in the background, the fact of being aware or awareness itself. It was as if I had taken a step back from my mind and body, with which  
I normally identified myself. They were now part of the foreground of my  
experience and I was standing as the presence of awareness behind them,  
watching them just as I was watching the performance. As my attention travelled back and forth between these three realms,  
it occurred to me that the person I normally considered myself to be – my  
mind and body – was itself part of the objective content of experience that  
I was aware of, along with the auditorium, the audience and the music. In particular, I noticed that my thoughts and feelings were a layer of  
experience that not only was added to my experience of the world, like subtitles  
superimposed upon a movie, but also through which I interpreted the world. Some time later I would also notice that my experience of the world was  
itself filtered through my sense perceptions, which impose their own limita -
tions on whatever is perceived. This would, in turn, give rise to the question  
as to what the world is in itself, beyond these limitations. But for now, this  
challenge to my customary sense of myself was enough. a shift in identity  
 
At some point a question spontaneously arose in my mind: Who am I really? Am I the thoughts, feelings and sensations that I am aware of, or am I the  
one that is aware of them? I was familiar with the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi’s use of such ques -
tions, a method known as ‘self-enquiry’, but had found it rather heady and  
abstract . No doubt the question that emerged at this stage was prompted by  
my previous interest in these matters, but nevertheless it arose in me this time  
as if for the first time and was profoundly connected to my experience. This questioning was not just a mental exercise. Nor was it a method  
I was practising in order to bring about a certain result. It seemed to be taking  
place spontaneously, although I was cooperating with it. It became obvious that whatever it is that knows our thoughts and images  
is not itself a thought or image. What is that? Whatever it is that is aware of our feelings and sensations is not itself 
a feeling or sensation. What is that? 17you are the happiness you seek
     Whatever it is that perceives the world is not itself a sight, sound, taste,  
texture or smell. What is that? It is simply that which knows or is aware. It is our self. It is awareness or  
consciousness itself. *   
 
Until this recognition I had considered myself to be a person, a body-mind,  
an amalgam of thoughts, feelings and sensations. It seemed to be myself  
as this person  who was aware of the world. As such, I considered awareness  
an attribute  of the body-mind, a faculty that I as a person possessed . I now realised that the person I previously imagined myself to be was  
something that I was aware of , along with my experience of the world. I recognised that I was essentially that which knows  or is aware of  the 
entire content of experience, including the thoughts, images, memories,  
feelings and sensations that constitute the mind and body. I realised that it is not myself as a person  who is aware of the world, but  
rather myself as  awareness  that is aware of the person and the world. The transition from the belief that we are a person with the faculty of  
awareness to the understanding that we are awareness itself may seem like  
a small step, but it has enormous implications for any individual and for the  
evolution of humanity as a whole. Indeed, I would suggest that it is the  
next evolutionary step, and that upon which the survival of humanity, as we  
know it, depends. The understanding ‘I am awareness’ is the first great understanding. This is not an extraordinary recognition or something that is difficult to  
access. In fact, it is enshrined in common parlance. We say, ‘ I know  my 
thoughts and images’, ‘ I am aware  of feelings and sensations’ and ‘ I perceive  
the world’. In each of these statements, we recognise ourself as the knowing , aware  
or perceiving  element, and thoughts, images, feelings, sensations and percep -
tions as objects  that we know, are aware of or perceive. In other words, we are not essentially our thoughts, images, memories  
or stories about our life; we are that which knows them . We are not essentially  
our feelings or sensations; we are that which is aware of them . We are not the  
18* The terms ‘awareness’ and ‘consciousness’ are used synonymously throughout this book. know thyself
sights, sounds, tastes, textures and smells that constitute our experience of  
the world; we are that which perceives them . We are nothing that is experienced; we are that which experiences . We are not essentially anything that we are aware of; we are simply the  
fact of knowing, being aware or awareness itself. letting go  
 
I understand that I’m not my body or mind, but who would I be if I were to let  
go of everyone and everything with which I associate and identify myself? You would be the same inherently peaceful and unconditionally fulfilled self  
that you are now, although you do not currently recognise your self as such  
because of your entanglement in, or identification with, the content of ex -
perience. The only difference is that what you now consider a distant possi -
bility would become your lived and felt experience. Every night you willingly and effortlessly let go of everyone and everything  
with whom you associate or identify and fall deeply asleep. In the experience  
of deep sleep you are all alone. Everything that is not essential to you has been  
removed and, as a result, you experience the peace of your true nature. If letting go of everyone and everything were a traumatic or frightening  
experience, we would dread falling asleep at night. But we look forward  
to it! Why? Because it gives us access to the peace of our true nature,  
which is veiled by the activities of thinking, feeling, acting and relating  
during the day . In fact, when we fall asleep we do not enter a new state. We are always  
essentially the presence of awareness. However, during the waking and  
dreaming states, we forget or overlook this or, more accurately, it is obscured  
by thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions. In these two states aware -
ness is so thoroughly mixed with the content of experience that it is not rec -
ognised as such. It is veiled by experience. Likewise, when we emerge from deep sleep into the dreaming and waking  
states, the presence of the awareness that we essentially are does not change  
or disappear. It is simply veiled by experience. Our essential self of pure  
awareness does not need to be liberated. It is already and inherently free of  
the content of experience. 19 
     So it is not necessary to let go of anyone or anything. All that is required  
is to recognise our essential nature of pure awareness that lies behind all  
experience and shines in the midst of all experience. Nor will you lose your ability to think, feel, act, perceive and relate. On the contrary, these activities will be greatly enhanced by this new under -
standing of your self, for the one on whose behalf they arise, and in whose  
service they are undertaken, will be clearly known. 20you are the happiness you seek
20chapter three
Are You My Sel f? Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you,  
or home is nowhere at all. herman hesse   
 
If the presence of awareness is the primary fact of experience, why are most of us  
not in touch with it? It is simply because we become lost in or identified with the content of our  
experience. If someone were to ask us to look around the room in which we  
are currently sitting and describe what we are experiencing, most of us would  
refer to chairs, books, papers, photographs, paintings, a table, and so on. Very few would mention the space of the room. Why not? We overlook  
the space because it has no objective features that can be seen, heard, tasted,  
touched or smelt. At the same time, we cannot say that we are not experi -
encing it. Likewise, if someone were to ask us to describe our current experience  
in general, almost all of us would list our thoughts, images, memories, feel -
ings, sensations of the body, perceptions of the world, activities, relationships,  
and so on. Very few of us would mention the presence of awareness. Why  
not? The fact of being aware is the most obvious, intimate and familiar element  
of experience, and yet it has no objective features. Like space, it cannot be  
seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelt. It is, so to speak, transparent; it is silent  
and empty. And yet without it there can be no experience. the overlooking of our true nature  
 
It is inconceivable that a landscape painter would spend her life painting in  
nature, noticing the trees, fields, animals, flowers and clouds, without ever  you are the happiness you seek
noticing sunlight. The light cannot be seen directly, and yet it is that which  
renders the world visible. Indeed, it is all she truly sees! Likewise, awareness renders all experience knowable. It is for this reason  
that awareness is said to be luminous. It is the illuminating or knowing factor  
in all experience. It is, as such, the primary and most important element  
of experience, and yet it is almost always overlooked or ignored in favour of  
the objective content of experience. Consider the amount of knowledge and experience that each of us ac -
quired during our education. Did any of our parents or teachers ever ask us  
what it is that knows or is aware of that knowledge and experience? I have  
yet to meet anyone who answers ‘yes’ to that question. Is it not extraordinary that, as a culture, we have almost universally  
overlooked the primary and most important element of experience? And  
could there be anything more interesting than to know the nature of that  
through which everything else is known? Indeed, would it be possible to  
know what anything truly is without first knowing the nature of that with  
which it is known? The fact of knowing, being aware or awareness itself is closer to us than our  
breathing, our innermost thoughts or our most cherished feelings. In fact,  
it is not close to us; it is what we essentially are. It is overlooked precisely  
because it is so intimate and familiar, not because it is remote, unknown or  
inaccessible. It is sometimes said that awareness transcends experience, implying that  
it lies beyond  experience and is, as such, out of reach, unknowable and mys -
terious. Nothing could be further from the truth. Awareness lies behind  the 
layer of thinking, feeling and sensing with which we normally identify ourself  
and is prior to it, just as a screen could be said to lie behind and be prior to  
the movie that appears on it. Awareness is not overlooked because it is unknown but because it is so  
well known . Familiarity, in this case, may not breed contempt, but it certainly  
accounts for neglect. We tend to overlook the space of a room or the light in  
a landscape because our attention is exclusively focused on objects. However,  
as soon as our attention relaxes, we become aware of the space or the light. Similarly, we overlook the presence of awareness due to the exclusive focus  
of our attention on the content of experience, that is, our thoughts, feelings,  
22are you my self? sensations, perceptions, activities and relationships. However, awareness  
is like the space or the light: as soon as our attention relaxes, we become  
aware of it. It is for this reason that in the Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism  
it is said that awareness is ‘the greatest secret, more hidden than the most  
concealed and yet more evident than the most evident of things’. *   
 
When I suggest that we overlook the presence of awareness in the same way  
that we overlook the space in a room or sunlight in the landscape, I imply  
that we are one thing and awareness another. This is not intended. We are  
awareness! It is we, awareness, who, directing the light of our attention towards the  
objective content of experience, overlook our self, the subject of experience. When the focus of our attention softens and we become aware that we are  
aware, it is we, awareness, who relax our attention from its objective content  
and, as a result, become aware of our self. We come back to our self; we remember our self. However, this is not  
a remembrance of something that was once known and subsequently for -
gotten. It is the recognition of what we always and already are but usually  
overlook or ignore. We might call this overlooking or forgetting of the presence of awareness  
the original ADD – Awareness Deficit Disorder – from which the vast ma -
jority of humans suffer unknowingly. It is the cause of all psychological suf -
fering of the individual, and the conflicts between individuals, communities  
and nations. In the Vedantic tradition it is referred to as ignorance, in the sense of  
ignoring our true nature, and in Christianity as Original Sin, that is, the  
initial error from which all subsequent errors are compounded. The fact of knowing, being aware or awareness itself is not something  
that some people have in greater measure than others, nor is it more readily  
accessible to some people than to others. None has privileged access to it. It is available to all people, at all times and under all circumstances, simply  
by virtue of the fact that everybody is aware, irrespective of what they may  
be aware of in any moment of experience. 23* Thanks to Mark S. G. Dyczkowski for this quotation.you are the happiness you seek
     It can be easily recognised as soon as we soften the focus of our attention  
from its objective content and come back to our self. It is the silent presence  
behind and within all experience. returning to the presence of awareness  
 
After the experience at the concert in London, I noticed often over the next  
few weeks that there were gaps in the flow of experience during which my  
attention would be gently drawn back to the fact of being aware. It was as  
though attention were a two-way street that could be travelled in one direc -
tion, towards the content of experience, and in the opposite direction,  
towards myself, the presence of awareness. I also noticed that the intermediary layer of thoughts and feelings was  
frequently provoked in response to my experience of the world. If I liked  
whatever I was experiencing, I would seek to hold on to it; if I disliked it,  
I would attempt to get rid of it. In other words, I noticed that experience was often accompanied by  
a sense of dissatisfaction. Sometimes this dissatisfaction was barely discern -
ible, such as a feeling of boredom or a sense of lack that was not intense  
enough to command my attention but kept me, without my realising it,  
in a more or less continuous state of seeking and resisting. On other occasions the dissatisfaction was fully felt in the form of suffer -
ing. Whenever I noticed this, I would make a conscious effort to return to  
the presence of awareness in the background of experience, for I had already  
noticed that, being devoid of all objective qualities, it was the place of peace  
or refuge in myself. Sometimes this was easy and required almost no effort, and at other times  
there was some reluctance. It was in response to this reluctance that I began  
to develop a regular habit or practice of returning my attention to its source  
in the presence of awareness. This new habit was very simple. As a child I was brought up with P . D.  
Eastman’s book Are You My Mother? , in which a recently hatched baby bird  
is separated from its mother and sets off in search of her. After some time,  
the bird encounters a kitten and asks it, ‘Are you my mother?’ ‘No’, replies  
the kitten. Next it comes across a hen. ‘Are you my mother?’ it asks. ‘No’,  
replies the hen. 24are you my self? The baby bird continues on its journey asking everything that it encounters  
– a dog, a cow, a car, a boat and an aeroplane – the same question. Finally,  
the bird is returned to its nest and reunited with its mother. The practice of stepping back from the content of experience and resting  
in and as the presence of awareness proceeds in a similar way. We simply ask  
every experience that we encounter, ‘Are you myself?’  
     When we see a mountain, a building, a person or a movie, we do not  
mistake it for ourself. They are what we know  or experience , not what we are. Likewise, when we encounter a thought, image, feeling or sensation, we  
simply enquire, ‘Are you what I essentially am?’ These are objects of experi -
ence that are known, witnessed or experienced by us, that is, by awareness. We are no more our thoughts, images, feelings and sensations than we are  
a mountain, a tree or a movie. This simple question invites a softening of the focus of our attention from  
its objective content and facilitates the recognition of our self as the witness -
ing or knowing presence of awareness. Most people are so accustomed to paying exclusive attention to the content  
of their experience that this process of stepping back and resting as the pres -
ence of awareness may seem, to begin with, to involve some effort or practice. In this case, we may ask ourself a question such as, ‘Who am I really?’,  
‘What is it that knows or is aware of my experience?’, ‘What is the continu -
ous element in all changing experience?’ or ‘What is it that cannot be removed  
or separated from me?’  
     Each of these is a variation of the same question, what I call the ‘sacred  
question’, whose purpose is to gently invite our attention away from its ob -
jective content and back to our self, the presence of awareness. That is the  
essence of self-enquiry. As an alternative to this line of questioning, we may also reason that no -
thing that appears and disappears in our experience could be essential to us. Only the fact of being aware remains consistently present, and therefore only  
the fact of being aware qualifies as our essential self. For a while, the pull of objective experience may be so strong that it only  
seems possible to remain knowingly the presence of awareness for brief  
periods, and questions or lines of reasoning such as these may need to be re -
peated. However, every time we return to awareness, we are eroding the old  
25you are the happiness you seek
habit of losing ourself in the content of experience and, although we may  
not realise it to begin with, establishing ourself in our true nature. In time, it becomes so natural to understand and feel ourself as the pres -
ence of awareness that it no longer needs to be maintained by effort or prac -
tice, nor does it need to be initiated by a question or a line of reasoning. Just as previously we did not need to remind ourself continually that we  
were a man or a woman, because it was simply our default identity, so now  
it is no longer necessary to remind ourself, or make the effort, to be know -
ingly the presence of awareness. It simply becomes our new identity. There  
may still be moments of forgetting, but these occur less frequently and en -
dure for less time. Somebody once asked the Indian sage Atmananda Krishna Menon how  
one knows when one is established in one’s true nature and he replied, ‘When  
thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions can no longer take you away  
from your self’. As the content of our experience gradually loses its capacity to take us  
away from our self, it is no longer necessary to turn away from it. We remain  
knowingly the presence of awareness both in formal periods of meditation,  
when we withdraw our attention from the content of experience, and during  
everyday life, in the midst of experience. The dilemma of attention is resolved. The conflict between awareness  
and experience diminishes. Experience becomes increasingly transparent to  
the presence of awareness and we find ourself at home everywhere. 26chapter four
The Art of Self-Enquiry
Of all the koans,  ‘I’ is the most profound. ikkyu   
 
Can you give an example of self-enquiry in action? I remember a young man who attended one of my retreats several years ago. His face bore the marks of a lifetime of suffering. During the retreat I could  
feel his resistance wanting to formulate itself as a question, and a few days  
before the end he challenged my suggestion that his nature is inherently peace -
ful: ‘If my essential nature is freedom, peace and happiness, why do I suffer  
so much of the time?’  
     I suggested that it was simply because he had lost himself in, or identified  
himself with, the content of his experience. ‘But my experience is so intense  
and overwhelming much of the time’, he replied, ‘that I don’t know how to  
disidentify  myself from it’. ‘It would only be necessary to disidentify yourself from the content of  
experience’, I suggested, ‘if you were identical to it in the first place. ‘Does the space in a room have to work hard not to identify itself with  
the four walls of the room, or to let go of all the objects or people as they  
leave the room? It would only have to do so if it were attached to them in the  
first place. The space of the room is already and inherently free and at rest. ‘You are like that’, I suggested. ‘You only need recognise yourself as such.’  
     ‘So what’s keeping me from doing that?’ he asked. ‘Just an old, conditioned habit’, I replied. ‘Our culture has educated us  
to believe certain things about ourselves from an early age and we do so with -
out question. This may work, more or less, for a while, but sooner or later  
the suffering that inevitably attends these assumptions compels us to ques -
tion them. The primary assumption is that our essential self or being is con -
ditioned by, and limited to, the content of experience.’  you are the happiness you seek
     After giving the young man a moment to take this in, I asked him to tell  
us about his self. ‘When I first arrived at this retreat…’ he began. I stopped him. ‘You are describing a memory. We want to know about  
your self.’ 
     ‘I feel like I’m destined to suffer all my life’, he said, with an air of resig -
nation. ‘Now you are telling us about a feeling, not about your self. Your feelings  
appear to you, they arise within you, they may linger for some time and they  
may be familiar and repetitive, but sooner or later they vanish. When you  
say “I feel”, tell us about the one you refer to as “I”, not about what you feel.’  
     ‘I think it’s –’  
     ‘Don’t tell us about your thoughts!’ I interrupted, to keep him from tak -
ing another step in the wrong direction. ‘T ell us about the “I” to whom your  
thoughts appear.’  
     ‘I…’ There was a long silence. ‘Perfect!’ I said quietly. Although reluctant to disturb the silence, I did so  
because I sensed thought beginning to take over again. ‘You have the undeni -
able sense of simply being. “I” is the name you give to that being. T ell us more.’  
     ‘I am…’ Another long silence followed. By this stage the man’s eyes were  
closed and I could see that the tension on his face had already diminished. I could tell how sincerely and intently he was participating in our con -
versation. He was giving his attention exclusively to his self, to the fact of  
simply being, before it was qualified in any way by his experience. There was  
no struggle with the content of experience; he had simply become more in -
terested in the nature of his self. It was clear that it was no longer necessary to guide him through a series  
of questions, nor even to interpret his experience. One could have heard a  
pin drop in the room of two hundred people. I could feel that we were all  
sharing the same experience, participating in the experience of simply  
being. He opened his eyes and, with a broad smile, asked, ‘Is it that simple?’  
But his rhetorical question required no response. His experience was its own  
evidence. 28the art of self-enquiry
tracing our way back to our self  
 
Later in the day the man asked, ‘But what if all the old suffering comes back?’  
     ‘It probably will’, I admitted, ‘through force of habit. A glimpse of our  
true nature doesn’t erase years of conditioning. In almost all cases, the old  
conditioning will return. ‘But whenever it does, all that is necessary is to trace your way back to  
your essential being as you just have, and rest there, as that. Every time you  
do so you are weakening the old habit of becoming lost in or identified with  
the content of your experience, and instead are becoming established in your  
true nature of peace.’  
     We didn’t speak again for a day or so, but I noticed that whereas pre -
viously he had kept himself apart from the group, he was now talking en -
thusiastically with other attendees and participating in shared activities, such  
as meals and afternoon walks in the countryside. On the last day he was  
eager to ask another question. ‘I understood when you suggested all I had to do was trace my way back  
to my true nature and rest there. So I kept doing that, but after a while I no -
ticed that I couldn’t find that self who was tracing its way back to my true  
nature. There’s just me, that peaceful presence. Does that make sense?’  
     ‘It does make sense’, I replied, and explained to him that the suggestion  
to trace one’s way back to one’s true nature and rest there, as that, is a com -
passionate concession that is given to one who believes and feels that they  
are a suffering self. ‘If I had suggested to you a couple of days ago’, I said, ‘that the self on  
whose behalf your suffering arises is an illusion and, therefore, by implica -
tion, that your suffering itself is an illusion, I suspect that you would have  
been frustrated. Another layer of resistance would have been added to your  
current experience of suffering, simply compounding it. ‘So I gave the apparently suffering self something to do: trace your way  
back to your self, and remain resting in your being at all times. Having tried  
this only a few times, you brought yourself to the understanding that you  
are always and already the inherently peaceful and unconditionally fulfilled  
presence of awareness. It is not something you become through effort or  
practice. You simply recognise it is what you always and already are. That is,  
it recognises itself, in you, as you.’  
29you are the happiness you seek
     ‘Is there something else I should do now?’ he asked. ‘If this is clear’, I suggested, ‘nothing remains to be done. Who would  
do it, and to what end? The question of doing something or not doing some -
thing simply no longer arises. However, if it is not clear, that is, if suffering  
arises again, see that it arises on behalf of the temporary, finite self that,  
at least in that moment, you believe yourself to be. ‘Once again you can simply trace your way back to your inherently peace -
ful and unconditionally fulfilled nature of pure awareness. In time, the ap -
pearance of suffering, the recognition of the false assumption on whose  
behalf it arises and the return to your being will be almost simultaneous. You  
begin to be established in your true nature. ‘As soon as the suffering arises, it is met with the mirror of understanding  
and effortlessly dissolves. Self-enquiry gives way to self-abidance. The hap -
piness we seek is revealed as the happiness we are.’  
 
This understanding is the fulfilment of the search. It brings us back to the  
place from which we never really departed. We left home and set out on a  
great adventure seeking peace and fulfilment, only to find ourself back at  
home again, as if for the first time. In fact, we didn’t even leave home. It is more like one who falls asleep  
and dreams that they embark on an epic journey. They pass through  
many traumatic childhood experiences, grow up, get married, have a  
family, struggle to earn a living, grow old, become sick and die. And as  
they die, they wake up to find that they were lying peacefully on their  
bed all along. The journey is the pathless path from our self to our self, from the hap -
piness we seek to the happiness we are. Ironically, it is almost always necessary  
to embark on some sort of journey before this becomes clear.
You-are-the-Happiness-You-Seek-Rupert-Spira.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        you are the happiness you seek   rupert spira
SAHAJAWhenever we are seeking happiness, it is in  
fact our innate happiness that is seeking us. The happiness we seek is the happiness we are. ’    
– rupert spira‘
Rupert Spira is renowned for his ability to  
guide people to a direct experience of their  
innate happiness or true nature. He is a teacher  
of the Direct Path, which is the epitome of the  
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. You Are the  
Happiness You Seek  
  
 Uncovering the Awareness of Being
rupert spiraIn this book, 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,  
Spira demonstrates that to seek lasting happiness through  
objects, situations and relationships is destined for failure  
and disappointment, and skilfully guides the reader to  
recognise that we are already the happiness we seek. This book is for anyone who yearns for lasting happiness  
and is open to the possibility that it is continuously available  
within ourselves, irrespective of our circumstances. Could there be any greater discovery in life than to know  
that we are already that for which we long. How may we find lasting peace and happiness. ‘I’ve gained deeper understanding listening to Rupert Spira  
than I have from any other exponent of modern spirituality. ’ 
deepak chopra‘Rupert Spira’s articulate and very intimate style of teaching  
is truly transformational. I’ve read and treasure all of his books. ’  
– rhonda byrne, author of The Secret and The Greatest Secret  
 
‘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
*     *     *
SAHAJA
$21. 95    £15. 99     SPIRITUALITY   
ISBN  978  -1-  68403  - 012  - 5 
www. sahajapublications. comYou Are the Happiness You Seek Cover with 12. 2mm spine. qxp_Layout 1  21/01/2022  17:39  Page 1you are the happiness you seek   rupert spira
SAHAJAWhenever we are seeking happiness, it is in  
fact our innate happiness that is seeking us.
The author's main message is that happiness is the very nature of our being, and it is not something that can be found in external circumstances, but rather it is always available within us.
What is the author's main message?
The author's approach is to guide people to recognize that they are already the happiness they seek, and to help them understand that they do not need to seek it in external objects, situations, or relationships.
What is the author's approach to helping people find happiness?
The author believes that happiness is not something that can be found in external circumstances, but rather it is the nature of our being and is always available within us.
What is the author's view on the nature of happiness?
The author believes that most people are seeking happiness in the wrong place, as they are conditioned to believe that happiness comes from external sources, and are unaware of the fact that they are already the happiness they seek.
What is the author's opinion on the idea that people are seeking happiness in the wrong place?
The author suggests that one should not try to change their thoughts, feelings, or sensations, but rather recognize that they are already the happiness they seek and rest in their true nature, and that this understanding is the key to overcoming suffering.
What is the author's suggestion for overcoming suffering and finding happiness?