You Are the Happiness You Seek: Uncovering the Awareness of Being

Rupert Spira is a gifted teacher and wonderful human being. According to Rupert, enlightenment is not something to be obtained. It is not an object. You won’t find it in any experience, possession, relationship, mantra, or chant. The short answer is that enlightenment is becoming aware of that which is aware and identifying with that. You are not your body. You are not your thoughts. You are not your degrees or titles. You are not your trauma. You are that constant presence that has always been and is unchanged through time. Your nature is peace and contentment. As the title has it: , you are the happiness you seek. To summarize: Enlightenment on the direct path is dropping identification with all objects of awareness and instead identifying with awareness itself. That is to say, adopt and embrace the view that “I am awareness.“ There is much more to the teaching that helps stabilize understanding of the teaching and explore its implications. Other notable features of the book are that it is easy to understand. There is no added obfuscation to the teaching. It is not overly esoteric. The book uses a question and answer format at times where questions are posed by the student and answered by the teacher. I found that very helpful. At its root, so-called enlightenment is not some experience to be gained, but rather it is something to be recognized as ever present. Our problem is identifying with and being so caught up in our experiences and the pursuit of objects that we don’t recognize the most basic of things. This book is an invaluable help to cultivate an understanding of who/what you are.

I was skeptical of Rupert Spira an his teachings...thinking that someone doing as much on YouTube and professional website as he does. The tradition of guru and disciple has always called for free and personal involvement. But it is a new generation and reaching a mass audience requires these means. I am a skeptic no more. Rupert is so amazingly knowledgeable across religions, logical and straight-forward in his presentation and sincere. I have been following him for about 3 years now and have owned this book since just after it was published. He has so many other publications, but I see no reason to buy them as this book says it all IMO. I have read extensively and listened to other great teachers as well, but I'm sincere in saying that this book is enough. I have bought several other copies for family and friends. It's a bit repetitive at first, but the initial phase of getting past your experience and ego bears the repetition. Keep with it. By the end you will see the whole of it. Read it again and perhaps again and again, because there is subtlety therein. Know that there is only one...be not a seeker...just be. Wisdom distilled.

This book is incredible in that, to my mind at least, it finally gives an understanding of myself and my relationship to everyone and everything else in the universe. The peace and happiness that we all seek is described, not as long life of spiritual seeking, full of mantras and psychedelic drugs, but instead consists of dealing with qualities that are, who we inherently are. These are peace and happiness.They are simply veiled by our incessant need for experiences and the idea that each of us is separate from every being and everything. This separateness also creates the idea of time and space, rather than being in the now. We are truly spirit and as such, suffering is totally imposed on us by our mind. Returning to our true self, without the illusion of Ego, gives us the way dealing with, not only suffering, but all sorts of thought and experience based issues. A final statement of “knowing. oneself “ reminds me of Socrates. Until now, I not truly understood this statement. As Rupert Spira contends, we cannot understand the universe until we understand our most intimate part of the Universe, Ourselves.

This is probably the most clear, succinct, thorough, non-religious description of our true nature that I have ever encountered. I will be reading this book over and over until it sticks. “It is we, awareness, who, being intimately one with all experience, seem to lose our self in it, thereby overlooking our innate peace and happiness. The inevitable suffering that ensues from this is a call from our self to our self - a call to return home from the adventure of experience in which we have become entangled.”

I enjoyed this thoughtful book immensely. I was deeply moved by the author’s way of validating his thesis; this lifted the veil for me. Thank you.

I have often come across the statement "Real peace is found within" and have always wondered what that means or how does one go about finding it. Reading this book was a great help towards that direction.

The author thoroughly and meticulously explains how to obtain happiness permanently and in all situations. Very easy to read, and follow what the author is saying. I think this book will have a great impact on my life!

I've read a ton of spiritual books and while I've gained a lot from that I've gotten to a point where I don't feel the need to read more books on the topic because everyone is kind of saying the same things in different ways. Then comes along this book. Rupert has condensed and made crystal clear the essence of the various wisdom traditions in this book. It is a real deal transmission with the best "pointing out" instructions I've come across in my search for true freedom. If I had to choose just one spiritual book to read for the rest of my life, it would be this one.

Simplemente transformador. Rupert Spira desmonta la ilusión de que la felicidad está "ahí fuera" esperando ser encontrada. Con claridad cristalina, te guía a reconocer que ya eres la paz y plenitud que buscas. No es filosofía abstracta - es experiencia directa. Este libro cambia fundamentalmente cómo te relacionas contigo mismo y con la vida. Profundo y liberador.

You are the Happiness you Seek is another addition to Spira’s insightful books on non-duality. Spira delivers his message in a comprehensible way for the modern audience. This book focuses on the essential happiness of our inner being.

I have read many of Rupert’s books and they are always illuminating. However, so far, I am finding this new book in particular has a wonderful simplicity that speaks directly to the heart! Although I could read it very quickly, I’m taking a chapter a day, and this feels right. As someone who has a lifetime of being drawn to music, it is lovely to see Rupert’s references to the way music can also be a spiritual path to the truth of ourselves.

This is one of the best spiritual book I read - concise, precise and far reaching. I would recommend it to everyone who is seriously engaged in his/her own path to wholeness.

Libro fantastico. A mio parere utilissimo. Mi ha permesso di fare chiarezza su molti aspetti sia teorici che pratici. Rupert Spira è un ottimo insegnante. Limpidissimo.