The Way
of
RADICAL
HONESTY

An Interview
with Bernie Prior
by Leo Drioli

Bernie Prior is a Self-Realised man from the UK who lives in true simplicity and devotion to Source. In the 1980’s Bernie had several awakenings into Source – into the mystery behind all manifestation. During this time, Bernie’s utter love of a woman revealed to him the living truth of man and woman in relationship. Bernie speaks to an ever-growing audience around the world. His uncompromising stance as a spiritual teacher brings clarity and openness to those who are ready to embrace absolute truth in life.

InnerSelf: I’d like to begin with the following question, Who is Bernie Prior?

Bernie Prior: That’s a good question. Let me just answer that indirectly before I answer it directly… That is, “Who is anybody really?” That really is true inquiry, when we ask ourselves like Ramana did: Who am I? First off we may discover what we’re not; all our false impressions that we gather through our experiences and if we’re really in love with this life, with Truth, then that would also uncover who we really are. But not as a somebody…initially as our essence, the deeper self, the Self Itself…the “nobodyness”. My experience is that I discovered many years ago, (if I was to speak in linear time), that actually there is no Bernie Prior. Although there is that that is functioning as so-called Bernie Prior…and that is Being or Essence. But I’m still an individual like you’re an individual. If somebody says to me, “Bernie, Bernie…” I’ll answer. But these days, not always. (Laughter)

IS: So what turned it all around for you?

BP: For me, although there seemed to have been a particular moment where who I thought I was fell into direct experience of what we’re speaking about, even as a very young boy, as far back as three or around five to twelve, there was this deep loving. And as a young lad I thought everybody had this…my parents, my sisters, people around me…but later on I discovered they didn’t. I was this glow inside of me and this sweet pulling inside that would just pull me beyond everything. I’m not telling you it was on a daily basis, it just was when it was. I used to experience just dissolving into this nothingness…it was a constant opening into this place as a teenager.
I was so enthralled in what was taking place although I had no knowledge of what that was, just the pure enjoyment of what it is. I used to allow that, and I’ve allowed it all of my life.

IS: So, is a teacher necessary?

BP: This to me is a Yes and a No because you can’t avoid the teacher. The teacher is everywhere. The teacher being life itself…life’s experiences. But maybe an exterior teacher can point you towards a deeper surrender or opening to what life’s experiences are pointing towards. Especially if the teacher has deep realisation, has realised the whole movement of life…as it moves out of the Source and in to the Source at the same moment. And I see quite clearly that that’s what our daily life is - that moving out and moving back to – is elongated into experiences. So I’d say that the teacher is a yes/no because in my own experience I never had a teacher. Life was my teacher.

IS: What is the essence of your teaching?

BP: The essence of it is Truth…is Love and, that through totally embracing life as it is, then all the distractions, the pollutions we’ve made through mind identity and identity with the emotions dissolve to reveal that Love and deepening peace is what we were the whole time. Just that we got so “mindy” through personal identity and attaching our experiences to a person, that it covered over our own intrinsic beauty, our own radiance inside.

IS: You are obviously speaking from that space…from the clarity of the present moment. Is it always this moment for you?
BP: There is only this moment. What I love about this…what I call “this” is that from that place it is on every level instantly. So I can look into what appears to be past or future but they’re all appearances of the one.

IS: Most of us are seeking something, even if it’s deeper awakening…does seeking help or hinder?

BP: While I’m speaking to you and you’re asking me such good questions I’m also looking into my own experience and what I see is that I did not seek.
It’s always just been happening. I didn’t seek, it just opened up within me. I didn’t seek for it. Even the direct falling into That was not something I sought, it just took place. And even the time and space for it to take place just took place.

IS: So does the yearning for greater depth interfere?

BP: No, I think that’s behind everybody. There’s this yearning for something that we know is already here but how do we reach it? To me that’s reflected in everybody’s movement in our daily lives. That need for something or somebody…a companion, is that. And often when this really gets cooking inside we get to see that all those objects that we’re trying to attach to are not it either. And that doesn’t work, so it has to be something else and then that’s when he or she that is seeing outside starts to look inside. And that’s quite painful…the pain is the burning up of our distortion.
In my experience of that I didn’t seek it, I just fell back within me and just was with whatever that was…and when the pain happened through being so focused within, I allowed it.

IS: What motivated you to do that? The normal response is to run from it…

BP: I believe that, without personalising this on any level, that one has to have a great love. The paradox is that everyone’s got this great love, so maybe this Bernie Prior character came in with less distortion. I don’t know. This is the mystery.

IS: You place a lot of emphasis on loving each other as man and woman. What role do our partners play in our spiritual development?

BP: Man and woman are the very principle of the one self. So woman is the Self appearing as the principle of femininity and man is the Self appearing as the principle of masculinity. There’s definitely Self and yet the energies are absolutely so different. That’s the beautiful play that’s taking place. What I speak of is that woman is that created aspect in which creation opens up and manifests because she has the womb. And yet in that deep place where I say these two principles are and are radiant loving already – they’re already in union – it just appears that in the senses they’re not in union. They’re actually already one within. So the draw is to unite the bodies to meet that in this reflection of man and woman…To unite in this living life that that seems to be exterior…so that that dance on the outside in the senses is actually coming from those depths…already opened and realised with the Self. So it’s the Self dancing as man and woman – that’s the whole of creation.
And so within that, when man is absolutely true to his inner love through a reflection of his apparent outer love for the woman, he realises that she’s already in him, already free, already radiant. And he’s been looking at her as though she’s not, as though she’s something to possess… maybe to control. And then he discovers that “She is that love that I seek.” And it works the other way around. Woman begins to know that what she truly trusted as her guide within, as her direction…that that makes her so radiant, that presence that she feels, which I’d say is her inner man connected with the one Self – here it is outside.
So then when man really is beginning to be so present and have real direction in his life, she becomes so much more radiant and alive because in that presence that’s so devoted to the life of love – she radiates in that. It’s an acknowledgement of her own Self inside. And so then those appearing two meet within. And I think that’s very profound realisation.

IS: What sort of spiritual practice do you encourage, if any?

BP: I don’t encourage anything that’s not spontaneously here. What anybody needs is here right now. So I encourage them to have a look right now, to see what this is. Otherwise we could get into patterns of so-called meditation, patterns of so-called one-pointedness, patterns of truth, patterns of love – and none of it is real. So for me it’s a constant seeing of the presence and what is really here. If that’s a practice in the beginning, so be it.
The key to all this is radical honesty. Radical honesty to your inner as reflected on the outer. That cuts very deep through our distortion so that we begin to relax into a place that’s always here. So radical honesty dissolves the inquirer, as it were.

IS: So what do we do in our daily lives to become more present if we don’t practice?

BP: There are many people walking this planet that don’t do any practicing of anything and yet are one with this earth, one with this presence. It’s not that you need to practice being with the trees, being with nature, being anywhere. Many people on this earth do simply enjoy the simple life of just being on this earth. They have no knowledge of a magazine called InnerSelf or a teacher called Bernie Prior. They’re just being simply with this life.
And yet we can also see that something is invading this innocence on our planet. And that’s because we are one…There’s only one intelligence on this earth and as many of the cells of that insist on being separate from each other, it pollutes the rest of the psyche…but it can only go so far because the core of the psyche is pure, one with God or Truth. So it can’t go any deeper than that but it does start to, on a physical level, invade the free space, as it were.
Only on the outside and within the mental and emotional bodies in the matrix. Only somebody that’s really deep can stay in that presence, although there seems to be a lot going on on the outside in terms of the manifest, and on the outside in terms of mind and emotion.
The paradox is that no matter what is taking place, all is one. This spaciousness or vastness beyond identity is alive right now in everything we perceive. There’s nothing separate from it. What appears to be good and bad to the mind is arising from that same place.

IS: To know this is a beautiful place to sit but you can so easily fall back into unconsciousness, you forget, even though you know…so that’s just an intellectual knowing. So to actually move into the Truth and be it constantly, no matter what’s taking place is the challenge…now, is there something at all that can be done for that?

BP: You’ve got to live it Leo. You’ve got to live it…that’s all you can do. And again this takes a certain amount of light, a certain amount of loving, a certain amount of having this pull… that you’ve had enough experiences in your life, and that you’ve met the Real on many levels…you’ve met It but there’s so much unreal that’s happening…and so when one is really deepening into this through just normal living, what’s so beautiful about this intelligence that we all are, is with all these experiences going on, there is an intelligence that’s actually seeing all this going on.
And Truth starts to filter through the many experiences of this pretending self.

IS: So this is a natural unfoldment taking place…

BP: It naturally unfolds because after so many experiences, it starts to rise to the surface that… this isn’t real, there is something else. Then a seeking can take place, that we’ve spoken about but in everybody’s life, no matter who it is there’s this place…this calling from inside when one finally begins to see through all the distortion…it only takes a second, it just pops through and just says something like “There’s something more than this.”
And often we start to look for it on other levels, like a new job or a new partner…but we realise that’s not it…until the new job or the new partner starts to be felt within and then we cease being familiar with it, we start to be truly consciously alive in all our activities.
There’s nothing you can do about this, it’s just that when you’re ready everything simply takes place.
There’s nothing we really need to do. When we’re really ready, all the right people turn up and if a teacher’s required, the teacher turns up…everybody (required) just turns up to fulfil this reflection of where we truly fit. So it’s just to really be with this life…to really be present with it. It isn’t anything that you’re doing, it’s just to live in honesty to yourself and to this.
That will work, but it’ll kill you off at the same time mind you…(Laughter).

Bernie Prior interweaves the teaching of “The Form” with sharing the truth of man & woman in partnership – revealing the divine dance of formlessness & form here on earth. This inspires & empowers man & woman to live from their true potential in all aspects of life – being love, resting in stillness, living as the embodiment of truth. Bernie will be in Australia for a residential retreat “Love & Truth in Reflection” held at Sangsurya, Byron Bay from Wed 26 April – Thurs 4 May.
For details see advertisement in Moon Calendar or phone The Bernie Prior Foundation on (02) 6689 5922. Email: australia@bernieprior.org or visit www.bernieprior.org