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Discipline and Advaita

by Maitreya Ishwara

As time passes and I watch many
seekers dance with the marriage of
advaita, meditation and celebration that I
teach, further insights arise.

Spiritual growth requires effort and
discipline as the foundation for the
conscious let go into the flow of isnesss,
that is the essential application of
advaita in life.
Surrender to whatever happens in less
conscious seekers is likely to involve
resignation to unconsciousness and
limitation.
Conscious surrender to life is actually
only possible for those who have
developed more consciousness through
the discipline of remaining conscious
every moment in all situations.
This essential preparation for surrender
involves the ego choosing to live each
moment more consciously. Until
consciousness has grown sufficiently to
manage this spontaneously.


Discipline

For seekers who have not yet passed
through this discipline the invitation of
advaita to let life live you will have less
helpful results. For the seeker's ego
must make every possible effort to live
more consciously, and be achieving
some success is this endevour, before
conscious surrender is really possible.

Nowadays I still teach advaita as the
context that all ego-based effort occurs
in. For in reality there is only divine will
managing every individual ego, and the
entire functioning of every detail of all
existence.

Yet divine will requires your totality of
individual effort to live each moment
more consciously, before it reveals itself
as the only real doer.
This understanding avoids the limitations
of meditation (unnecessary ego burden
and responsibility) and of advaita
(unverified belief in truth, and let go into
unconsciousness).
The present popularity of advaita-based
teachings, that are not supported by the
discipline of conscious living and being,
have left many seekers confused.


The antidote

The antidote is simple: Make every
possible effort to grow in consciousness,
while understanding that it's really all just
a play of divine will. And that even your
individual ego, which requires positive
development through disipline, is just a
refection of the only power there is: The
power of the One.
This allows you to have your cake and
eat it too. By fully engaging in self-
improvement and ego-based discipline
in the playful context of understanding
that it's all just the mysterious unfolding
of the cosmic leela.

Even your very special individuality and
ego is also just a play of the One.

Love Maitreya

 


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