Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

Dear Edji, I recently came across your website, and after reading several of your essays, and blog posts I decided to write to you in hopes of gaining some insight into my current state of awareness.

The problem is I feel half-baked. My understanding of Advaita seems to be there, but it only seems a head knowledge that has not yet fully penetrated my heart. 

Lately however I have begun to feel fraudulent and sense a need for some kind of spiritual practice, some devotional practice perhaps. It can't all be in the head, the heart must have a say in the matter.

I realize this is all a relative position and that ultimately consciousness is all, but without heart felt conviction, knowledge only goes so far.

You strike me as a man of conviction and more importantly a man of compassion  What the neo-avaitins teach seems to be right on but there also seems to be a depth missing that I just can't find, but sense that it is  essential to the proper transmission of the teaching. 

When I was in the Christian church we had a term that referred to what most people were willing to settle for.

That term was "cheap grace" No sacrifice no commitment just fire insurance. Head knowledge;no heart knowledge This seems an equivalent of what the neo's are offering, and I'm tired of it. Will you help me? 

I would like to continue this discussion and welcome any questions you may have that will lead to clarity in our conversation.

Ken

RESPONSE:

Dear Ken,

From my viewpoint, the neo-advaitins stay on the surface, waking consciousness and seeing no entity which is I, then conclude there is no separate I, just this beingness.

But they have not penetrated very deeply into consciousness, deeper than the mind, as you recognize, to the heart and even deeper, although on the level of the manifest, it will always be felt as living from the heart.

There are two ways to deepen: self-inquiry on the I Am sensation (not the I-thought or I-object) but the sensation of I.  Or, complete love and devotion to another, a guru, a woman, a cat.

I mean total love, complete self abandonment.  This is the most difficult route, but the fastest.

You can do a middle way of using the book, the Nisargadatta Gita by Pradeep Apte as a meditation guide. 

You can download it from my website.  Read only 2 pages a day, ponder what it says, then dive into the I Am.  After a while you will find it readily. Then start practicing loving the I Am.  Read the book.  It gives instructions.

Then also read Siddharameshwar’s The Master of Self Realization.  Mostly just read the 86 page introduction.  That will give you the theoretical framework for everything.

Read all the material on my website, wearesentience.com, and my blog to get an idea of who I am.

I can take you if you are diligent.

Ed