Practicing Intensive Non-Practice - 03.11.10

Student Question: The other day I was watching a satsang of Ramesh Balsekar on the internet, and he was giving the explanation of Advaita, the manifestation of consciousness through the bodily organism, etc., etc. And he always emphasizes that there is predestination, that Realization happens to one bodily organism no matter what you do or not. And then on the other hand, I have these Buddhists talking about practices and merits. What do you think about that? And, also, there are many gurus from the Advaita tradition who will laugh at you and say, "Practice what? You already are that. You don’t need to practice anything in order to realize that. You don’t need to do anything." So what is the middle way?

“You have to practice intensively non-practice,” unveils Shunyamurti, the spiritual guru of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And although it is true that there is predestination, there is also free will. It may be predestined that you will decide to practice whereas someone else won’t. But that will only happen because you have chosen out of your free will.” And, in regards to spiritual practice, “as long as there is a false belief that you are that ego, then that ego better practice realizing that it’s not!” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, March 11, 2010.