The Glorious Both/And

     Like many individuals who have delved into contemporary non-dual spirituality, I was once deeply influenced by Nisargadatta Maharajs' unconventional contemporary Advaita Vedanta-derived teachings on liberation via radical self-effacement. Alongside Ramana Maharshi, he is one of the primary influencers of these self-effacement teachings in our present-day Western world, particularly the extremely powerful, most pitfall-laden "direct path" approaches to "enlightenment" that cut out all preparatory stages/safeguards that existed traditionally before attempting to obliterate your sense of self. This is done in favor of a sort of instant enlightenment approach that is understandably attractive to people in the West. Nisargadattas' influence extends beyond strictly Advaita-derived teachings, encompassing the broad range of modern Western amalgamations of Eastern non-dual teachings, which typically mix and match cherry-picked elements of traditions like Advait...