Conversations with Avant-garde Sages - The Wizard LLC

Conversations with Avant-garde Sages
miserable electrical bulb hanging from the ceiling. But I had no
choice but to be there due to the cold waiting for my train, some
people smelled like alcohol. Not the beautiful mountains and
beautiful home I live in right now, and nevertheless there was this
peace and this light was divine coming out of this bulb, and
everything was at peace and beautiful. And I thought to myself,
"Gee, two years ago you were so distracted, you couldn't have been
standing there". Now there is beauty everywhere because it is my
inner peace that is shining.
WIZARD: Shall we have a question from Rona Wallace in British
Columbia. Rona would like to know what Francis thinks about the
traditional Advaita and Neo-Advaita controversy that seems to be
prevalent. I've noticed in myself where there's a little put down
between [Laughs] the newer schools of thought and the traditional
Advaita. And so Rona would like to get your take on that.
FRANCIS LUCILLE: Well, it's very difficult to talk about. The
problem I see, the potential problem I see, is that the difference
between the traditional teaching perhaps and the Neo-Advaita is
that in the traditional teaching there are two phases if you will,
there is a phase of the awakening, and then there is the phase of
getting established. In the awakening there is a radical
transformation that takes place, but this transformation needs
time and needs often the help of a spiritual friend to cement itself
so that we can really enjoy the fruit which is happiness. The Neo-
Advaita often at best remains at the first stage, at the glimpse of
Truth or intellectual understanding.
WIZARD: The flower.
FRANCIS LUCILLE: Exactly. The ripening of it, so we understand
it after several years, hopefully. I know that without the help of my
teacher, and the 20-year association I had with him…
WIZARD: So the flower falls away while the fruit is developing.
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