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Originally Posted by Iamit
Does anyone know the passage in I AM ThAT, where a seeker states that he is in abject despair that progress will ever be made, and Niz tells him that he is in a most advantageo position to realize that he is already the Supreme? As though despair was a prequisite. Page number or maybe even post the passage here.
My copy has been lost.
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A friend has found the passage which indeed describes the fast realization (Trust) mentioned by Niz:-
"Q: Sir, I am an humble seeker, wandering from Guru to Guru in search of release. My mind is sick, burning with desire, frozen with fear. My days flit by, red with pain, grey with boredom. My age is advancing, my health decaying, my future dark and frightening. At this rate I shall live in sorrow and die in despair. Is there any hope for me? Or have I come too late?
Niz: Nothing is wrong with you, but the ideas you have of yourself are altogether wrong. It is not you who desires, fears and suffers, it is the person built on the foundation of your body by circumstances and influences. You are not that person. This must be clearly established in your mind and never lost sight of. Normally, it needs a prolonged sadhana, years of austerities and meditation.
Q: My mind is weak and vacillating. I have neither the strength nor the tenacity for sadhana. My case, is hopeless.
Niz: In a way yours is a most hopeful case. There is an alternative to sadhana, which is trust. If you cannot have the conviction born from fruitful search, then take advantage of my discovery, which I am so eager to share with you. I can see with the utmost clarity that you have never been, nor are, nor will be estranged from realty, that you are the fullness of perfection here and now and that nothing can deprive you of your heritage, of what you are. You are in no way different from me, only you do not know it. You do not know what you are and therefore you imagine your self to be what you are not. Hence desires and fear and overwhelming despair. And meaningless activity in order to escape".
This is the basis of most Neo Advaita, sometimes referred to as the Direct approach. It was always known by some but was not widely mentioned because it was felt that the time was not right. When it was more widely spread, it was largely invalidated by tradition and remains untrusted, so perhaps it was not the right time for it to be spread more widely.