The emergence of Advaita.

[Iamit]

Advaita was known by Teachers before it emerged more widely as a teaching but it was felt it was not the time, or appropriate, to teach such a Direct Approach. It was largely kept hidden and traditional paths and practices remained the predominate teaching. At some point (others may know better than I when this may have been) the teaching of Advaita was spread more openly and widely, more clearly and recently by Neo Advaita.

In view of the reaction to Neo Advaita, it seems that the decision to teach The Direct Approach may well have been premature. Does anyone know the reaction to it when it was first taught more widely in the East?

Traditional Advaita did not come in for so much critisism because it retained the idea of paths and practice for an individual to achieve enlightenment

My perception is much of the criticism of both Neo-Vedanta and Neo-Advaita comes from some adherents of traditional Advaita Vedanta. So it's a turf battle. LOL!

Nothing new here and nothing compared to past "battles" between Buddhists and dualist Vedantists or Vishishtadvaitists and Advaita Vedantists.