Q: I’ve read 4 of your books, including the newest one about finding a teaching and teacher. I have been seeking for over 10 years. For the past few years, I’ve been interested in the “quick fix” from Rupert Spira and John Wheeler type teachers. However I quickly realized that the “8 minute abs” approach is just not thorough enough. My busy days in the corporate world, and with a young child, sweep me away. After reading your book, I looked into James Swartz and Rory Mackay, so I could start from the very beginning and take this step by step. I want to get self knowledge. Sadly, Rory Mackay passed away. James Swartz has a great website but the teachings seem very complicated and it feels I’m going to need to devote time I just don’t have. Do I need a personal teacher? Or will books and YouTube be enough? Can you help point me in the right direction? Much respect for your work.

A: I do sympathize. Unfortunately there is no quick solution that you can pursue in your spare time. I have not had a personal teacher but then I have been studying and writing about Advaita full time for 25 years. The bottom line could not be simpler. Reality is non-dual; who-you-really are IS that non-dual reality. The problem, of course, is convincing you of the truth of that.

The best that you can do, assuming you do not want to abandon your present way of life (!), is to read those books most likely to convince you of that bottom line. The problem there is finding the right books. Even the best occasionally tell you something that just does not seem right, and that can derail you. You can start by reading the books I recommended in ‘Self Seeking’. My next book will help – ‘Finding the Self’. This is the companion book to ‘Self Seeking’. It looks at all the main topics of Advaita and quotes teachers and writers that give unhelpful, or simply incorrect teaching, and it then gives the correct message according to Śaṅkara. This should really help to sort the wheat from the chaff. It is with the publisher but will not be out until the beginning of next year. Once you have familiarized yourself with all of the essential teaching, my ‘Confusions in Advaita Vedanta’ series will take you through the incorrect and correct teaching of each topic. But these are advanced books for when you have reached that stage.

Without a teacher, it is reading (plus maybe listening and watching) the same teaching over and over again from slightly different viewpoints, that will eventually convince. And be sure you understand that it is intellectual certainty that you are looking for, not some mystical conversion, disappearing world or ecstatic experience. You are always ‘free’ or ‘liberated’ – there is nothing that you could do or need to do to ‘attain’ that. The problem is gaining the certain knowledge of that fact.

All the best and, if you come across an aspect that you really do not understand, I am always happy to answer the occasional question.