Spiritual life means a letting go, a giving up, a release of all the things that have turned you on up till now. All the things that seem important to you, good, bad, in-between and mentally letting go. For it doesn’t matter whether you live in a palace or a hut, whether you have a million dollars or five cents, whether you’re dying of cancer or you’re healthy as a horse, it shouldn’t make any difference.

For after all to whom does this happen? Not to you, but to I. It is the I-thought that experiences all these things, you don’t. You are totally free. Yes you are. You are totally free, absolute reality. Your nature is sat-chit-ananda [existence-consciousness-bliss]. You are nirvana the ultimate oneness. There is absolutely nothing you have to do to attain this state. You don’t have to even wake up.

Many times I tell you to wake up because I’m using words. But in reality to wake up means that someone was asleep. Who is there that sleeps? Who is there that is disillusioned, ignorant? Is there one who is [really] ignorant? There is no ignorance.

Robert Adams, American Advaita mystic