Is effort required for self-inquiry and Self-Realization?

From Michael James' blog "Happiness of Being", on the topic of whether effort is required for self-inquiry and self-attentiveness.


Is effort required, as do assert some traditional paths of awakening (e.g. early Buddhism, traditional Advaita Vedanta etc.), or is no effort required for what is already present, as do assert neo-Advaita teachers and some modern proponents of 'nonduality'?




1. We are always self-aware, but we must make effort to be attentively self-aware

We are always self-aware, because self-awareness is our very nature (what we actually are), so we do not need to make any effort to be self-aware. However, though we are always self-aware, we are generally not attentively self-aware, because most of our attention is taken up with being aware of other things, since we find it more interesting and appealing to be aware of other things than to be attentively aware of ourself alone.

This self-negligence or lack of self-attentiveness is what is called pramāda, and it is the root of all our problems, because it is the very nature of the ego and the means by which the ego seems to rise, stand and flourish. Therefore all our efforts should be directed towards being self-attentive and thereby overcoming our pramāda.


~ Michael James