Aspirant Or Disciple?

Aspirant or Disciple?

It's important to know the difference between being an aspirant and a disciple. To me, an aspirant wants the results of spiritual living without paying the price. Disciples, on the other hand, completely surrender to the earnest desire within themselves to wake up. And when people really become disciples, nothing stops them until they wake up, whether its going to churches, synagogues, or spiritual centers; finding the right book; or seeking inspiring ideas in the media. Earnestness itself creates an atmosphere where insight happens. Their inner voice will speak to them.

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Either way, if you take your heart's earnest desire to know God, and sit down every day with that and with your favorite book, your favorite author, or your favorite tape, you will be rewarded. Your spiritual realization will become more real to you than the experience of the world. When that happens, when God becomes more real to you, you will learn to exercise the commitment and discipline to stay in God-consciousness, to keep yourself truly awake. ...

(Reverend Michael Beckwith in For The Love Of God, edited by Shield and Carlson, p. 49)

19 January 2013