Dialogue (excerpt from a 'conversation' in - The Nonduality Salon email list) Harsha: What someone need or need not master to shed the illusion of being incomplete is left up to them. Bruce: Yes, exactly. Whether and what to "master" is unique to the course of ones life -- ones "path" or karma yoga. Harsha: From the point of view of the mind, one, upon becoming aware of an illusion spontaneously ceases to identify with it and rests in the Natural State. Bruce: Precisely, on clear observation, the illusory falls away and "mind" (thought) abdicates its filtering role or position in consciousness. Harsha: Spiritual practices, although also constituting an illusion, are meant to facilitate removing of the thicker veil of ignorance hiding Reality of the Self. Bruce: I would add that regardless of the authenticity and skill of the designers of such practices, they are non-deterministic in nature, that is, no outcome is vouchsafed. The best even the most exquisite of such practices can do is to perhaps "prepare the ground," create conditions conducive to the falling away of what you (Harsha) call a "veil." This is why a truthful one will often counsel approaching his/her (or any) method or discipline without expectation -- there is no direct causal relationship between even the most honest and devoted practice and any particular outcome. Harsha: Even spiritual practices fall away when Truth is Seen in Pure Being. Bruce: Yes, nothing that is of maya persists, there are no exceptions. The dynamic that nurtures awareness is the spontaneous absence of intent in this very moment, the choiceless surrender -- as a Christian might put it, "Not my will but Thine...". Everything else is essentially karma yoga, the unique course of ones life. Harsha: Agreed. But Intent is also absent when one is fully unconscious. So the dynamic that nurtures unconsciousness is also the spontaneous absence of intent. However, the Self is Fullness of Awareness. Absence of Intent does not always mean Awareness. Bruce: Understood -- which is why absence of intent is depicted as a nurturing dynamic rather than a sole prerequisite. It is essential, but does not suffice in and of itself.