What does Maitreya mean by sincerity of spirit?
A. By spirit, Maitreya means energy, power, shakti, the force of existence in the material world. This includes the energy of the astral plane which galvanizes our emotional body. We either identify with Self, the Absolute, or with the vehicles of the Absolute – the mind, the astral, spirit or shakti nature, or the physical body. Spirit, in this sense, is the energy of the senses, in all the connotations of that word – the astral senses, and so on. Sincerity of spirit is seeing reality without distortion. Everyone under the degree of a Master lives in a greater or lesser degree of illusion. When the illusion is on the physical plane we call it maya. When on the emotional or astral plane, glamour. When the illusion is on the mental plane, we call it illusion. These are all different aspects of illusion. Sincerity of spirit means responding to the emotional experience of life free from glamour. That is another freedom. Mental freedom is freedom from mental conditioning, freedom from idea
