Renunciation, Liberation & Enlightenment

This is probably India's main message to us: renunciation is fearless.  The point is, that you have been distracted by names and forms and sensations and thus you do not remember who you are.  Renounce, be free, and remember who you are.

Renunciation is not possible without mastering fear and aversion.  People will say "I'm a renunciate" -– but you cannot be one in truth without this mastery first.

The ability to attach and detach at will is the higher vairagya (renunciation).

Lex Hixon, referring to effective renunciation, said: "Search for all those things in your mind that bother you and then destroy them.  This is real sadhana leading to effective renunciation."

A fearful person never gets anything.  A fearless person gets everything.  Whatever a fearful person does get he is not satisfied with anyway, and he always wants more.

Christ said, “do not build your house on sand, but on bedrock.”  And what have the scientists found?  That the universe is made of shifting sands, i.e., atomic particles.  This knowledge should make one uneasy here, not proud or attached.  For real security, even against death, one needs the bedrock of formless Reality. "Everything here is fraught with fear.  Only renunciation is fearless."  And so, the real Christmas gift to give would be the message, "Birds have nests and foxes have holes, but the son of man hath no place here to lay his head."

We go into sadhana, spiritual practices, and do not know what we are looking for.  We want Enlightenment, but we do not yet have even a true desire for Liberation.  Until that happens it is all hearsay.  This true desire for Liberation, if it comes, will be the mainstay of your life; everything else rotates around it.  It cannot be something that comes and goes – something that you "flashed on" yesterday, but today is nowhere to be seen.  And it is not that this kind of renunciation only happens in monastic circles.  In the dharmic householder, this desire infiltrates life, family, and work.  It manifests as the sincere desire for one's children, spouse, family, and community to be Free.

One cannot get enlightenment without a true desire for liberation.  Most seekers have not had this desire last more than a minute.  Do not jump steps.  People want to meditate on Brahman, on Reality, but they have not even learned to concentrate.  Take the practical approach to Enlightenment – seek peace of mind.  Set yourself up for enlightenment by attaining peace of mind.

Who knows why people run after the ephemeral, when the Real gives fullness, bliss, and contentment.  Probably it is their penchant for dreaming rather than their longing for awakening.

I find it ironic that in Christiandom they believe in just one lifetime.  Well, I also believe in one lifetime – the enlightened lifetime.  In enlightenment, bodies rise and fall as of no consequence.  Devoid of enlightenment, reincarnation goes on interminably, unbeknownst to the soul who is projecting all these bodies in space and time.  For the enlightened one, the bodies are never "mine," the senses are never "mine”; the elements are never "mine”; the ego is never "mine."  So, what happens to rebirth and death when all forms and possessions are renounced?