I’ve been maintaining silence since quite some time now, well, not literally but when it comes to blogging. There are many reasons for it, first of all is time. I’ve been busy working really hard and since I’m a writer and spend hours everyday writing, at the end of the day I can’t really write anything on my blog.
Anyways, to get back to this post… I’ve been intrigued about one particular topic. Renouncing v/s embracing the world. I’ve met quite a lot of people recently, most of them trying different ways in which they can be happy and can spiritually progress in life, including myself. There are many people I know who believe that you can only progress spiritually when you renounce the world.
By renouncing the world I mean several different things, giving up on sex, giving up speech, giving up certain food items, sleeping only for limited hours etc. I’ve also read about many who believe that if you really want to gain the realization of knowledge, and not just bookish, but REAL knowledge you must renounce the world. Sadhus have done this for centuries, they give up living in the society and head off to the jungles where they stay in solitude and meditate for days. Do they gain what they want? Do they all gain siddhi or enlightenment? I don’t think so.
On the other hand, can’t you do what you’d do in a jungle or on top of the Himalayas while you’re still living in society? What about embracing the world? Embracing food, embracing relationships, embracing sexual desires and natural instincts, embracing your feelings, embracing beauty, embracing sorrows, embracing everything that makes us who we are. Can spiritual progress only happen when you give up things? I don’t think so. It isn’t easy to renounce the world, cut off your connection to the world and head off towards the closest jungle and it is even difficult to stay in the society and still try to maintain your cool and try to progress.
The world and all the elements in the society were all made for a reason; the good things and the bad things make up a total of the world as we know it today. We can stay we are and embrace what we are given and accept what we aren’t given. We can stay in this world and still gain the wisdom that the sadhus try to gain in the jungle.
Spiritual progress has nothing to do with where you are, it is much beyond the realm of physicality. It doesn’t matter where you are physically, what matters is where you are mentally. Progress can be made, in any field, spiritual or otherwise no matter what you are. Whether you renounce the world or embrace it, what matters is how well you do it.
All of us, regardless of whether we realize it or not, are living out the self as the whole universe. Since this is such a critical point, I ll repeat it here. Usually we make the idea of the small individual self the center of our world and become firmly convinced that this small individual self is our whole self, but this is not our true self.
The reality of life goes beyond my idea of myself as a small individual. Fundamentally, our self is living out nondual life that pervades all living things. This self is universal existence, everything that exists. On the other hand, we usually lose sight of the reality of the life of universal self, clouding it over with thoughts originating from our small individual selves.
When we let go of our thoughts, this reality of life becomes pure and clear. Living out this reality of life as it is that is, waking up and practicing beyond thinking is zazen. At this very point our basic attitude in practicing zazen becomes determined. The attitude of the practitioner in practicing zazen as a Mahayana Buddhist teaching never means to attempt to artificially create some new self by means of practice.
Nor should it be aiming at decreasing delusion and finally eliminating it altogether. We practice zazen, neither aiming at having a special mystical experience nor trying to gain greater enlightenment. Zazen as true Mahayana teaching is always the whole self just truly being the whole self, life truly being life.
- Kosho Uchiyama
(1912 – 1999)
Japanese Zen Master
By: Mazza on February 1, 2010
at 3:16 am
very true…its the process of how you attain progress in spirituality…
no need renouncing…not my cup of tea
By: Omkar on April 8, 2010
at 6:26 am