An extract from Letters to a Young Renunciate

The essence of the renunciate’s mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks. It represents risk more than mere disagreement. It personifies sacrifice of ego. The renunciate mind thinks in a universe whereas the usual mind thinks in an egoic capsule; the body/mind.

If in fact you have disposed of self-protective assumptions, religious and cultural dogma and irrational and fantastical beliefs in enlightenment; and truly examined and intelligently disposed of supernatural authorities and superstition along with their entire farrago of doubts, fears, hopes and wishes, you are far better orientated or stabilised in your higher reasoning and emotional intelligence. Your Life begins.

It is only on the basis of our already inherent potential for self-evident reasoning and mature emotional intelligence, which are founded in the imperishable laws of nature, that our true and natural evolution and transformation in consciousness (in Life It Self) can take place.

At this juncture I acknowledge your implacable willingness to remain physically and emotionally involved in the practical exposure and confrontation with my own physical teaching life and work.

To remain in functional contact and practical participation with the mind and work and life of a radical dissenter or renunciate teacher is far more challenging and difficult than “doing the practice” at a distance, outside the physical force field of the instigator and critical encounter.

One must literally function with others who have been made profound about the great enquiry into whether or not there really is a separate “I” residing somewhere in the body.
That “ego I” merely changes its argument, its justification, its excuses, its defence, its circumstance for “practice” and so on. It pretends it can practice in isolation (from other students in the way of ego-renunciation) or by merely talking about the Love and the Real and the Guru and the tooth fairy.

In our present society renunciation has become almost a denigratory word. In large part because renunciation embodies a state of mind and attitude that stands in direct opposition to the egocentric values of the materialist worldview, which has dominated our western culture for the last few hundred years.

You have by now found your way through and passed the apologists for materialism and spiritual nicety that have been tireless in their argument to prevent you transcending social codes of acceptability.
The droning apologists for the materialistic and spiritual-egoic way of life have always argued for the spiritual mind to accommodate the materialistic or unenlightened mind.

They do not yet understand why all arguments and appeals of “integrating” worldly concerns with mystical insights is self-contradictory. The fact is that the mystical-mind destroys the very “world” we are supposed to integrate our insights with.
Rumi writes, “when wakefulness…prevails, this world is laid flat.”

When asked by his students whether they should “go into the forest” or “should they try and change their family?” Ramana Maharshi responded by saying:

The ego is the source of thought…It is no help to change the environment. The one obstacle is the mind; it must be got over whether in the home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change environments? 

To all the Students in Unity Consciousness I want to say to you, the true student in Life is no longer trying to change their family or “work” with their family or change the world. They have realised the only thing or “someone” they can change is their own self. That is, the idea that there really is a separate “I” sitting somewhere there behind the eyes.

The genuine student of Life is one who has begun the radical enquiry into whether or not there really is a separate from all others conscious “I”. That is the Sadhana. And Sadhana arises out of the circumstance of Satsang. That is, whole bodily intelligent feeling communion in Unity Consciousness in the present moment. In that circumstance where is the separate conscious “I”?

People tend to think there is a peaceful and orderly society to adhere to and defend and obey.
Whenever one moves too far outside the unthinking call and response of conversational language that binds and shapes the subdued multitude, one encounters the pejorative vernacular designed to enforce adherence to the crowd.

My initial injunction to an inspiring student in Life is this; understand that the script of your life was written by someone else apart from you. Your part to play upon this stage was inherited. You were told you are Hindu, you are Japanese, you are Dutch, you are Maori, you are catholic and so on. Here is your script and the play you are in, like it or not.

I am reminded here of Harold Rosenberg (writer, educator, philosopher, art critic 1906 – 1978) who wrote of his fellow New York intellectuals as a “herd of independent minds”.

That which is taken for granted is that which one has not examined outside the socially or crowd-indoctrinated mind. You are not meant to question the prevailing social/cultural and religious norms. What passes for education in this society is merely a crude and stupefying procedure designed to render one to a life of passive obedience to the desires of others.
Others who apparently know you better than you will ever know yourself.

To be a dissenter is not a career choice. Dissent is not something one should do or would like to do, it is something one has to do.
Just so, the noble and ecstatic conscious-state of renunciate must be realised, not merely taken, given or claimed.
As a renunciate you now know the difference between staying on the path and being kept on the path.

Ps…I feel to clarify here that these extracts come from writings to a (one) renunciate. I have made them available here in the Unhinged Mind for the purpose of clarifying and intensifying Students’ understanding in the Way of ego-renunciation.

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 A message to Students 

I want to tell everyone “around me” not to worry about whether they still feel self-conscious or anxious or concerned about something. I want to tell everyone that there is nothing in this life (and therefore with each other and with me) that they must make themselves do or be in order to be someone or anything.

After all, the Practice of Life comes to this; find one’s own “true self” and give that self the right to be. And, at the same time, each of us grants the other (all other people whether we are “intimate” with them or strangers to them) the space or freedom or regard or acknowledgement to live their innate self.

We are all moving through the ages and stages of a life that has previously been interfered with by so-called parents, teachers, friends, and random other visible and invisible authorities. We are all moving through the conditioning of our otherwise inherently spirit given life.

In all of this so-called “teaching” I have never wanted anyone to feel guilty or less than or not good enough because they are not able to do this or that or whatever. I am the same; there are many things that I am just not able to do (and I do not mean just the physical).
There are many things that I simply cannot understand, but as long as I do not try and be a quantum mechanic or a Sufi mystic lute player or a communal happy chap, I will be just fine unto myself.
It will all depend on what I want from others in order to be happy unto myself.

Everyone has the right to live a happy life. However no one has the right to “work” another person over in order to have that happy life.
Everyone has the right and potential to live their inherent self-being.
However, remember (and especially in the midst of functioning with others) your already great worthy inherent self-being-ness and the outward living of that One has nothing to do with how people relate to you or treat you or dismiss you or praise you.