Tag: materialism

Meditation–Renunciation

Imagine you are standing at the crossroads of eternity holding two flags in your hand. Behind you is the past, stretching fourteen billion years to the Big Bang. In front of you is the future, stretching at least 150 billion years, possibly forever to infinity. From where you stand in the present, pace out the duration of your life so far, on the path you are on. Use one meter or one yard to represent each year of your past life. Plant a flag representing when you were born to this life. Go back to the crossroad and pace out the distance into the future that you think you will live, again at one meter or yard for each year. Place the second flag where you think your present physical body will die.

Go back to the crossroad representing your present. This crossroad is perpendicular to your timeline. Walk along the crossroad to gain perspective on your timeline until you can see both flags, the birth flag and the death flag, without turning your head. If you are optimistic about the duration of your life, note that the distance between the flags is about the length of a football field.

Back up on the crossroad until both flags can be covered by your outstretched thumb. Try to see the Big Bang which is fourteen billion meters or yards to your left. It is so far away you cannot see it. Then try to see the future end of the universe, at least 150 billion meters or yards to your right. You cannot see that far. Compare the length of your lifetime, the distance between the two flags, to the span of time for the universe. It is insignificant.

Reflect on the percentage of time you devote to making that tiny duration between the two flags pleasant versus the time you spend preparing for eternity, the span of time to the right which may be infinite. You now see the disparity in your level of effort. You resolve to worry less about that tiny interval between the flags, your material life, and spend more time on your spiritual practice preparing for eternity. Does this make sense?

Renunciation

Renunciation is the mental attitude of one who looks to the Spiritual and Divine for the pathway to the eternal, rejecting the Material world and physical possessions as the solutions for most problems. In Western Tantra, a renunciate may keep and use necessary material possessions, even enjoy them to some extent, but must never cling to them or view them as a source of ultimate happiness. The Western Tantric renunciate is always ready to give up material things to loss, wear, theft, charity, and death without distress.

To develop this state of mind, reflect that while we try to be happy in our Material lives, we are only able to achieve fleeting moments of joy. The primary reason happiness is fleeting is because everything Material requires effort to create, and thereafter it begins to decay. Material things are in a constant state of change. They are created, persist for a time, degrade, and dissolve.

We must work to create or purchase all things material, but these things never quite meet our expectations. When we create, we are never able to exactly match what we visualize, and when we buy, we either cannot afford what we really want, or what we think is perfect turns out to have flaws or does not meet all our needs. Even if Material things are great at first, we find they deteriorate with age, requiring time and effort to maintain and protect from loss.

We try to develop relationships to help us cope with the problems of Material life, but find spouses, children, and friends have different needs, so we have to help them with their needs so they will hopefully help us with ours. Sometimes our Material needs match those of our life companions and we experience joy. More often, needs merely multiply or we have to work harder to maintain relationships with our helpers than when we were trying to meet our own needs alone. Some lucky few, like the rich or powerful, manage to get a great number of people working in their behalf to secure their Material visions, but find managing their empires stressful as their complex organizations threaten to self-destruct from internal and external forces. Nothing happens in the Material world without costs.

Our Material bodies are the same way, disappointing us with our appearance and abilities when we are young, requiring work to improve and maintain it as we mature, and disappointing us as it deteriorates with age. Eventually bodies die, losing us everything Material.

No matter what we do, the Material world disappoints and eventually goes away. It is not the way to ultimate happiness. So the first step in embarking on a Spiritual Path is realizing you will never achieve true happiness with the Material life, and you must look elsewhere. This realization is called Renunciation. When we realize this, we turn our hopes to the Spiritual and Divine realms. These realms require time and effort to access. We need to consult masters or their writings for guidance, and we need to perform the practices prescribed in order to reach Spiritual and Divine realizations.

But our Material lives intrude. We must still take care of our bodies, jobs, and homes which provide us with food, water, and shelter. The more beautiful and elaborate our Physical support systems, the more demanding they are to maintain. So the wise tell us to embrace simplicity, the minimum Material necessities needed to maintain our Physical life. Most of us should own as little as possible and make sure what we have is easy to maintain or cheap to replace. Learn to appreciate things that are old and funky. In this way, we leave extra time to discover and explore the Spiritual Paths that lead to the Divine and ultimate happiness. Even Ecstasy.