Renunciation and dispassion

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha let go or renounced the family life and the worldly way of living, and the title, power, wealth, easiness, enjoyment, or comfort of being a prince as well as the future ruler of a kingdom that he inherited from birth.

Swami Sivananda also let go or renounced the family life and the worldly way of living, and the title, power, wealth, easiness, enjoyment, or comfort of being a Brahmin that he inherited from birth, as well as the worldly profession of a medical doctor that he achieved through academic education, although he continued to provide charitable medical consultation/dispensary to the public throughout his lifetime.

Upon attaining self-realization, they came back to the world to disseminate the dharma into the world selflessly, until the end of their life existence.

Renunciation from worldly life, retreat in solitude and seclusion, is an inevitable important observation that allows the mind to be engaging in the mind purification and silencing process effectively under right attitude and right effort via the middle path, that enables the annihilation of the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness from the selfless modification of the mind effectively, where the selfless thinking and acting mind knows Thyself, and transcends the selfless impermanent existence and function of itself, transcending the selfless impermanent modification of the mind, or the selfless impermanent worldly life existence.

Under the presence of the wise companies, Satsanga, one also needs to retreat into solitude and seclusion (Asanga - the absence of Satsanga and Kutsanga) for certain extended duration (minimum 5 to 6 years, or even longer) to be observing complete silence of physical and mental activity, including both worldly and spiritual activity (The absence of attachment, clinging, longing, and craving towards the presence of goodness, kindness, easiness, meaningfulness, agreement, love, support, acknowledgement, interaction, companionship, or Satsanga), not to say, under the presence of Kutsanga (Being surrounded by the worldly passionate impure egoistic minds and engaging in the worldly passionate impure egoistic affairs, activities, ties and connections, communications, and interactions), that are draining one's energy, and pulling/distracting oneself away from the highest duty of mankind to be looking after one's over-all physical and mental well-being, to attain direct experience and self-realization towards Selflessness and Impermanence, to stop hurting oneself and others and the surrounding environment out of ignorance and the by-products of ignorance.

There is the inevitable necessity of renouncing family and community life/affairs/activities/interactions/communications/ties and connections to be observing complete silence in solitude and seclusion even when the family members and the surrounding community are like-minded and agreeable as well as uplifting with correct understanding (Satsanga), not to say, when the family members and/or the surrounding community (Passionate egoistic impure worldly minded Kutsanga) are ceaselessly draining one's energy and pulling/distracting oneself away from the highest duty of mankind.

None can tell another about what they should do or shouldn't do, or how they should live their life.

None can tell another, "Your daily 'normal' way of life of engaging in family ties and social connections, communication, interaction, affair, and activity with your direct and indirect family ties and connections and the worldly community are the main reason why you didn't make any progress on the path of self-inquiry and self-realization (even when you practice some kind of yoga and meditation practice from time to time or regularly, and that you have the great aspiration towards (and have been) observing a 'healthy and simple' way of living, 'high and positive' thinking, 'good and righteous' conduct, and 'clean and pure' eating), however, you are still very much unwittingly being the slave of ignorance, the idea of 'I'/the ego, egoism of attachment/identification/craving/aversion/comparison/judgment/expectation, worldly and spiritual passionate desires/inspirations/aspirations/ambitions, worldly and spiritual knowledge and achievement, physical/mental/emotional inter-dependence and comfort, pleasurable enjoyments of the senses, the sense of pride/self-esteem/self-worth/goodness/righteousness/joyfulness/positiveness/meaningfulness/accomplishment, all kinds of impurities, and restlessness, while you strongly think and believe that you are the victim of the imperfect physical/mental/emotional genetic inheritance from your parental ancestry lineage, that you are the victim of other people's bad and wrongful behavior and undeserving ill treatment, and that all kinds of bad/unfair/wrongful/hurtful/disagreeable/unpleasant/disappointing affairs in the family/relationship/community/country/world, and all kinds of undeserving experiences or ill treatments from others are the cause of all your unhappiness, dissatisfaction, disappointment, disturbance, resentment, bitterness, hurts, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, selfishness, shortcomings, failures, painful suffering, as well as your own disturbing hurtful behavior/action/reaction unto yourself and others out of the disturbed unhappy restless state of mind."

None can tell another, "Your ignorant egoistic impure restless way of thinking and behavior pattern that is constantly hurting yourself and others, is no doubt being conditioned and influenced by your family ancestry genetic inheritance, but even more so, by your continuous engagement, connection, communication, and interaction with your family ties and connections that are under such ignorant egoistic impure restless mind thinking and behavior pattern that is highly detrimental to your physical/mental/emotional well-being. You can't change your family ancestry genetic inheritance that gives rise to a particular mind thinking and behavior pattern that are under the influence of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness, but you have the choice of moving away from such conditioning influential surrounding environment, in order to not continuously empowering such ignorant egoistic impure restless mind thinking and behavior pattern in yourself, but even more importantly, to be determined to purify, modify, and change such ignorant egoistic impure restless mind thinking and behavior pattern via many different types of methods or techniques."

None can tell another, "The worldly passionate egoistic thinking/belief/idea/values/practice about 'I need to be proud of myself' and 'I need to make others to be proud of me' and 'I need to be able to be good enough to be qualified/deserving to attain love/attention/encouragement/support/agreement/approval/acknowledgement/recognition/praise/compliment/respect from myself, my family, my parents, my siblings, my relatives, my friends, my spouse, my children, my teachers, my students, my employers, my colleagues, my community, my leader, my followers, my country, my authority, and the world' are the cause of why you are what you are (devoid of peace and freedom), or why you are thinking, feeling, and behaving in the way that you are, ceaselessly longing/craving/missing/chasing after towards the gratification of the desires of craving (wants) towards the presence of love, support, accomplishment, acknowledgement, recognition, agreement, approval, praise and compliment, understanding, happiness, goodness, positiveness, joyfulness, meaningfulness, easiness, or the pleasurable enjoyment of the body and mind/the senses, and towards the gratification of the desires of aversion (don't wants) towards the absence of all those agreeable and desirable names and forms, as well as the presence of the opposite of all that."

It has to come from the selfless thinking and acting mind itself, having the precious self awareness and basic understanding, to be self-initiative to be renouncing all that, to initiate both conscious and unconscious evolution of the conditioned and limited mind thinking and behavior pattern to be directed towards particular direction, towards attaining liberation from ignorance and the suffering deriving from ignorance, of the path of wisdom and compassion, under intense will power and determination.

There is needless of renunciation, solitude, and seclusion, if the mind is devoid of ignorance and the by-products of ignorance, where the mind is okay and free as it is, regardless of what it perceives/experiences/knows and doesn't perceive/experience/know.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Regardless of whether existing and living (as well as travelling and migrating) in any where in this world, all and everyone have been brought up, or told, or educated, or tempted, or threatened, or oppressed, or being influenced and conditioned throughout their entire life existence about how human beings under specific gender/heritage/tribal/caste/sect/title/social class/financial status/spirituality/religion/culture/nationality should or shouldn't live life in certain way, think or shouldn't think, believe or shouldn't believe, give specific value or give no value, appreciate or shouldn't appreciate, practice or shouldn't practice, should and shouldn't behave/act/react/feel/desire in certain way or not in certain way, of complying to a particular way of living/thinking/reasoning/vision/behavior/inspiration/aspiration, being conditioned not only by a particular family ancestry genetic inheritance, but even more so, being conditioned largely by parental upbringing, childhood growing up environment, personal life experiences dealing with different events, conditions, and situations, family/community/tribal/social/national/regional/global affairs, engagements, and interactions, ties and connections, friendships and relationships, cultural belief and values, spirituality and/or religion belief and practice, educational system influence, political and economical system influence, commercialism influence, philosophical influence, as well as higher advanced technology inventions, public and social medias influence, where life existence of human beings is all about 'I', my existence, my body, my mind, my soul, my family, my parents, my siblings, my relatives, my pets, my children, my grand children, my next generations, my friends, my community, my ancestry, my lineage, my heritage, my culture, my belief, my values, my spirituality, my religion, my ideas, my thinking, my feelings, my survival, my career, my ability, my limitation, my past, my future, my hard-work, my dedication, my contribution, my country, my world, my pride, academic education, studying, working, eating, sleeping, playing, gathering, procreating, celebrating, mourning, gossiping, slandering, back-biting, complaining, boasting, admiring, envying, story telling, fairy tales, social interaction/activity, success, higher success, achievement, more achievement, possessions, ownership, status, title, power, wealth, endless accumulation of wealth, security, control, approval, recognition, qualification, acknowledgement, ambition, meaningfulness, joyfulness, goodness, righteousness, holding onto the past, projecting into the future, enjoyment, more enjoyment, higher enjoyment, endless enjoyment, fear, guilt, regret, resentment, endless desire, and endless dissatisfaction.

An extremely limited freedom of existence/being/evolution.

Being a plant/insect/bird/animal/uncultured human being in the wild, has a lot more freedom of existence/being/evolution than being any 'cultured' human being that exists and lives among the 'conditioned' community of so called 'cultured' human beings.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Turning the mind inward and quieting the restless thought current

To initiate the process of quieting the restless thought current, the selfless mind (the selfless perceiver/the selfless knower/the selfless experiencer/the selfless thinker and action performer) first needs to know what is non-attachment and non-identification, a.k.a. non-association, or standing as a witness, which then allows the mind to look at the selfless modification of the mind, to find out, or inquire towards what is the thought current, and why it is restless, or what is the cause that gives rise to restlessness, without craving, aversion, comparison, judgment, and expectation.

The process of turning the mind inward, is about gathering the random outgoing and wandering point of focus/attentiveness/awareness, that moves rapidly among the countless random objects of the senses (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations), and channel the gathered point of focus inward, where the mind gives full attention towards observing what is going on in the selfless modification of the mind, or to be aware of the selfless thought process, or the selfless thought activities, or the mind thinking and behavior pattern, of ceaseless mental actions/reactions/ideas/feelings/emotions/inspirations/aspirations/desires/anticipations/imaginations/memories, of all kinds of impurities, that keep arising, changing, and passing away (Restlessness - ceaseless selfless impermanent changes - ceaseless births and deaths of endless random thought after thought).

The entire process is being activated under the presence of non-violence or gentleness, without forcing/violence/aggressiveness. As the presence of forcing/violence/aggressiveness hinders the process of quieting the restless thought current to be happening. It is like the pool of water can never be calmed and still, if someone keeps hitting and stirring the water with something repeatedly and aggressively.

The absence of forcing/violence/aggressiveness, is possible under the presence of non-craving, non-aversion, non-comparison, non-judgment, and non-expectation, on top of patience, forbearance, perseverance, determination, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation, and accommodation.

That is why the basic yoga and/or buddhism practice is not so much about learning and performing the different types of yoga asana practice, pranayama practice, concentration practice, meditation practice, chanting (sound vibration and/or devotional/sentimental approach), kriya (cleansing), or any kind of practice, under the many different lineages and techniques, but, it is more about during the entire process of learning and performing all that, the practitioners (the selfless minds) are developing and empowering non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-comparison, non-judgment, and non-expectation, as well as developing the elements of patience, forbearance, perseverance, determination, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation, and accommodation, that give rise to the presence of kindness, or non-forcing/non-violence/non-aggressiveness in the entire practice as well as in everyday life affairs, that will influence and change the conditional habitual mind thinking and behavior pattern, consciously and unconsciously, that naturally activates the conscious and non-conscious evolution of the selfless impermanent limited and conditional momentary life existence, where the mind can know itself, attaining direct realization towards the truth of selflessness and impermanence, and be free from ignorance and the suffering deriving from ignorance.

The mind will stop hurting itself and others or the surrounding environment under the presence of correct understanding and peace, under the presence of wisdom and compassion, devoid of ignorance, restlessness and violence.

Everything will eventually fall into its place naturally, upon the initial activation of conscious evolution, that will also influence the unconscious evolution, even if it's not significant, and either wittingly or unwittingly.

Just by closing the eyes, and turning the focus/attention or the conscious awareness inward and within, even if it's just for a few moments, is already initiating the process of quieting the restless thought current.

For most minds, they can begin with the process of observing the natural breath coming and going. In the first few practices, it's only for a few seconds. And then, prolonged that process of observing the natural breath for a few minutes, and then gradually extending the process for as long as possible, without struggle/forcing/violence.

Keep practicing, without judgment or expectation.

Just watch the impermanence of the breath and the wavering attentiveness, where sometimes the mind is attentive, calmed, and quiet effortlessly, while sometimes it is agitated, distracted, and wavering randomly back and forth between here to there.

The point is not about whether the mind is attentive or inattentive. But it is about there is this selfless awareness that is being aware of the impermanent attentiveness and inattentiveness of the selfless mind, without association, attachment, identification, craving, aversion, comparison, judgment, or expectation.

The conscious awareness is not being determined, or affected, or contaminated, or damaged by the presence and absence of attentiveness or inattentiveness, calmness or agitation, of all kinds of impurities and restlessness in the selfless modification of the mind.

As the mind keeps practicing under the presence of non-association, non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-comparison, non-judgment, and non-expectation, under the support of patience, forbearance, perseverance, determination, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation, and accommodation, regardless of whether the body and mind can perform all kinds of practices perfectly or imperfectly (not important at all), then naturally and effortlessly, the restless thought current will become less and less violent/agitated/restless, and will come to a point of stillness or clarity, even if that is also impermanent and momentary.

But that tiny impermanent moment of stillness or clarity, is extremely precious for a glimpse towards the selfless unconditional unlimited attributeless/nameless/formless/actionless/changeless/timeless/birthless/deathless universal consciousness that allows all kinds of manifestations to be what they are, that enables the selfless perceptive thinking and acting mind to be what it is, to be consciously perceiving/experiencing/knowing/thinking/feeling/sensing/reasoning/understanding/acting/reacting towards all kinds of names and forms during the momentary selfless impermanent limited and conditional existence under the selfless support of the selfless energy and elements, where the mind knows Thyself, of its selfless impermanent momentary limited and conditional existence and function, and hence, effortlessly resting upon the selfless universal consciousness, a.k.a. timelessness/changelessness/desirelessness/actionlessness/attributelessness/namelessness/formlessness/birthlessness/deathlessness/unconditional peace, even if there are necessary physical and mental activities for maintaining life existence, while making use of this selfless impermanent momentary life existence for performing selfless service (evoking the dharma that is already there in the minds, consciously and unconsciously) that help to promote and maintain peace and harmony among the many diversities of different names and forms in this world that doesn't belong to anyone or anything, without attachment/identification/intention/expectation. Just like the sun, the air, the earth, the water, and the space.

The dissemination of dharma or the teachings of yoga and/or buddhism is highly important, even if it's merely the repetition of the same few words such as Selflessness and Impermanence, Non-attachment and Non-identification, Non-craving and Non-aversion, Non-judgment and Non-expectation, Kindness and Letting go, or Self-inquiry and Self-realization, either in the form of any written and/or spoken language, allowing the minds to have the opportunity to come in contact with these essential words/teachings/dharma, both consciously and unconsciously, regardless of whether the minds comprehend the meanings of these words/teachings/dharma, or not, especially in the beginning, it really doesn't matter.

Such as upon the teacher is disseminating the dharma/teachings in the yoga class, without any intention or expectation, there are some students are coming in contact with and processing all these dharma/teachings wittingly and consciously, that lead themselves towards self-inquiry and self-realization, while there are also some students coming in contact with and absorbing all these dharma/teachings unwittingly and/or unconsciously, either they are not listening at all being distracted by something, or they are listening but they don't really know what the teacher is talking about (language barrier or intellectual barrier), or they are not interested at all to be listening to all that, or they have intense disagreement or aversion reacting towards the dharma/teachings, or they are falling asleep during the class especially during the relaxation, however, it will still lead them towards self-inquiry and self-realization, eventually. They will recall all these from within, both consciously and unconsciously, when there is the moment when they are in need of all these dharma/teachings.

It really doesn't matter.

Because all these dharma/teachings are already there within all minds. The teacher doesn't give them the dharma/teachings, but only served as a tool that evokes the dharma/teachings that is already there in all and everyone (however, the minds don't know or couldn't see it being hindered by the veil of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness,) that allows the minds to develop the basic foundation of certain essential correct understanding and attitude, that enables the minds to have some guidelines for them to perform certain practice effectively, that will lead them towards realizing all that by themselves, through their own effort and determination.

That is also why activating the mind purification process is highly important, same as the observation of dispassion, renunciation, solitude, seclusion, silence, Satsanga (if there is wise company) and Asanga (if there is no wise company), or mental and emotional independence. This is to limit and minimize both conscious and (especially) unconscious ceaseless mind inputs that are feeding and empowering ignorance and its by-products, which is a huge obstacle for mind purification process, self-inquiry, and self-realization.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Show kindness towards those who are unkind

Many of the worldly egoistic ideas, beliefs, values, and practices might teach people about "An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth."

Or, "If someone hits you on one side of the face, you should ask them to hit the other side of the face as well."

These two extremities of 'understanding/action/reaction' are deriving from egoism as well as empowering egoism.

Meanwhile, the teachings and practice of yoga and/or buddhism is not about that, as by doing so, it doesn't help the minds to be free from ignorance and the ignorant thinking and behavior, but it is empowering the ignorance and the ignorant thinking and behavior in oneself and in others.

It's about -

Show kindness towards those who are unkind.

Show unselfishness towards those who are selfish.

Show generosity towards those who are stingy.

Show openness towards those who are closed-minded.

Show contentment towards those who are discontented.

Show accommodation towards those who are non-accommodating.

Show calmness and gentleness towards those who are agitated and violent.

Show respect towards those who are disrespectful towards others.

Show patience towards those who are impatient.

And so on.

This is the middle path of selfless wisdom and compassion.

The minds that are unkind, selfish, stingy, closed-minded, discontented, non-accommodating, agitated and violent, disrespectful towards others, or impatient, is because they don't know how to be kind, be unselfish, be generous, be opened, be contented, be accommodating, be calmed and gentle, be respectful, and be patient, and that is because they don't know what is kindness, unselfishness, generosity, openness, contentment, accommodation, calmness and gentleness, respect, and patience.

By showing them all these qualities can allow them to have all these qualities (reflection) to be reflecting upon, either wittingly or unwittingly.

Without attachment, judgment, intention, or expectation.

Let the minds to be what they are, regardless of whether they will reflect upon all these qualities, or not, whether they want to be kind, be unselfish, be generous, be opened, be contented, be accommodating, be calmed and gentle, be respectful, and be patient, or not.

All that (conscious and unconscious constructive evolution) can only happen, when the mind knows how to be kind, be unselfish, be generous, be opened, be contented, be accommodating, be calmed and gentle, be respectful, and be patient towards itself.

The mind doesn't know how to be kind, be unselfish, be generous, be opened, be contented, be accommodating, be calmed and gentle, be respectful, and be patient towards others, is because it doesn't even know how to be kind, be unselfish, be generous, be opened, be contented, be accommodating, be calmed and gentle, be respectful, or be patient towards itself.

Coming from the mind itself, learning how to be kind, be unselfish, be generous, be opened, be contented, be accommodating, be calmed and gentle, be respectful, and be patient towards itself, towards its own selfless and impermanent, limited and conditional existence and function.

Only when the mind knows how to be kind, be unselfish, be generous, be opened, be contented, be accommodating, be calmed and gentle, be respectful, and be patient towards itself, then naturally and effortlessly, it will also know how to be kind, be unselfish, be generous, be opened, be contented, be accommodating, be calmed and gentle, be respectful, and be patient towards all the others.

More importantly, regardless of whether the minds are wise or ignorant, kind or unkind, selfish or unselfish, generous or stingy, opened-minded or closed-minded, contented or discontented, accommodating or non-accommodating, calmed and gentle or agitated and violent, respectful or non-respectful, and patient or impatient, all are selfless, all are impermanent, all are merely momentarily existing, ceaselessly changing, and eventually ceased existing in this space that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

All those agreeable or disagreeable qualities, are also selfless and impermanent, limited and conditional.

They are not the goal of the yoga and/or buddhism practice.

However, the quality of kindness, unselfishness, generosity, openness, contentment, accommodation, calmness and gentleness, respect, and patience, are important elements that can help to quiet the restless impure modification of the mind on the path of self-inquiry and self-realization.

It is not 'I', and there is no 'I'.

Transcending, or going beyond all kinds of agreeable and disagreeable qualities, will enable the mind to realize selflessness, to realize what is ignorance and suffering, to know Thyself, and be free.

Inquire towards the truth of everything.