Om Namah Shivaya - response

"Thanks for your thorough response to my question about renunciation! Amen. I'm in total accord. Yay to renouncing chasing and grasping! To renouncing all the beliefs and stories that reinforce the mistaken beliefs of duality and separation.

"To me there is an inherent danger in conventional renunciation - in declaring renunciation of anything deemed not 'spiritual,' even one's own beliefs and thoughts, there is a subtle duality set up in the mind, a polarity which is the very seed of inner war and non-acceptance, non-freedom. It also strengthens the sense of an 'I' doing the renouncing, which effectively takes us further from the real goal of recognizing that no one is there in the first place, that no one ever awakens. If anything, as I've noticed, we awaken to the fact of our fundamental lack of individuality, to the basic truth that we only exist as people in our minds, the absolute non-existence of an 'I', and that Awakening is really all there is anyway - no one awakens, the mind just finally gets that nothing is not God and nothing is personal (i.e. separate). That really blew my mind when I first saw that God isn't spiritual. God IS, and that's all you can say (and even that's finally meaningless). All 'doing' in the name of enlightenment ultimately might bring some nifty, flashy experiences, but in the end, all that is required is simply closely watching and noticing. Awareness itself does everything in its mysterious potent and paradoxical 'action by inaction.' For me, letting go into that recognition is pure not-knowing, pure surrender and total trust and freedom. And that recognition comes and goes - which is also perfectly fine - part of the whole mysterious play. Don't you think?

"A joy to be in this dance with you!"

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(thanks to my dear friend Steve for this gracious response :-)

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti!