Renunciation

Adam Mizner's Dhamma Talk on Renunciation. Adam Mizner has dedicated many years to the in-depth study of Daoism, western Hermetics and the Buddha Dhamma, is initiated into and teaches methods from these traditions. He is a senior lay disciple of Ajahn Jumnien in the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. This deep spiritual background has a large influence on his approach to internal development teaching.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background

Transcript

Okay,

So tonight I'd like to talk about something which you could consider the essence of the entire path.

It's one of the most primary and important principles in the practice,

And it is the opposite of the world.

So,

It's a subject and a topic that is of utmost importance,

And most often ignored because we love the way of the world.

So,

It is the practice of renunciation.

If you had to describe the Buddhist path in the most fundamental way,

You would say it is the path of letting go.

Many great masters have described Buddhist meditation as letting go,

And what is letting go if it is not renunciation.

From the very beginning of the path all the way to the peaks of enlightenment,

There is nothing but letting go.

Classically,

We divide the path into sila,

Samadhi and panya.

Sila is restraint,

Often translated as virtue.

Samadhi is the meditation practice,

And panya is discernment or wisdom,

The actual practice that leads directly to release or dupasana.

So,

The first thing we do on the path is we let go or we renounce negative action.

So,

We renounce actions that bring suffering to ourselves or to others.

This is the essence of sila.

So,

When we look at the precepts,

The precepts are not things we do,

They are things we let go of.

It does not mean we run around being a saint,

But simply we let go of killing,

We let go of stealing,

We let go of false speech and so on.

All of the sila practice is renunciation of negative action.

Samadhi or the meditation practice starts very basic and goes to very deep.

So,

The very first aspect of meditation is to let go of past and future awareness.

So,

We become aware of the present moment.

We renounce our fixation on the past and the future.

The second stage is that we renounce the narrative or the internal chatter.

Then we enter silent present moment awareness as we did tonight.

These are the preparatory stages before we begin meditation.

These two practices can be carried out 24-7.

Silent present moment awareness should be the standard state.

To begin meditation proper,

Then we let go and renounce everything else in our awareness except for one single object.

So,

In Anapanasati we renounce everything now except the breath.

We renounce the past,

The future.

We renounce the narrative on the present.

And we renounce all the other objects of awareness except one,

Simply the breath.

The breath can be caught up with other objects like I'm focusing on the breath at the nose.

That's not breath awareness,

That's nose and breath awareness.

So,

You're not single pointed,

Therefore you cannot enter correct Samadhi.

So,

You must renounce the nose.

Everything so far is nothing but renunciation and letting go.

The deeper we rest our awareness on this single object,

The deeper the renunciation of other objects becomes.

All meditation objects are single sensory,

Right?

They're only focused on with a single sense or they are a single sense.

So,

When we're aware of the breath there is no visual to be aware of.

We let go of all the senses other than the feeling of the breath.

Continually let go of thought,

Sight and sound,

Taste and smell.

We renounce those senses,

Renouncing everything for the breath.

As you get deeper and deeper even the breath disappears.

The breath renounces itself.

When the breath disappears we see an image,

It's called an emita,

And it's actually a reflection of the mind or the jitta.

So,

Now the jitta has renounced everything except itself.

This stage here when the jitta arises is the doorway to enter the absorptions or the jhanas.

The jhanas could be considered deep meditation proper.

They're no longer playing around.

Those of you that have studied would understand that there are four levels of jhana.

And jhanas are characterized by extreme bliss,

Unimaginable bliss.

They're always long in duration.

After these stages of renunciation when we find the jitta and then we enter into the first jhana,

Jhana is the renunciation of all the senses.

There is only the mind now absorbed in itself.

Bliss has arisen and all the other jhana factors.

To enter the second jhana one renounces even further.

They renounce the door,

The will.

This letting go allows one to exit the first jhana and enter the second jhana.

With every stage of renunciation,

With every stage of letting go,

The peace and the bliss becomes more.

First we had the stress of a busy mind.

We renounce it.

We get a still mind.

We renounce future and past and the happiness of the present arises.

We renounce the busyness of the present moment for a single faceted present moment and we find deeper peace.

We renounce the five senses for a single sense and there's deeper peace.

We renounce that single sense for the mind itself and the peace and bliss becomes unimaginable.

As you renounce the will,

There's a bliss even beyond that.

This is called the second jhana.

In the second jhana the bliss is very strong.

As you let go further and further,

It's the bliss itself that is renounced.

You let go of bliss,

Enter the third jhana,

Characterized primarily by pleasure.

As one enters deeper and deeper and they renounce further,

Continuously letting go,

They let go of pleasure and enter the fourth jhana,

The fourth jhana,

The perfection of equanimity.

So all the way from sila through to samadhi into jhana,

First jhana,

Second,

Third and fourth,

They're nothing but renounce.

Then we enter into the practice of pannya,

Of vipassana,

Wisdom practice.

There are three primary kinds of craving.

Clinging and craving to sense input.

So everything that we see,

Hear,

Smell,

Taste and so on,

Including thinking.

There is clinging and craving for becoming.

Simplified this basically means things we like.

And there is clinging and craving towards non-becoming or wanting things to stop or things we don't like.

These three kinds of clinging are the cause of samsara,

The causes of suffering.

So the genuine practice of vipassana is a renunciation of these three kinds of clinging.

This is when you can consider yourself truly on the path.

Sila and samadhi are general practices.

Vipassana practice is the unique practice within the Dharma.

As we let go of the sense gates,

Our clinging to the senses,

We enter samadhi,

We enter jhana.

But this does not uproot the defilements.

It's only a temporary peace,

A temporary bliss.

To get further you have to renounce the defilements themselves,

The three clings.

So whatever we like,

We try to see what we like,

See liking arise,

Not chase after lacking,

Renounce lacking.

Whatever we have aversion or dislike towards,

We see,

See it clearly for what it is and we renounce,

Let go.

Know it for what it is,

See it for its nature and let go,

Release,

Renounce into emptiness.

This is the practice.

It doesn't only exist on the meditation mat.

In meditation mat you might be practicing samadhi.

But throughout the day we should constantly practice renunciation,

Starting with renouncing our negative actions,

The sila,

Renouncing the senses to enter samadhi,

And renouncing clinging to enter vipassana.

As we renounce these three kinds of craving we begin to see the five khandhas that make up the delusion of the self clearly.

Renouncing identification with these is the true path to anatta,

To not-self.

When the five khandhas work in unison there is the perception and the experience of self.

When we renounce the delusion,

When we see clearly the separation between the khandhas,

There is no self to be found.

The self is only made by the coming together of the khandhas.

The classic description is the car or the cart.

When you pull it apart into all its separate parts there is no cart to be found.

You can put any word in there.

Watch,

Car,

Motorcycle,

Person.

Whatever you take apart,

The original thing is no longer.

There are only components.

We let go of clinging and identification with the five khandhas.

The body.

The body's likes and dislikes.

Don't follow them.

See them,

Know them,

Release them.

Feelings.

Feelings,

Likes and dislikes.

Know them and release.

Let go,

Renounce.

Our intellectual likes and dislikes,

They seem never-ending.

We can create whole worlds about our intellectual views.

This is why nobody likes discussing politics because,

Wow,

Everyone has a whole world based on their view.

Enough that you can argue with your loved ones because of these ideas.

It's nothing but an empty idea that we create a whole world around,

We identify with.

You meet some people,

You ask,

So tell me about yourself.

Well,

I'm a liberal.

So,

It's more than an idea,

It's a self.

Identify so deeply with politics.

Idea,

The intellect.

Simply renounce,

Let go,

Be at peace.

On and on.

From sila to samadhi to pannya,

There is nothing but renunciation.

Renouncing negativity,

Renouncing the senses,

Absorbing into the jhanas.

Renouncing a lower bliss for a higher bliss through the jhanas.

Renouncing the will,

Renouncing the five khandhas,

Renouncing the self.

Renunciation is not simply the action of a monk,

That's outer renunciation.

The path to enlightenment is inner renunciation.

It doesn't matter what color fabric you wear,

It doesn't matter what your job is.

You can still follow these stages.

Meditation itself is nothing but renunciation.

Sila is nothing but renunciation.

Pannya is nothing but renunciation.

Enlightenment is the pinnacle of renunciation.

An arahant has renounced all concept and identification with self.

The delusion is completely let go of.

Nothing else.

Okay.

Any questions?

We have quite a stupid question.

It's about my back.

If I relax in it,

It can't be straight.

I feel always,

You know,

We can't do nothing right.

You have to force yourself to sit straight.

You have to find a balance in the beginning between relaxing and letting go.

This is why I said relax the meat,

The soft tissue,

Not the skeleton.

So you suspend the head from above and maintain a recklessness in the spine and try to relax everything around it.

It will hurt.

But over time the postural muscles will become stronger and the movement muscles in your torso will relax around that so you can sit effortlessly.

We all go through a terrible few months of learning how to sit upright and quite painful.

There's no tricks unfortunately.

Simply endure and try not to slouch.

Simply endure.

In the beginning your meditation will be nothing but endurance.

There's knee pain,

There's back pain and really,

I thought this was meant to be peaceful but I'm just sitting here gritting my teeth.

That's okay.

That happens to us all.

Okay,

Thank you for saying this.

This is normal.

I have mosquito planning.

Yeah,

Whatever it is,

You let go of it.

Is it okay if at first I was just thinking about my posture and because I'm like,

Is my back straight?

Of course.

You have to work.

.

.

If you can't get your posture right then there's no point moving on.

Posture first.

That's why I said some points about posture at the end.

You must train the posture.

My way is when I'm watching a movie or something and hanging out,

I sit on the couch like this.

And I go,

Okay,

I'm not going to move until the end of the movie.

So I can easily be distracted,

Absorbed in the movie.

Now when you're absorbed in something outer,

This is not meditation but you're still training the muscles.

So we're distracted in the movie and you forget about yourself.

When you forget about yourself you don't notice your knees killing you.

People can sit around and gamble or watch a movie and they will sit with their legs crossed for hours.

But you ask them to meditate and after 15 minutes they're in too much pain.

So the mind is outside.

That's okay.

Let the body train itself.

So the trick is you must train the body while you're not meditating.

Yoga is excellent.

Tai Chi,

Anything like that where you train alignment in the soft tissue and the bones will make your life a lot easier for meditation.

But when you hang out watching a movie,

In my experience that's the fastest path.

Trick yourself.

Even when I go to the cinemas I'll pull my legs up,

Put the arms down my knees and just go,

Okay,

Well I'm here for two hours.

I may as well train my posture.

No worries.

Anyone else?

Feeling the breath in the nostrils,

You said this will be concentrated on the nose and on the breath.

Uh huh.

That's right.

I don't really understand that because it's like,

For example,

Wind is only visible because there are trees shaking.

Yeah,

That's right.

I can only feel the breath by my feeling,

Not just this breath.

That's right.

You're correct.

But forget about intellectualizing or understanding and simply experience the breath.

See,

We're taught and conditioned,

Most people are,

To experience the breath at the nose tip,

For example.

That's okay.

Experiencing the breath at the nose tip is okay.

But the mind experiencing the breath at the nose tip is not okay.

Because now you have nose tip and breath in the mind,

Where the experience itself can simply be breath.

Although the breath is only experienced because of the nose tip.

Do you understand?

You're coming,

If you come from a place of two,

You can never absorb.

The experience will always be because you have a body.

But where you're coming from,

The view is based on two.

Breath at nose tip.

It's dual.

You can't enter samadhi.

Don't intellectualize,

Just try.

This one's hard to word.

But you do it for a few weeks and you'll just go,

Oh.

I've done many years of wrong breath meditation.

I know every wrong way.

Okay,

Because we can focus on,

We can make it very complicated.

You do this,

You do that,

You breathe this channel,

You move the energy,

You breathe through this and that.

Well,

You're doing a whole lot of stuff but you don't enter jhana.

The more simple the object,

The deeper the mind will go.

Is it for example also acceptable to enter jhana by holding it in a.

.

.

Like a casino?

Like a visualization?

You're focusing on that?

Yes.

Although it's much more difficult.

It's harder.

Much harder actually.

Most people will not succeed.

Because breath is like moving?

So the idea is like the mind is following the breath?

No,

That's what I said.

You do not follow the breath.

Do not follow the breath.

The awareness has to be like.

.

.

How can I explain this?

Like a flashlight or something.

You simply point it.

You simply rest it on the breath.

You don't follow the breath with the flashlight.

Okay.

I made the mistake of following the breath for years.

But really good at Qigong.

But it's Qigong,

It's not meditation.

Now the problem with casinos is,

Your job is so much harder because to enter absorption you simply need one point to rest the mind on.

That's the primary cause.

Now a casino.

.

.

It's very difficult to visualize for hours without any breaks.

Actually try visualizing for five seconds without a break.

So before we can even think about absorbing into it,

We already have ten years of work ahead of learning how to visualize that stable.

So.

.

.

Yeah.

It becomes better though.

I've worked only with visualizations so far regarding some of them.

And if you don't try to visualize the object clearly in the beginning,

It naturally becomes better also.

Sure,

I'm relaxing into it.

I've done a lot of visualization.

But a complex visualization you cannot enter a genre on.

You cannot.

It's not possible.

Even an image of a Buddha,

You can't.

You can only enter on the most simple visualization.

So the Buddha put forward very basic visualizations which he called casino.

So like a white disc is one.

Actually the traditional practice is not a visualization.

It's looking at a material object.

The visualizations came later.

They're not what the Buddha taught.

The true animita,

When the image arises,

It arises like a visualization.

So I believe that visualizing casinos is an attempt to fabricate the animita.

The true animita,

When it arises,

Is nothing like a visualization.

It's far more brilliant than any visualization you could ever have.

And it's so brilliant the mind will desperately want to absorb into it.

Desperately.

Like there's nothing in this world that can compare to the animita.

So it's not like a visualized object.

Very important is something that I remembered.

When you must have affection towards your breath.

It sounds funny,

But play with the idea.

It makes a difference.

Very big.

If you have even an inkling of aversion towards your breath,

You will never absorb into it because you don't like it.

You have to cultivate a really sort of nice,

Lovey relationship with your breath.

So you can tell yourself before meditation,

I love the breath,

The breath is beautiful,

The breath is pleasant.

And you know,

Get yourself ready to relax into the breath.

If you find the breath stressful,

You judge your breath,

My breath is crappy,

The in-breath is shorter than the out-breath,

I know I'm chest breathing.

It's rough,

There's a gap between my breath when there shouldn't be.

It's,

It's,

You're doomed.

You will never absorb into it.

Does everyone understand that principle?

It's a big one.

You must be affectionate towards your own breath.

Affectionate towards it.

Have a gentle feeling towards it.

Relax into it.

Don't look at it.

Don't focus on it.

Rest into the breath.

These keys are very,

It's almost exactly the same instruction,

But you can spend ten years looking at your breath and you'll never enter absorption.

And then I'll hold on,

I should rest into it,

Bang,

In a week you got deeper than you did in ten years.

A slightly different intention can change everything.

You must have a gentle relaxing into affection towards the breath.

So the breath becomes something that your mind wants to stay with.

It's very difficult to keep your mind on something you don't want to stay with.

Like when you're doing your study when you're a teenager,

It's awful.

Your mind just simply doesn't want to be there.

But if something's really captivating in your mind,

Your mind will go and rest on it all on its own.

You don't need to will it.

So if you,

Throughout your day,

You try to gear,

Like mindwash yourself,

Gear yourself towards thinking the breath is important,

Thinking the breath is pleasant,

Thinking the breath is special,

Then you'll naturally rest on it successfully.

Yeah.

If you also said to be a little bit distant from the breath or to create,

Sorry,

Not to create distance but to be one with it.

That's right.

This creates a little bit of a feeling of being in breath.

That's correct.

Yeah.

Is that important to the core extent?

Yes.

So you feel that in our breath?

There should be not even you and breath.

There should only just be breath.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

The idea is to become so narrow in your awareness that everything else disappears.

So focused.

Focus.

You're resting on only one facet.

The problem with visualizations is they have many facets.

The visualization and not the visualization.

The visualization and me visualizing it,

They're too complex.

To enter proper absorption,

The more simple,

The more effective.

This is why the Buddha's primary meditation technique that he taught was breath meditation.

He taught it in the beginning,

Middle and end of his career.

He taught it to all his disciples.

It's what he used on the night of his enlightenment.

Breath meditation,

For all its simplicity,

Is very effective.

It can take you through all the jhanas.

It can take you all the way through Vipassana,

All the way.

But yeah,

If you separate,

That's it.

You're entering the Vipassana realm.

Tonight's class was purely Samatha.

So for Samatha you want to absorb.

For Vipassana you want to separate.

But one step at a time.

Does there exist absorption in Vipassana meditation?

Yes.

But it's different.

You can still have the bliss of absorption,

Absolutely.

But there are different characteristics.

You can enter and exit freely.

Where Samatha jhana,

When you enter,

You enter and you cannot function.

You don't even know.

If you can contemplate,

Even in inkling,

You haven't entered jhana.

If you can even recognize that you're in jhana,

That's not jhana.

There is nothing.

There is like a coma.

There is only bliss and the experience,

But there is zero,

And I mean zero,

Activity.

Zero.

Not a subtle knowing movement.

No.

Nothing.

Vipassana jhana is different.

It has the ability to change.

It has change.

So it's not true absorption.

You're absorbed in Vipassana,

Not absorbed in Samatha.

Sounds like it's pretty tricky if you're absorbed in bliss then.

You would just forget everything else.

Everything else becomes non-existent,

So you would just try to stay in the blissful state.

Some people say that's the downfall of practicing jhana practice,

For example.

It's usually people that don't have jhana that say that.

In other words,

People that shouldn't have an opinion.

If you haven't the experience,

That's it.

Your opinion should be,

Well,

I haven't experienced that.

That's a sufficient opinion.

It's like,

I'm really worried about becoming attached to the bliss of meditation,

But I'm going to go down to the bar tonight.

Good for you if you get attached to the bliss of meditation.

You can worry about that when you get there.

If that's your worry,

Whatever.

That's concept,

Idea,

Philosophy.

The practice is different.

The practice is different.

In fact,

Jhana can only be at this whole subject.

Judging from the talk tonight,

What is the cause of jhana?

Letting go.

Renunciation,

Right?

We renounce one object at a time to get deeper.

Now,

If you become attached to letting go,

I don't think that's a problem.

Letting go is the cause.

If it was a true danger,

The Buddha wouldn't have taught it.

That's his primary method.

If you let go,

You become attached to letting go,

That's okay.

Bliss is an outcome of letting go.

The bliss of jhana after a long time becomes to.

.

.

You see a defilement in it,

So you let go of that and go deeper.

Every time,

Letting go more.

The path is described as stages of letting go of one happiness for a higher happiness.

That happiness you see,

There's something beyond that.

So you let go to take the next stage.

If there's nothing pleasant at the end,

People won't do the practice.

There is nothing wrong with indulging in the pleasure of meditation.

Not at all.

It is described as the blameless pleasure.

One of the reasons put forward by the Buddha for Ajahnas is for the pleasure of here and now.

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