Meditation for Worldlings and Renunciation

Meditation for Worldlings

by Eric S. Fallick

In an earlier essay, The Practice of Contemplation, an outline was sketched of the path of the practice of contemplation/meditation leading to the ultimate goal of re-union with the Absolute and liberation from the cycle of birth and death. I hope that it was made clear therein that, contrary to popular belief, even among those who should know better, in the present day, this Path and real contemplation of ultimate soteriological value can only be practiced in reality by true celibate ascetics/renunciants (not to be confounded with membership in institutional monastic orders, ritual initiations, names and costumes, church affiliations, economic dependence on others, and other such things of this world). This should be obvious from spiritual and metaphysical principles, from the very nature of Reality and the very nature of the Path and Practice, not to mention so-called history and traditional texts and the records of the ancients, but what remains under the name of spirituality in these very dark times is thoroughly confused. Even, or, sadly, especially, those who are visible as advocates of contemplation these days take pride in abrogating the renunciant principles and teachings and examples of the past and claiming that everyone, every worldling with romantic/sexual relationships and activities, families, wealth, pursuit of worldly pleasures and occupations, engagement in entertainments, social action, etc., etc., can effectively practice meditation/contemplation and attain significant spiritual realization. (“You too can be a mystic in your spare time without changing or giving up anything! Yes, in only 20 minutes a day in the comfort of your own home while still living as an ordinary worldling enmired in becoming you can accomplish what the mystics and contemplatives of the past had to devote their whole lives to 100% renouncing the world completely in celibacy, poverty, abstinence, etc. with only a few attaining after many years of tremendous effort. Just cut out and send in the coupon below to be the first on your block...”) They even think that this is an advance of the present day and the modern world over the benighted spiritual past and proudly announce and emphasize that their contemplation systems, courses, institutes, etc. are for combining contemplative and active lives, contemplation and ordinary worldly lives, pleasures and pursuits. Even though they refer to and purport to read and study the great contemplatives and mystics of the past of their respective traditions, they seem to hear from them only what they want to hear and studiously ignore their central renunciant teachings. Even though they cite them as authorities, they seem to think they were actually fools since they benightedly advocate and practiced celibate renunciation and asceticism and total devotion, when now, as they claim, the same thing can be done in this supposedly advanced modern world by everyone (or at least those who can afford to attend a workshop or retreat or course or institute) with little effort and without renouncing or giving up or abstaining from anything.

Let it be stated clearly and unequivocally, as galling as it may be to this egalitarian age. The celibate renunciant, ascetic life and way is better than and spiritually superior to the life and way of worldings. It is absolutely and unquestionably necessary for and part and parcel of, permanently and for the whole Path from beginning to end, the real practice and attainment of genuine contemplation of ultimate soteriological value. Celibate, abstinent, vegetarian, teetotaling, otherworldly, world-denying, wholly devoted, contemplative asceticism and renunciation is the very reflection of the Absolute in this world, is of the very essence of any higher spiritual practice, and its necessity can never be abrogated for genuine ultimate spiritual and mystic experience. (Not to mention that it is infinitely more happy, satisfying and real than the worldly life!) It is the greatest tragedy of this modern brave new world that it has all but disappeared and been denied by false and confused understanding and, consequently, real experience and understanding of the Absolute has become all but inaccessible. The argument from the great spiritual texts of the 'past' won't be pursued further here. If people read the great texts of their systems with open eyes and minds and hearts, what I am saying will be obvious. If not, detailed and extensive explication of specific texts is a massive undertaking well beyond the scope of this essay. (Also, 'history' is not really real and empirical data is not an adequate basis for spiritual practice—but these are matters for another time.) To expound the matter thoroughly on the basis of spiritual and metaphysical principles would also be the matter for a whole volume, but it is perhaps worth saying a few very brief words here.

We find ourselves lost, to great pain, in individuated sensate existence in space-time apparently separated from the the Absolute, the Good, the One and wandering endlessly in the cycle of repeated birth and death. We have turned away from the Good and our original state of unity with It and pursued individuality and separated subject and objects running further and further into differentiation. If we wish to be free, to obtain liberation, re-union with the One, the ultimate soteric goal and release, we need to reverse the process and return to the Absolute. We can only go either one way or the other: either further and deeper into becoming and misery or back to the Good. We cannot go both ways at the same time. Our every volitional thought and action takes us in either one of the two directions, back to the One or further into endless becoming. Every time we pursue worldly desires and activities (beyond what is absolutely necessary for psycho-physical survival while we are still at this level), every time we pursue sensual pleasures, every time we give the senses and the body more credence than is absolutely necessary, we run further into differentiation, create more karma and misery and delusion, and bind ourselves tighter to becoming. (It is no use pretending, as people do nowadays, that one can somehow engage in these things “without attachment” and thereby avoid their consequences!) Every time we renounce the things and concerns and spirit of this world and the senses and worldly desires and pursuits and pleasures (truly, with a real supranatural motivation ultimately stemming from the true core of our being where it touches and really is the Absolute Itself, not just in form with covert worldly motives) and turn our souls to the Good, we move in the direction of returning to the Absolute and liberation. Our soul's nature is to love. We can either turn our love to the things of this world or to the Absolute, to God, if you like. We can't love both at the same time. The same force can't be directed in two opposing directions at the same time. To the extent that we love and pursue the things of this world and the senses, to that extent we don't love and turn to the Good, and vice versa. It is that simple—you have to choose one or the other—the matter cannot be finessed no matter how much confusion and sophistry latter day alleged spiritual writers, teachers, practitioners, etc. may employ!

Let us take just a few simple examples. Sexual activity is the exact opposite of contemplation/meditation. Perhaps more than anything else, it draws the soul the wrong way into the senses and becoming and the body and space-time and differentiation and bondage. Contemplation, on the other hand, is the exact opposite process of separating the soul from the body and sensate existence and turning it back to the Good. Thus, the two are completely incompatible, go in exact opposite directions, and it is more than obvious that celibacy (in the fullest sense of the word) is absolutely and indispensably necessary for the practice of genuine contemplation of ultimate soteriological value and liberation and genuine spiritual attainment. The same thing goes for romantic love in a broader sense along with its physical aspect. The same thing goes also for non-sexual love, in the worldly sense, and attachment to family, children, friends, creation, etc. To the extent that you love and are attached to anyone and anything in this world, any differentiated particular, to that extent you don't love and aren't attached to the Absolute, and can't effectively practice real contemplation. This, of course, extends down to everything including desire for the pleasures of food and drink and possessions, etc., all of which are insuperable opposites and obstacles to true contemplation. Further, engaging in entertainments such as movies, television, theater, novels, etc., not only moves in the opposite direction from real contemplation, but causes one to absorb the worldly passions and confused thoughts and desires presented therein and thereby moves one in the wrong direction even just cognitively.

Thus, it is clear and obvious that the real practice of contemplation and the pursuit of the ultimate soteric goal is a business for true celibate ascetics and renunciants only—as exactly opposite as this is to the trend of the times and however upset this fact may make people. But if an ordinary worldling is reading this who wants to pursue the spiritual life and practice, in some fashion at least, contemplation or meditation, if someone is reading this who is married or in a romantic relationship, has a family, etc., etc. etc., how are they to proceed? What can and should they do? The first thing is to accurately and honestly understand and assess and accept the situation as described above and in the various systems and cease from pretension and the delusions of grandeur promoted by present day expounders and strive for correct conceptual understanding. Next, one must be sure that one is following and observing at least the minimum spiritual standards of conduct that apply to everyone in the world: being a vegetarian, not drinking alcohol or using intoxicants, being faithful to one's monogamous romantic partner, never lying, cheating or stealing, etc. Then, one can remove however much of one's free time as one can in one's situation from the pursuit of sensual pleasures, entertainments, etc. and devote all that time to reading and study of the primary source texts of one's spiritual system (not the pabulum and falsities of modern writers, but the records of the ancients!). As to the actual period of formal sitting in meditation, rather than ineffectually pretending to practice (and, even worse, to attain!) methods aiming directly and immediately at the final goal of liberation or union, and certainly rather than practicing the presently popular practices of simply concentrating on sense data and bodily functions, of being in the “now”, that are actually anti-spiritual (by definition) and more likely to lead to rebirth as a shellfish or the like, I would like to suggest the pursuit of cognitive meditations leading to cognitive and conceptual changes, to changes in one's way of viewing the world, that are actually a form of contemplation (to change one's thinking, in a deep sense, is to change one's mode of being), such changes being a necessary prerequisite to raising the true aspiration for liberation and practice in a future birth as a renunciant and ascetic of the ultimate soteriological contemplation. At present, I would like to suggest just a few ideas of such cognitive meditations leading to a change of weltanschauung in two essential areas. The first area is in developing the attitude of renunciation, of realizing the unsatisfactoriness of the worldly and worldly life, of individuated sensate existence, and of the inconceivable wonderfulness of the Absolute, and the necessity and desirability of striving to move from one to the other. The other area is in adopting an idealist (in the philosophical sense) perspective, of realizing that all is mind, spirit or experience, that there is no physical world apart from experience of it by souls or minds, whether ours or the world's.

The exercises I would like to suggest for formal meditation practice during the formal sitting period are as follows:

1. During your meditation period, which presumably wouldn't be all that long, just continually and repeatedly reflect upon and consider the immeasurable greatness, perfection, unity, goodness, beauty, unchangingness, etc. of the Absolute, and, by contrast keep reflecting on the instability, pain, unsatisfactoriness, multiplicity, deceptiveness, imperfection, evil, etc. of the sense-world, sense-objects and the worldly desires you have always been pursuing. Keep maintaining and contrasting these two opposed reflections so that the One seems most desirable and the sense-world revolting.

2. Contemplative reading of Plato's Phaedo: Reread repeatedly the Phaedo slowly and carefully stopping to reflect on each thing that grabs you, particularly the more transcendent parts and as it provides a continuing reflection contrasting the sense-world and sense-objects and the body as highly problematic with the wisdom of the soul by itself contemplating the divine things by themselves. (To forestall any possible misunderstanding and confusion, let it be noted that the married Socrates of the dialog (along, in fact, with the entire frame story itself) is just an allegorical symbol, in Homeric fashion, unconcerned with a historical Socrates, and in no way contradicts the principles given above. Socrates represents the true or higher soul and the family that has a cameo appearance at the beginning and end represents the faculties of the lower or animal soul that the higher soul is forced to perfunctorily deal with while still in the prison of the body.)

3. Practice the meditation exercise given by Plotinus in Ch.2 of Ennead V.1 (p. 15 of Ennead V in the Loeb's translation by A. H. Armstrong published by Harvard University Press).

The first two of the above exercises are aimed at the first cognitive shift outlined above and the third exercise at the second cognitive shift. Additional practices along the same lines could be developed by each individual. Understand things as they really are and work as hard as you can under your circumstances. You have been wandering endlessly through countless births through the long dark night of time and becoming. It is high time to start waking up and start to cease being deluded by this world and the things and activities in it and by other worldlings!



©2015 Eric S. Fallick platonicascetic (at) (gee) mail (dot) com