The Teaching of all Teachings and Renunciation
The Teaching of all Teachings
It ’s good to remind ourselves of the teaching of all teachings, isn’t it?
The one thing to kind of remember,
I would say, above all else—
and one that I’d say: take it with you.
Always have it in your pocket,
so you can pull it out for yourself.
The teaching of all teaching
is that the spiritual path—
or the path of yoga—
is not here to add anything to us.
You’ve heard this before,
but ears open.
The process of yoga is a stripping away
of everything that we’re not.
Everything that we’ve imagined,
and thought ourselves to be—
in order to reveal what we are,
and have always been,
and will always be.
So the key word is:
stripping away.
The anti-word?
Adding.
Once we've got that—
can you feel it?
It’s like, ahhh—
I’m just relinquishing stuff.
I’m not adding.
And the reason why this is the teaching of all teachings—
the reason it’s good to have it in our pocket—
is because we all have in us, I suspect—
unless you’re over it—
a seeker.
Our seeker is the part of us
that’s always going out
from a sense of lack,
to try and get more—
to add it into us.
So that—what?
So that we can feel whole,
or complete,
or enough.
But the seeker only takes us away from ourselves.
And no matter how much it finds to add—
it falls into an empty hole.
So experience—
it's not bad.
It’s just a case of where we’re experiencing from.
The seeker will give us a particular experience,
but it leads to emptiness.
The non-seeker,
when we’re simply resting in our heart,
in contentment—
we’ll still have an experience—
but it will flourish.
It will be enjoyed.
Because it’s not working out of lack.
It’s working out of contentment,
and fullness already.
So it’s important on our path
to catch our seeker.
And go:
“Whew—come back here!”
And rein it in.
That one that’s always looking for something else,
running after everything,
getting us into a tizzy.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa—
let’s just rest in the heart.
Everything is already here.
Everything we need.
Everything we’re seeking
is already here.”
Rest.
Rest.
And then—
this heart of ours
starts to blossom
as the seeker starts to settle.
So this is what we say:
stripping away, not adding on.
Also—
this is a great relief, isn’t it?
Because adding
has a certain tension to it.
It’s like—
oh, I’ve got to get out there and achieve.
But being—
stripping away—
is our way.
Renunciation (Tyag)
So, you come across this word a lot
in the worldly tradition.
Especially with our forefathers—
and all of the masters spoke of it:
Renunciation.
But it’s a word, I think,
that in our modern minds,
we can struggle with a bit.
It feels a little…
“Ooh, I’m not sure about renouncing.”
Like—“I want to be free in life.”
“I don’t want to renounce!”
But—
you do it every time you do the Sharanam meditation.
You renounce external security
You renounce personal desire.
You renounce personal ambition.
You renounce personal attachment.
You renounce all personal beliefs.
And you renounce the idea of division.
And does that leave you with a smaller sense of self?
No.
It gives you a bigger one—
a more expansive,
spacious,
open you.
We all seek security,
but it's already here
if we weren't separated from it.
We let go of personal desire
and discover gratitude.
Let go of the need to be someone,
and we find service.
Let go of attachment to others,
and we discover love.
Let go of what we think we know,
and we find wisdom.
Let go of separateness,
and we see the illusion dissolve.
These are the six renunciations.
Letting go of illusion:
Control,
Security,
Lasting satisfaction outside ourselves,
The idea that attachment equals love,
...a child’s view of the world.
So much is hidden in our thinking.
We're boxed in by the mind.
The more we think we know,
the smaller our world becomes.
The less we know,
the more room for miracles.
Ah—
The masters were right.
Renunciation leads to freedom and abundance.
The more we let go the more we’re open to this
We don’t have to let go of anything externally—
You don’t have to go anywhere..
You don ‘t have to go home and tell the kids,
“Hey, I’ve renounced you.”
No!
Everything happens inside of yourself—
because that’s where the bondage is.
And that’s where the freedom is.
Isn’t that marvellous?
That from where we are—
right here—
all of the freedom happens within.
We can’t get free outside of ourselves.
We can create any kind of world—
superficially and temporarily—
and still, everyone can be just as bound.
You can let someone out of prison,
and they’re in the same bondage
they were in when they were inside.
Because the freedom—
and the bondage—
are internal.
It’s such a cool thing to realise.
And the Sharanam is here to serve us—
to break free
on the inside.
Renunciation in Sanskrit is called:
Tyag.
And one who renounces—
one who is a renunciant of this inner bondage—
is called a Tyagi.
I have renounced—
or am in the process of renouncing—
all inner bondage.
All inner attachment.
All personal desire.
Why?
Because then I open to everything on a bigger level.
One famous yogi was once praised by a disciple::
“Wow, your renunciation is so deep.
You live in poverty.
You have nothing but the robe you’re wearing
and the bowl you eat out of.
What a renunciant you are!”
And the yogi replied:
“What a load of nonsense
I look out,
and I think—
everybody’s renounced.
Everybody has renounced Life, freedom and abundance.
I’m abundant.
I’ve renounced nothing.
I’m living in absolute abundance
in myself—
and you call me poor?
I look out at all of you—
with so much—
and I think,
Wow, you’re renouncing this… for that?”
Gotcha.
It’s not that you can’t have it.
Are you with me?
Realise it is not it!
Thankyou 🙏🏼
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