Performed renunciation meant to prove non-attachment is not freedom; it becomes a subtle identity rearrangement. When practices are dropped to demonstrate purity and to confirm detachment, when simplicity is adopted as evidence of realization, the self simply changed performance costumes.
Many mistakenly interpret teachings of renounciation as an instruction and force renounciation through demonstrative action by the body-mind. Paradoxically, this approach creates an identity of the one who is renouncing, the one who believes there is someone who could be attached or free. Whether grasping wealth or discarding it, the structure of “I am doing this to be free” preserves the very center it claims to undo.
The highest teaching does not instruct or suggest withdrawal, and restraint; it does not reject function or engagement. It does not sanctify poverty and silence. It dissolves the need to prove anything at all. True non-attachment is when the impulse to demonstrate freedom drops, it is not achieved through renunciation and denial of functions. There are no instructions.
Where there is no reference to identity, action and non-action lose their spiritual charge. Practices appear, they disappear. Function continues or falls away. Neither confirms truth, and neither denies it. Reality is not secured by simplification and not compromised by participation.
When the renouncer dissolves, there is nothing to give up, life continues without being used as evidence, nothing needs proof, there is no virtue in letting go and no danger in remaining.
What is real is not performative, and what is unreal cannot be purified by abandoning it, there is no one to abandon or perform.
(This contemplation addresses inner reference, not outward action. When read without context, it can be taken literally or as behavioral guidance, which is not its intent. The highest teachings are not instructional, nothing is meant to be applied or enacted. If the language raises questions rather than instructions, the teaching is being engaged as intended.)
(Non AI-Generated Writings)