The Difference between True and False Renunciation of the World

Disenchantment with worldly dharmas can be divided into disenchantment at the level of surface consciousness and disenchantment at the deeper level of the manas. Surface disenchantment is merely the mind consciousness finding the world boring and meaningless, but it is only talk—saying is one thing, doing is another; it never gets serious. However greedy one is, one remains just as greedy, and nothing changes. This is false disenchantment. But when a genuine mind of disenchantment arises, it manifests directly in one's actions: one no longer devises many ways to avoid worldly people and affairs, preferring fewer matters over more; one no longer craves the world. This is the disenchantment arising from the manas at a deep level—a mind connected with liberation. Reaching this level of action is not easy; it is the wholesome root cultivated over many lifetimes. Those of shallow learning absolutely cannot have such mental conduct.

How can one achieve disenchantment at the deep level of the manas? First, one needs to cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), and within that concentration engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self. After initially realizing impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self, one still cannot give rise to a mind of disenchantment with the world; one needs to continue deepening the contemplative practice until the first dhyāna arises, severing the afflictions of craving and attachment—only then does disenchantment with the world arise, no longer wishing to continue drifting through birth and death in the world, wasting one's time. One then has the mind of liberation and the mind of renunciation. Therefore, the mind of renunciation and the mind of disenchantment are inseparable from deep-level meditative concentration and wisdom. Without cultivating meditative concentration, there is only verbal disenchantment, while in reality one is extremely attached, not disenchanted in the least—saying one thing while meaning another, with mouth and heart at odds.