Renunciation
Transposing pleasure onto a higher plane
September 15th 2022
Giving up certain sensual pleasures is meaningful only if they are replaced by acquisitions and joys of a spiritual nature. Religious people and moralists have done a very poor job; they imposed rules without really explaining why they were useful, so they gave people the impression that they were trying to restrict them and force them into the desert to live a life of privation. But the time has now come for explanations. People are not so stupid or narrow-minded; they can understand. In any case, there is no longer any point in imposing rules without explaining their usefulness.
Initiatic science explains that renunciation is not a question of depriving ourselves of something. In the spiritual life, renunciation does not entail a loss. To renounce pleasure means to replace it, to transpose, to move it onto a higher plane. The activity is the same, but with purer, subtler elements and a more disinterested goal.
