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CHRISTIAN SANNYASA
WITH WAYNE TEASDALE
L.M.: What is the meditative way of the Christian sannyasi? What are the chief characteristics of the sannyasic life? One of the great modern exemplars of the Christian sannyasic path has been Dom Bede Griffiths, who initiated you into sannyasa.
W.T.: Sannyasa itself is the mystical path--and it is the complete commitment to the mystical life. It has as its focus and center the dropping of-and detachment from everything. Going in search of the divine-the Absolute, or the Godhead, sannyasa finds a resonance in Christ's words: "If you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, give your money to the poor, and come follow me." Well, come follow me is to do the work of the kingdom. But it is also to seek intimacy with the divine. That is what the sannyasi does. Since the divine is infinite, it overflows all our categories, all our labels-and all of our neat divisions into different religions. The sannyasi, or the renunciate
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