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Christian Sannyasa W.T.: You're free of the wheel of birth and death, when you no longer have any business here. Karmically, there is nothing holding you back, bringing you back here. Then there are no attachments. Now the problem with this country, this culture.
L.M.: American, Western culture.
W.T.: It is not supportive of spiritual life at this point. And it is radically attached to the impermanent.
L.M.: Society worships the impermanent.
W.T.: You can say it is karma-intensive. So I think that through the sannyasic path, one can achieve liberation. That is what Christ means. The parallel to moksha in Christianity is to lose yourself-that is also the fanic consciousness.
L.M.: Of the Sufi, which is the mystical aspect of Islam.
W.T.: Yes, the Sufi annihilation of the self.
L.M.: In order to be really complete and fully conscious?
W.T.: Yes, which means you are removing the obstacles to union with God.
L.M.: We already are that. Although unbeknownst to our conscious selves, because we're unconscious.
W.T.: That's a good point. There is nothing to achieve. It's already achieved. All we have to do is to realize it.
L.M.: So we should not take spirituality or meditation as a kind of achievement test. The Christian sannyasi therefore does have a real understanding of key Hindu concepts such as karma and reincarnation, which are often misunderstood. Isn't reincarnation in the theological sense a lot like the Catholic teaching on purgatory?
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