Friends:

           Withdrawal is the Third Mental Perfection:

Withdrawal is Removal of Misery
Withdrawal is Extraction of Disease.
Withdrawal is Pulling out the splinter of Pain.
Withdrawal is Retraction from Danger.
Withdrawal is Renunciation of Ill.
Withdrawal is Letting Go of what is Burning.
Withdrawal is Turning Away from what is Sorrow.
Withdrawal is Seclusion from what is Grief.
Withdrawal is Clearing of Captivating Illusions.
Withdrawal is Waking Up from Enthralling Trance.
Withdrawal is Freedom from Enslaving Addiction.
Withdrawal is Protection of what is Entrapping.
Withdrawal is Giving Up what is Detrimental.
Withdrawal is Discharge of what is Infested.
Withdrawal is Breaking out of the Prison.
Withdrawal is Release from all Suffering...

Withdraw, as the man newly freed from prison
does not at all wish himself back in prison!
                                                       The Basket of Conduct, Cariyapitaka

Infatuated with lust, impassioned & obsessed,
they are caught in their own self-created net,
like a spider, which spins it's own web!
Cutting through the Noble Friend withdraw & go free,
Without longing, without greed, leaving all misery behind. 
                                                       Dhammapada 347

Blissful is solitude for the contented, learned & knowing True Dhamma.
Blissful is harmlessness towards all breathing beings without exception.
Blissful is freedom from all urge of sensual slavery whatsoever.
Yet, supreme bliss, is the withdrawal from the abysmal conceit “I am”!’ 
                                                       Udana – Inspiration: II – 1

The Bodhisatta once as the King Culasutasoma gave up his whole kingdom.
Knowing this withdrawal to be an advantageous victory, he remembered:
A mighty kingdom I possessed, as if it was dropped into my hands...
Yet all this tantalizing luxury, I let fall without any even slight trace 
of longing nor clinging. This was my perfection of Withdrawal. 
                                                       Jataka no. 525 

Lust, I say, is a great flood; a whirlpool sucking one down,
a constant yearning, seeking a hold, continually active;
difficult to cross is such morass of sensual desire...
A sage does not deviate from good, but remains steady!
A recluse stands on firm ground, when secluded;
withdrawn from all, truly he is calmed & silenced!
Having directly touched the Dhamma, he is independent.
He behaves right & does not envy anyone anywhere...
He who has left behind all pleasure arised from sensing,
an attachment difficult to cut, is freed of both depression &
longing, since he has cut across the flood, and is released. 
                                                       Sutta Nipata IV.15 

Any being, that cools down all desires & greedy lusts,
by being alert & ever aware of the inherent danger,
by directing attention only to these disgusting aspects
of all phenomena, such one withdraw from craving and
thereby wears down & breaks the chains of this prison. 
                                                       Dhammapada 350

If one gains an infinite ease by leaving a minor pleasure,
the clever one should swap the luminous for that trifling
sensual pleasure, by withdrawing from this trivial boredom. 
                                                       Dhammapada 290

The one who has reached the sublime end all perfected,
is fearless, freed of craving, desireless and unclinging...
Such one has broken the chains of being and is certainly
withdrawing into the final phase, wearing his last frame. 
                                                       Dhammapada 351

The household life is a cramped way, choked with dust.
To leave it, is like coming out into the free space of open air!
It is not easy for one who lives at home, to live the Noble life
completely perfect and pure, bright as mother-of-pearl. Surely
I will now shave off my hair & go forth into homelessness.

Only Misery Arises.
Only Misery Ceases.
Nothing good is thus lost 
by withdrawing from it all. 
 

 


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