[Thoughts on Renunciation From Spanish]
Growing up as an American, I never felt an impetus to learn another language. America is huge, English is the official language, and it became the lingua franca of the whole world practically, so what is the use in learning something else? I could just spend more time playing video games instead, right?1
It wasn’t until I was about 20 years old when it dawned on me that understanding more than one language is a huge blessing and thus I became interested in learning another language. I got hung up for about a year trying to determine which one to learn, trying a couple and failing miserably by spending more time watching YouTube videos about learning languages than actually studying, but when I was 21 I began to study Spanish; casually, but still consistently. I haven’t been consistent in my studies since my initial three months when I was 21, now I am 23, but recently I have gotten back into a good flow of interacting with the language which has helped my understanding.
My initial studies when I was 21 really opened up my eyes to the wonderfully hidden world of meaning that lies behind the words that we use which can only be unlocked by understanding their etymology. In this article, due to my monastic vocation I have found myself in, I would like to explore the etymology of “tener” derived verbs in Spanish and their English counterparts, and how they relate to the concept of renunciation which is often associated with monastic life.
Tener is a verb in Spanish that simply means “to have” in the sense of possession. Like you would say “I have a cat” in English, in Spanish it is “Yo tengo un gato.” The verb conjugates from its original form to reflect who exactly has the cat and thus the “er” ending is replaced with “go.” Understanding this grammatical structure is not particularly important to know nor is it related to the point of the essay, but I just explained it to keep things consistent and clear.
With both being either full on Romance languages or having been greatly influenced by Romance languages, Spanish and English respectively share many similar words. Just like that one- similar, and there are nice rules which we can identify these with. Any word in English that ends in -ar, -al, or -ation are usually the exact same in Spanish. Like similar, capital, or simulation, for instance. In the case of tener, it also exists in the English language as the suffix: “tain.”
Tain and tener both come from the “tenere” in Latin which means “to hold.” There are a few common words in English which use this tain suffix such as obtain, maintain, entertain, sustain, and detain. In Spanish these words are respectively obtener, mantener, entretener, sostener, and detener, and their meanings are all basically the same. Deeper analysis can be done about all of the prefixes like the ob- man- entre-, etc. that attach themselves before tener in these words and modify their respective meanings, but such an analysis will be saved for another day.
In order to have something, or to possess something, you interact with this thing you have in several different ways. You have to first obtain the thing, maintain it, entertain it, sustain it, and ultimately, the work you put into the aforementioned verbs detains you. This is how possessions also possess their possessors.
Because the most colloquial word that we use in English to signify possession isn’t connected with this tain suffix, the connection between these five tain words and “to have” isn’t so easily ascertained.2 This is one of the interesting things about English: we sometimes have different words to describe the same thing. Usually one sounds more common and one sounds more formal.3 The common words are typically Germanic, and the formal ones are Romantic. So these etymological connections can easily elude us monoglot English speakers.
With our etymology lesson finished now, it is clear to see that when you possess something, when you have something, you are obliged by it in so many ways. Having something as ordinary as a car, a child, a phone, or a house puts one under so much pressure in all of these ways. The stress and price of acquiring something, keeping it in your possession, ensuring its longevity, trying to utilize it properly, and being always bound to it. Thus simplicity is seen as a highly valuable quality in experienced and aspiring spiritualists. The less you have, the less is dragging you down from pursuing things in your best interest which are, ultimately, not of this world and not attached to any objects or things in this world you can own.
This doesn’t mean that one needs to renounce all of their possessions in order to advance spiritually. The secret is to be renounced internally, which is actually more difficult than being externally renounced. Internal renunciation is to renounce renunciation itself and to understand that it’s only a tool for spiritual growth. Whether one possesses the whole world, or sleeps under a tree and wanders only with whatever they carry, neither matters if one internally is attached to things. Real renunciation means seeing everything in relationship with its source, with God, and thus utilizing everything properly in his service. Only when things are used in this way, in the way that they are actually intended, can real renunciation be experienced. One will think “this belongs to Krishna, so let me use it for him rather than myself,” and, just like watering the roots of a tree rather than its leaves or branches, one experiences complete satisfaction and sees the fulfillment of everything.
So, whether you are a yogi, a polyglot, bilingual, or a big big business person, real renunciation is essential for growth in spiritual life, and it behooves any intelligent person to assess how much they are being possessed by their possessions.