Huang Po says

"Most people allow their mind to be obstructed by the world and then try to escape from the world. They don't realize that their mind obstructs the world. If they could only let their minds be empty, the world would be empty. Don't misuse the mind. If you want to be free of the world, you should forget the mind. Once you forget the mind, the world becomes empty. And when the world becomes empty, the mind disappears. If you don't forget the mind and only get rid of the world, you only succeed in becoming more confused."

– Huang Po, tenth century Ch'an master

This comes from Red Pine's translation of the Diamond Sutra, with commentary.

The Diamond Sutra itself is brief, about the length of a longer New Testament epsitle; the commentary, which includes quotations from Huang Po and other Ch'an and Zen masters, runs about 350 pages.

The quote above really caught my attention. A person can retreat to a cave, shut himself or herself off from the world, and sit there in utter isolation, still not at all getting it.

Does this contradict the behavior of all the masters who went into permanent retreat? I don't think so.

A lot of people who grow up in wackjob families end up being isolated. They reach adulthood with a huge set of rules for living that make no sense outside the confines of their own crazy families. They take these twisted rules out into the 'sane' world, suddenly realize everyone thinks their behavior is bizarre or unacceptable, and retreat back into their homes because they have no idea what else they can do. They get rid of the world, but they still don't get it.

The master or sage who has already gotten it, on the other hand, begins to see the so-called 'real world' as, at best, irrelevant, and at worst a hindrance to further understanding.

Again, it's the difference between self-denial and renunciation.

I really doubt that I am ever going to do the Cold Mountain thing. I'm too hooked on things like broadband Internet and health care to walk away from my job and try to live off wild plants in the mountains. But the rest of the stuff in this world seems less and less important as time goes by.