What's Gained By Renunciation

Renunciation is not a very popular topic. People are put off by the concept of renunciation because it has a lot of negative connotations of letting go of things that we don’t want to let go of. This talk offers a wider understanding of it.

The way it’s described in the ancient Buddhist text, is it has more to do with what is gained than what is lost. Renunciation is certainly a letting go of something, but it's also a stepping into something; when you step into something, you step away from something else.

Transcript

So last week our guest teachers Steve and on the zoom and Sharon in person offered some reflections that turned toward you know this topic of renunciation of letting go and as I sit here and this autumn morning outside of my window the leaves are letting go of their branches there's so much letting go happening around us this time of year this kind of falling away and it's not very comfortable often for people this falling away this time of year can be very stirring inside for many people and renunciation as a topic is is not very popular I think that people are put off by the concept of renunciation because it has a lot of negativity associated with it you know maybe there's this idea that like we have to let go of things that we don't want to let go of that somehow in letting go we we actually become less of a person or we have this assumption that we're letting go of things which are valuable to our life things that we're quite attached to so my intention this week is to bring a wider understanding to renunciation to letting go when we hear someone renouncing some things you know it's almost like part of us wants to say I'm so sorry I'm so sorry for that I think there's often a strong reaction around the word renunciation so a similar word you know to renunciation is sacrifice it's also has some a loadedness to it sometimes you know it means to like painfully give up something that we don't want to give up the sacrifice of it you know it's kind of seen as a diminishment or a misfortune to have to sacrifice something but the original meaning in Latin of sacrifice is to make sacred to make sacred so there's actually in a positive association making sacred and the way that it's described in the ancient Buddhist text sacrifice has more to do and even renunciation has more to do with what is gained than what is lost renunciation is certainly a letting go of something but it's also a stepping into something when you step into something you have to step away from something else one of the images that was shared to me on this topic was if the idea that if you were snowed in for the winter with your extended family so imagine all the people that you consider extended family probably by the end of the winter after being cooped up together the intention is to step out of the cabin into the open air the mountain air of spring and step forth out of the cabin and the experience of that in the body to do that in the body and the mind to step away from being cooped up this is the understanding in the Buddhist practice to go forth in this kind of way where you leave the dusty confines of a life which is similar to being locked up in a cabin in the winter to renounce is more likely to announce or to move towards something beautiful this is the association with the idea of renunciation and it relates to letting go it has to do with what we let go into we don't just let go of our attachments or resistance because they're painful we also let go of those painful movements of the mind that keep us from what is sacred keep us from what is best in us from the peace and the ease and the happiness so we are letting go into these beautiful qualities and this idea is encapsulated in what are known in the Buddhist path as the ten perfections which we've looked at before and perhaps we will enter into in this season of autumn into winter so the renunciation we're talking about in Buddhism is letting go into ease and happiness there's a degree of joy to the letting go like a rightness of what we're letting go into we can experience this sometimes when we have to let go for the sake of other people or the sake of our children or our pets you know if we have kids or friends who are sick or an animal that we love and care for and we have all these plans in our day we might have to let go of our plans in order to take them to the emergency room or to spend time with them while they're ill and hopefully it has a deep feeling of rightness you know that letting go of okay so I'm gonna put this thing aside and how we are letting go into what's really best for for ourselves and our friends and our loved ones we let go of our plans for the day and maybe that's unfortunate but it feels so right to take care of our friend or our child or our pet it's the right place to be so the letting go actually is letting go into a deeper care it's a renunciation that's not obligatory it's inspired actually by generosity so generosity then informs letting go there's actually value to giving up something it's the same with this restraint involved in what is known as sila sila is the poly word for ethical conduct behaving in ways that are ethical and don't cause harm so ethical conduct is not meant to be a drag but rather something that frees our integrity to do the right thing in a way sila in the traditional understanding is in the precepts that Steve talked about last week in our group the renunciation is the restraint of from killing from lying from stealing from sexual misconduct and from clouding the mind with intoxication so we restrain ourselves in our conduct in these five precepts and we also gain something in the process so now we're talking about something that's more than just behavior the behavior of generosity the behavior of restraint now we're talking about when we take these precepts we're talking about beginning to go inward you know vowing to ourselves to not cause harm so it's a deeper movement of letting go these precepts almost any endeavor that were serious about in our life involves some form of letting go you know an example from my own life is that I'm back in school and graduate school and decided to you know further my education with the intention that it will help me serve more people and for a period of time it's taking a lot more of my effort for a while so I have to let go of other things that I'm doing I'm teaching a little bit less in person I'm not as available as I once was as I engage in this educational project so that's a kind of letting go and what may give us some courage to let go can actually be found in the story of the Buddha you know as a young prince he left his comfortable palace you know he went out on three separate occasions where he saw a sick person and an old person and a corpse and then on the fourth occasion that he went out he saw this wandering monk and he was so shaken by these existential insights about his own death and aging and capacity for sickness and so inspired by this figure this wandering monk pursuing a very different course of life that the legend goes you know this story it illustrates the courage it takes to see what is true and these questions of life and death to feel the urgency of it and to set out on a quest with no guarantee of any particular outcome what we do here in these mornings together is this type of courage to keep focusing on the ultimate concerns of our life it begins to move us in a different track from where we're accustomed to so even in this time together as we sit together for just an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays maybe Wednesdays for some of you we're leaving behind we're letting go of certain patterns or behaviors just in this time together we let go of these beliefs that we might hold we let go of our drive to get what we want our desires we let go for a moment of our fears and our ambitions and our pride this is where we start we let go of these things and they're an act of courage and we build upon that so I'll stop here today with these words from Suzuki Roshi renunciation is not giving up things of this world but simply realizing that they all go away thank you for your kind attention this morning and your practice in community

Reviews

Renunciation is letting go. Thank you!

Wonderful description of letting go and sacrificing in order to step into something greater.