Renunciation

Renunciation is an important part of growth.  To grow, we need to give up our old selves.  Another way of looking at it is that we give up what no longer serves us to build new skills, attitudes and learn new ways which will help us to cope better with the challenges of lives.   However, there are certain general human traits which are part of all of us and renunciation of them will liberate us from the suffering in so many ways. The three traits we will consider today are desires, attachment and expectation.

Desires

Desires are not bad as they keep us moving.  However, having no desire will make us lethargic.  On the other hand, having too many desires because we think that we are not good enough isn’t good as well. We will always be chasing something thinking that it will make our lives better.  This can be money, status, or relationships.  Having said that, it’s fine to have healthy desires.  It’s fine to want to improve our lives for the betterment of ourselves and others.  So, we can renunciate desires which make us less harmonious towards ourselves and others and embrace desires which make us better human beings.  For example, the desire to have a better health, stability and peace in our lives is vital for making a better world for everyone who live in it.

Attachment

We tend to cling to things which give us a sense of safety, warmness, meaning or worth in our lives.  However, in a world of impermanence, nothing lasts and everything we cling to will not always be here.  While this can make us cynical, we need not live a life which feels like a burden on us and others.  The way out is to give ourselves fully to what life offers to us and detach ourselves after giving ourselves fully to life that presents to us.  It’s like living a life and not carrying the weight of our actions in us.  It’s about doing what is right without continuously thinking that we are doing the right thing.  In Buddhism, the biggest renunciation is that of giving up our storyline where we always keep telling ourselves that we are doing this, that or the other thing.

Expectation

We expect life to be a certain way and it isn’t.  This makes us suffer.  We expect people to behave a certain way and they don’t. This makes us suffer. We expect love and we don’t get it.  This makes us suffer.  So why expect?  If we expect good to happen when we are doing good, it’s still greed and doing for oneself.  An act of giving is pure when there’s just giving.  Hence, doing what is ethical and right and moving on day after day no matter whether there’s encouragement or no is the right thing to do.  Everyday is an opportunity to practice the way and get better day after day or in a way we can view ourselves as getting closer and closer to our true nature.  That is the path to enlightenment.  Every time we act like a buddha, we became the buddha.  The buddha lives in us.

Take care, Geerish.