Tag Archives: meditation

Renunciation

The paramita of renunciation is often thought of as giving up something tangible in life. In the sutras the word nekkhamma is usually translated as “renunciation.” It’s about renouncing the world and becoming a monk or nun. But, it applies to the lay life as well. According to Webster’s Dictionary, renunciation simply means, to “refrain or abstain.”

Sylvia Boorstein wrote, “I find it more helpful to think of renouncing the habitual patterns of mind that keep me enslaved more than renouncing a particular lifestyle. Perhaps that’s because at those times in my life when I have needed to make a choice in terms of a more skillful lifestyle or habit, my experience has been that my strong decision to make a change made the actual changing fairly easy. It’s been much harder for me to change the habits of my heart.”

What does renunciation mean to us as laypeople? It’s about letting go of whatever binds us in ignorance and suffering. The Buddha taught that genuine renunciation requires thoroughly knowing how we make ourselves unhappy with our grasping and greed. Renunciation is a positive and liberating action, not a punishment. Nobody’s making us do something. Over time we begin to understand that giving in to craving is a great hindrance not only to enlightenment, but to living in contentment… we begin to see things as they really are and also begin get it that grasping for and attachment to the things we crave is only a temporary fix, because attachment also binds us to our suffering.

THE SECOND NOBLE TRUTH

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Stephen Batchelor wrote in ‘Buddhism Without Beliefs,’ “Anguish emerges from craving for life to be other than it is. In the face of a changing world, such craving seeks consolation in something permanent and reliable, in a self that is in control of things, in a God who is in charge of destiny. In yearning for anguish to be assuaged in such ways, we reinforce what creates anguish in the first place; the craving for life other than it is.”

Buddha identified craving as the cause of suffering. The Pali word for craving is tanha, which is a state of incessant, never-ending, unquenchable thirst. We continually look for something outside ourselves to make us happy, secure and content. We attach to people, places and things, ideas, concepts and opinions about ourselves and the world.

Change, impermanence, is one of the most difficult things for us to handle and accept… even though everything changes all the time.

ALL the time.

ALL the time. Faster than we can ever see it. It is the absolute constant of life. Life and we are always changing. Batchelor goes on to say, “Our attachment and our identification with what we want cause us to suffer deeply. The objects are not the problem – our attachment and identification are. The objects are not the problem – our attachment and identification are. When we expect to have and be the same or better forever we suffer.”

The Rohitassa Sutta

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Nati Garcia wrote on Cultural Survival, “On this day in the northern hemisphere, the shortest period of sunlight occurs. It is a moment to settle into the bedding of the Earth, tucked beneath the layers of the cold darkness, and to draw in the warmth of the breath to share stories. Storytelling is most prominent during this dark period as it sparks the imagination, generates laughter and truth, and warms the heart, mind, and spirit.”

For me, finding the practice was like coming home. And when I began to study the Dharma, it was like I already knew those truths. They were already in my body! I just had to be reminded of them. One of the things I love is all the great stories of the Buddha and Ananda and so many other great Bodhisattvas and other beings.

One of my favorite stories from the Pali Canon is Rohitassa Sutta. Rohitassa was this beloved deva–a spirit being. He said he had a special power… he was a fast walker. Wherever he wanted to go, all he had to do was think of it and he would be there. He said, “My speed was as fast as that of a strong archer, well trained, a practiced hand, a practiced sharp shooter shooting a light arrow across the land. My stride stretched as far as the east sea is from the West. And to me endowed with such speed, such a stride, there came the desire, “I will go traveling to the end of the world.” I spent 100 years traveling but without reaching the end of the world!

He got so frustrated! He kept running an running around the world and never got where he wanted to go! So, finally, he went to the Buddha, and said, “World Honored One, is it possible, through travelling, to reach the end of the world?”

And the Buddha replied, “I say Rohittasa, it is not possible, through travelling, to reach the end of the world, because, I also say Rohittasa, the world… the beginning of the world… the end of the world… the whole of the world… is in this fathom-long body, with its sensations, perceptions, and cognition. The whole world is in here.”

What a relief?! It’s all here in the body. The practice is here in the body! The freedom we’re looking for … is already here NOW in this body. The beginning of the path… the end of the path… enlightenment itself.

EGO

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Adyashanti said, “Ego is a movement. It’s a verb. It is not something static. It’s the after-the-fact movement of mind that’s always becoming. In other words, egos are always on the path. They are on the psychology path, the spiritual path, the path to get more money or a better car. That sense of ‘me’ is always becoming, always moving, always achieving. Or else it is doing the opposite—moving backwards, rejecting, denying. So, in order for this verb to keep going, there has to be movement. We have to be going forward or backward, toward or away from. We have to have somebody to blame, and usually it’s ourselves. We’ve got to be getting somewhere because otherwise we are not becoming.”

Does that make sense? Our mental states are constantly changing and flowing, just like a river. Thoughts, emotions, and perceptions arise and pass away ksana to ksana, without a fixed or permanent “self” to anchor them. Everything is impermanent—especially thoughts, emotions, and perceptions. Buddha taught that because the “mind is always becoming” it is anatta—not-self. Since there’s no inherent, unchanging self, only constantly arising and passing phenomena—each moment is distinct from the last and constantly moving forward with us. There’s no going back… although we often live in the past… review, review, review… endlessly going over and over what happened. Revising, reworking, endlessly. We are actually only moving forward. No matter how much our thoughts are stuck in the past.

By practicing the Dharma and mindfulness meditation we can stay present, not only noticing but experiencing the arising and passing of all kinds of mental states… and even sometimes not getting caught up and identifying with them. Having a deeper understanding of the impermanent nature of the mind.