Greetings,

This month we are exploring one of the most misunderstood topics in Buddhist practice. It's the practice of renunciation, the third Parami. It's no coincidence that this is the third Parami. We can only truly come into right relationship with this concept after we've spent time expanding the heart and mind through the practice of generosity and we've seen the impact of our actions through the practice of ethical conduct. The practice naturally turns towards restraint; not out of "force of will", "have to's" or "shoulds", but rather because one wants to employ right effort or skillful means. In effect, the main umbrella of renunciation is the recognition around what it will take for your practice to be onward leading. Generally renunciation is thought of as being about denying yourself something. It carries this weight of being a downer, a bummer, a party pooper. To our egoic (consumer) mind, it's about loss, not getting what you want, and taking the joy/fun out of life. I hope by now you can see the deluded nature of this kind of thinking.

Unchecked desire leads to suffering. There's no question about this. If for no other reason than we can't always get what we want. We saw last month how unchecked desire can lead to unskillful actions that work against our aspirations as practitioners. Thankfully, renunciation comes in as both sword (cutting off) and shield (protecting). Let's first look at renunciation as a sword. We've been practicing enough to see the nature of human habit mind. Habits are constant. Without intervention they will never stop. It does not matter if they are skillful or unskillful, we will keep recreating the conditions for that habit to exist. The sword of renunciation acts as a skillful intervention by prompting us to keep letting go of arisen unskillful actions and preventing the creation of the conditions for the arising of unskillful habits that have not yet come into being. That's a long way of saying that renunciation acts as the wind beneath your wings by propelling you forward as you keep applying the practice of letting go and restraint.

Now let's look at renunciation as a shield. By its very nature, practicing with renunciation demonstrates we are not where we want to be. Renunciation exists in the present moment where we are experiencing the suffering, stress and tension of some desire. We may have all kinds of aspirations to be free, beautiful, wonderful people. But in this present moment, we are feeling the sting of entanglement with some defilement. We still need to practice uprooting the underlying tendencies of greed, hatred and delusion. Buddha said that the Eightfold Path is a gradual practice. This means that movement towards liberation (the end of suffering) is slow. It takes a long time to change our habits. Renunciation is how we keep the faith and continue to practice when there's very little evidence that anything is changing. It becomes our shelter in the midst of the storms of life. It acts as a refuge or cocoon by shielding/protecting us from the storm until change comes. We just apply our restraint over and over and over and over and over every time we see the arising of unskillful actions. We don't need to get entangled in "why is it like this again?" We simply remember our promise to practice restraint, whether it's at the beginning, during or after our action(s). Over time we gradually build the capacity to prevent the unskillful actions from arising at all. We uproot ourselves from the defilement roots of the habit itself.

One final note. Shame and guilt are hindrances to a strong renunciation practice. If we fall into some mind state of shame and/or guilt every time we see our unskillful habits, we are just increasing the likelihood that we will not only continue to repeat the habit, but we will continue to drown in the pain of that habit. This is because shame and guilt are "selfing" boxes. When we get caught in shame and guilt, we let go of the present moment and become entangled in story. This entanglement keeps us spinning in wishing we were otherwise, blaming others for our shortcomings, reliving all the injustices ever done to us, reminding ourselves of how bad we are - insert your own shame/guilt riddled consciousness here. When we are spinning in this entanglement, it's hard to see how much energy the mind is using to keep us in this story. The mind does this because it thinks it's under attack (it's not safe). The mind uses all the body's energy to enclose us in a story that is supposed to be a protection from the pain of the present moment. The mind cannot see the story is strengthening the pain and insuring the pain will happen again. The gift of renunciation is to avoid letting a story gain momentum, or get us out of it when we become aware that we are in a story. Renunciation is about cutting through/avoiding entanglements. It is the true refuge because it points out human conditioning and not our individual shortcomings.

I hope this post doesn't leave you feeling like it's going to be a difficult month. It's not. The practitioners holding the teachings will be sharing some pretty inspiring experiences to engage us all. I hope you will share some of your experiences as well.

With a deep bow,

Tuere