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Quotations on:
Renunciation
The tool the Buddha holds out to free the mind from desire is understanding. Real renunciation is not a matter of compelling ourselves to give up things still inwardly cherished, but of changing our perspective on them [to realise they are impermanent and unsubstantial] so that they no longer bind us. When we understand the nature of desire, when we investigate it closely with keen attention, desire falls away by itself, without need for struggle.
Bhikkhu Bodhi, from The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way To The End Of Suffering
The Buddha |
The recollected go forth to lives of renunciation. They take no pleasure
in a
fixed abode. Like wild swans abandoning a pool, they leave one resting place
after another.
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His Holiness the Dalai Lama |
All of us have attained a human life; we are, in a sense, incomparable among
the various types of sentient beings, as we are able to think about many topics
with a subtler mind and are endowed with vaster capabilities. Dogs, birds, and
so forth do communicate, but only humans can settle and ascertain deep topics
on the basis of words; it is obvious that there are no other sentient beings
capable of as many thoughts and techniques. Nowadays, humans are engaging in
many activities that were not even objects of thought a century or two ago.
The metaphors of the poets of the past, such as 'the wonderful house of the
moon', are becoming actualities.
...People have made great effort right up to this century, thinking to become
free from suffering, but we cannot point to even one person in the world, no
matter how rich he or she is, who has no worry -- except for those who have
the inner happiness of renouncing the material way of life. Without internal
renunciation it is difficult to achieve happiness and comfort.
Deity Yoga
On top of the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death, we encounter the pains of facing the unpleasant, separating from the pleasant, and not finding what we want. The basic problem lies with the type of mind and body that we have. Our mind-body complex serves as a basis for present sufferings in the form of aging, sickness, and death, and promotes future suffering through our usual responses to painful situations. By reflecting on birth and on the nature of mind and body, you will be moved from the depths of your heart to seek relief, thinking, "If I could only be free from a life driven by afflictive emotions and karma!" Without such reflection on pain, your knowledge of your own condition will be limited, which itself will put a limit on your compassion.
As Tsongkhapa says: "If you do not cultivate a genuine sense of disenchantment with cyclic existence--whose nature is a mind-body complex under the sway of afflictive emotions and karma--you will have no chance to develop a genuine attitude intent on liberation, and there will be no way to develop great compassion for beings wandering in cyclic existence. Therefore, it is crucial to reflect on your situation." Becoming Enlightened
Our practice of the Dharma should be a continual effort to attain a state
beyond suffering. It should not simply be a moral activity whereby we avoid
negative ways and engage in positive ones. In our practice of the Dharma, we
seek to transcend the situation in which we all find ourselves: victims of our own mental afflictions- such as attachment, hatred, pride, greed, and so forth-are mental states that cause us to behave in ways that bring about all of our unhappiness and suffering. While working to achieve inner peace and happiness, it is helpful to think of them as our inner demons, for like demons, they can haunt us, causing nothing but misery. That state beyond such negative emotions and thoughts, beyond all sorrow, is called nirvana.
An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life
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Turning
away from samsara does not mean just studying the dharma and considering enlightenment;
one can know the dharma intellectually and not have the deep understanding. Understanding
comes through the four "ordinary foundations": meditation on impermanence,
on cause and effect, on the troubles of samsara, and on the preciousness and rarity
of human life. Being in a human body now, we can start on the path to Buddhahood;
this is an opportunity to be seized.
These foundations are called the four
ways of turning the mind, turning it away from samsara. Without these meditations,
one's refuge is incomplete. One needs to clearly understand the nature of samsara
and then firmly orient oneself toward enlightenment; in this way one draws near
the path.
Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen, from 'Garland of Mahamudra Practices'
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The purpose of reflection on death is to make a real change
in the depths of our hearts. Often this will require a period of retreat and
deep contemplation, because only that can truly open our eyes to what we are
doing with our lives.
Contemplation on death will bring you a deepening sense of what we call “renunciation,”
in Tibetan ngé jung. Ngé means “actually” or “definitely,” and jung to “come
out,” “emerge” or “be born.” The fruit of frequent and deep reflection on death
will be that you will find yourself emerging, often with a sense of disgust,
from your habitual patterns. You will find yourself increasingly ready to let
go of them, and in the end you will be able to free yourself from them as smoothly,
the masters say, “as drawing a hair from a slab of butter.”
Renunciation has both sadness and joy in it: sadness because
you realize the futility of your old ways, and joy because of the greater vision
that begins to unfold when you are able to let go of them. This is no ordinary
joy. It is a joy that gives birth to a new and profound strength, a confidence,
an abiding inspiration that comes from the realization that you are not condemned
to your habits, that you can indeed emerge from them, that you can change, and
grow more and more free.
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Right now many of us wish for liberation, yet sometimes we cannot keep ourselves
from creating the causes for cyclic existence. When we understand true suffering
well, our wish for liberation will become firm. At present our resolve to reach
liberation is not firm because we think of suffering, but not deeply. The deluded
attitude believing that the unsatisfactoriness of change is true happiness easily
arises in us because we are not yet deeply convinced that all happiness in cyclic
existence is contaminated and is in fact only a variety of suffering. To remedy
this, we should meditate on true suffering more often and explore its meaning
deeply. Then our wish for liberation will become firm.
We consider many things--clothes, food, good health, nice possessions, financial
security, the higher rebirths--as true happiness. As a result, we are attached
to them and create more causes for suffering in cyclic existence in order to
gain them. Thinking that the human birth is something marvelous, we work at
creating the causes that propel us toward it. In fact all we are doing is creating
the cause for yet another rebirth in cyclic existence, together with all the
problems that such a rebirth involves.
If we understand that by its nature, cyclic existence is unsatisfactory, we
will have a deep aversion to it. If we do not have a deep aversion to it, we
will not be determined to be free, and therefore will not be able to destroy
our self-grasping ignorance, which is the root of cyclic existence. In that
case, we will not be able to attain liberation. However, when we deeply feel
the extent to which we suffer in cyclic existence, we will automatically want
to abandon the true origin of suffering, attain the true cessation, and meditate
on the true path. Having realized true suffering, we will easily realize the
other three of the four noble truths. Thus it is said: suffering is to be known.
The origin is to be abandoned. The cessation is to be attained. The path is
to be practiced. The determination to be free is the wish for ourselves to be
free of cyclic existence. When we wish others to be free, that is compassion.
Geshe Jampa Tegchok from Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of the Thirty-seven
Practices of Bodhisattvas
It is not just a matter of giving up attachment to this life's
rewards but of losing our taste and affinity for the whole of worldly existence.
This is why it is necessary to contemplate and meditate upon the faults of conditioned
existence. Otherwise, we may imagine that samsara possesses any manner of attractive
qualities. Pondering the shortcomings of samsara should bring forth in us a
tangible sense of disgust, as we are confronted with our own misguided pursuit
of worldly ends.
From Parting from the Four Attachments: Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen's Song of
Experience on Mind Training and the View by Chogye Trichen Rinpoche
In short, the impermanence and death will come soon. Now is the time to give up this life. Due to the compassion of the Guru and my own virtue, may I be able to give up the work of this life.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Last
updated:
November 16, 2011
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