What we actually have is only the concept of renunciation—what may be called conceptual renunciation. If we stay at the level of concepts for too long, without giving rise to genuine renunciation, then gradually the thought will arise that “studying Buddhism is useless.”
What does it mean to “feel that studying Buddhism is useless”? It means that a person knows many concepts, yet still suffers greatly;Studying Buddhism seems not to have counteracted afflictions at all. In reality, although you may have studied Buddhism, these teachings have not been actualized or saturated with your mental continuum.
Many people who study Buddhism remain full of sorrow, pain, and anxiety. If you examine yourself deeply, down to the core, most of this is because there is no renunciation. Many people blame their Guru for not giving pith instructions or methods, but in fact, the Guru has already given everything. All the pith instructions and methods are already there— Luminous Wisdom, The Words of My Perfect Teacher, and A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life—they have all been fully given.
We must take these concepts and knowledge, contemplating and habituating to them over and over again. Only then can genuine, non-conceptual renunciation be accomplished. When genuine renunciation finally arises, the aspiration and longing for liberation will become the dominant force within your mental continuum, and everything else can be regarded as negligible.
In fact, we can observe ourselves. Suppose I lose three hundred yuan.If that is all I have lost, I will feel very troubled and distressed over those three hundred yuan: “Oh no—three hundred yuan! I accidentally lost it today.” But if suddenly someone tells you, “You had a wallet, and sixty thousand yuan inside it is gone!” then those three hundred yuan immediately become a trivial matter. At once, you start worrying about the sixty thousand: “Forget the three hundred—just don’t lose the sixty thousand!”
This is because sixty thousand is far greater than three hundred, and your mind clings much more strongly to the sixty thousand. When our aspiration for liberation is so strong that it represents the “sixty thousand”—then all the other worries are just the “three hundred,” and we naturally let them go. But right now, it is not like that. Currently, all kinds of aspirations and attachments in our daily lives are the sixty thousand, while liberation is only three hundred. When the sixty thousand appears, we naturally abandon the three hundred. If we observe ourselves carefully, isn’t this exactly how we are? In fact, very often, this is precisely the case.
—Excerpted and adapted from Conceptual Renunciation and Genuine Renunciation
This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.
