If we do not possess genuine renunciation (nekkhamma), first of all, our daily life will be filled with many troubles. Both body and mind will experience much suffering, because we take too seriously many things that should, in fact, have been let go.
Secondly, lacking genuine renunciation will make your practice lacks ineffectiveness. Why is that? Because without real renunciation, you cannot truly commit yourself or remain focused in your practice. Your motivation will also be misguided. Very often, when we engage in practice, we are not genuinely seeking liberation (mokṣa); instead, we are chasing after some mysterious spiritual experiences or something subtle and esoteric. On a more obvious level, we may simply be seeking praise from others or a certain kind of psychological satisfaction. We are not sincerely aspiring to leave saṃsāra behind. Therefore, our motivation is fundamentally incorrect.
Furthermore, without genuine renunciation, your practice cannot be truly wholehearted or deeply focused. Your mind keeps lingering on attachments to worldly concerns (laukika-dharma), and as a result, you cannot devote yourself fully to cultivation. For example, while practicing, all kinds of trivial matters can disturb you. A single phone call can immediately pull you out of the meditation hall. Why? Because deep down, practice is not the most important thing to you. Other matters are the “sixty thousand dollars,” while practice is only “three hundred dollars”—something you treat as optional, something you do when it’s convenient and drop when it’s not.
This does not mean that once we study here, we must rigidly confine ourselves here. Rather, we must establish within our minds a deep rooted determination: liberation is the most important thing—it is the single most important matter in my entire life.
Of course, liberation ultimately includes both one’s own liberation and the liberation of others. The liberation of “others” involves bodhicitta(the aspiration to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings). But for now, we are only speaking about our own liberation. At the very least, we must establish such a strong inner determination. Only then will our practice be effective. Otherwise, even your so-called bodhicitta will be false, and you will not even come close to realizing emptiness (śūnyatā). Don’t believe it? Let’s make a bet. Try it and see!
If there is no renunciation , our body and mind will become completely entangled in worldly dharmas (laukika-dharma). Unknowingly, even our spiritual practice can turn into something we cling to. It becomes a weapon that reinforces our own saṃsāra, a form of arrogance: “Look, I understand the Buddha dharma—impressive, right?” What we fail to realize is this: even if the object of our attachment is the Buddha dharma itself, if we use it as a tool to nourish pride or jealousy, it will still bring us suffering and continued rebirth in saṃsāra.
Of course, although the ultimate aim of Dharma practice is non-attachment, at the very beginning we actually need a certain kind of attachment—correct attachment. Practice must be directed against our own ego: against grasping at self (ātma-grāha), grasping at what belongs to self, and self-cherishing attachment. The Dharma is meant to dismantle these tendencies. But if instead we use it to arm self-cherishing, to strengthen self-grasping, then even the Buddha dharma will lead us deeper into saṃsāra—sometimes in an even more devastating way. Therefore, this is something everyone must pay very close attention to.
—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.
