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Renunciation Wed, 7/29 1:55PM • 44:09 2004-12-06 The Paramis: Renunciation Wed, 7/29 1:55PM • 44:09 SUMMARY KEYWORDS renunciation, people, renouncing, precepts, clinging, letting, impulse, life, joy, art, person, sexual desire, confining, called, peace, happiness, attachment, adorning, practice, qualities SPEAKERS Gil Fronsdal Evening I'd like to take a topic that is sometimes considered quite unpopular. To hear about, and see if I can make it a popular is the right word but certainly more attractive rather than unattractive. And, in some of it has to do with perhaps a mis translation into English of a Pali word. And the topic, today's a once a month, I teach a Friday day long retreats, which I did last Friday on the perfections there's 10 perfections 10 qualities that have character that get cultivated and developed that are really very helpful for the contemplative life for doing living a spiritual life or engaging in meditation practice. And some people will actually cultivate and develop these qualities so that when they sit down the cushion to meditate, there's strength of character that comes along and makes it easier to stay present and get concentrated. And these things are things like strong sense of quality of generosity, generous heart, a strong feeling of integrity. And then the topic of today, and then strong ability of applying oneself, of getting energy, strong ability of wisdom, having a strong sense of wisdom or insight, understanding what you're doing. And then there's patience. And there's honesty or truth telling, being very knowing the truth. There is determination. A person has strong sense of inner determination, a will, in western terms often can make much more progress in meditation than someone who doesn't have much determination or will resolve And then equanimity, and loving kindness. So those are 10 qualities that are said to enhance and support the spiritual life, the tempo of life. You're welcome to ignore those if you'd like. Or you could take them as something to be cultivated. in daily life, they're often considered daily life practices to some degree. And as we apply and develop these qualities areas of our life, then that'll return feedback and support submit efficient practice. So today's topic is the third one, the one I haven't translated for you yet. And the Pali word is nekkhamma, neck, neck neck here, and then comma, neck comma. And the question is, what does that term mean? It's usually translated into English as renunciation. Now you understand why It's unpopular topic. And renunciation for some people has very frightening associations that word. Some people come from certain religious heritage, where renunciation was a really important part of the particular religion they were part of, and it was really ugly. What that entailed? So recently, I watched a video movie called The Bernadette sisters. Have you seen that one? There was called Magdalena. Yeah, the Magdalena sisters, and that frighten me. And there was a lot of renunciation there. And the idea of, you know, renouncing a lot of things that maybe people should never renounce, renouncing our sense of self determination, or our belief, choose for sales or know for ourselves, what's wise and what's not renouncing renouncing as a kind of penance, renouncing as a kind of second kind of a kind of a diminishes us and cuts us off and shuts off parts of who we are. And maybe some of you have come out of religious traditions where renunciation was considered a very important part of the tradition to some degree. And it was really not such a pleasant experience, the way he was treated, was looked at. So I can certainly understand that people hear the word renunciation, some people, their guard goes up very quickly. But maybe the word nekkhamma should not be translated as meditation. Afterward, after all, the Buddha didn't speak This transcript is machine generated and may contain errors Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License audiodharma.org 1 English. The word and that comma that is made up of two parts and the name part. prefix means in this context means out. Outwardly, out and, and come, they come by here. Has the meaning of to walk or to go. So to walk out, or to go out, some people translated it as to come out. So to go out to come out some people translate is going forth and is a synonym for it's one of the words used for someone who becomes a Buddhist monastic. They go forth we usually think go forth into the monastic life, but also the meaning is, they go out of the household life, they come out of the life of the home. Now, one of the understandings of going out in this tradition are going forth, is you're going forth into vast clear open space. So if you can imagine yourself in a small cabin, in there's really heavy rainy season or snow or something Blizzard, and you're with you know, a full collection of all your relatives. And, or somebody like that, I don't know. And you know, it's wonderful. The first day, the second day, the third day, the first week, the second week. But after a while, you get cabin fever, you're on top of each other. And there's really this cabin fever. And then finally, this storm clears, you can go outside. And you can go out into the open space with blue sky. And it feels like it's a great relief and is great ease and peace and openness and relaxation that happens as you go forth, you come out of that, that we're confined kind of situation. So the word nekkhamma has this meaning of kind of this kind of meaning of going forth going forth into open space, or coming out of a place that's confined or constricted. So it's going from a situation that's confining to a situation of more this more free, that's free. That's kind of so I don't know if communication is the right translation for this. But maybe it's the closest English because there is an aspect of letting go Something so for a monastic, they're letting go of what's what they call in Buddhism, the household way, the way of living domestically so being in sexual relationships, intimate relationships, living with children and houses and mortgages and you know, all those things and I know that someone else find this very delightful not to have these things around. You know, sometimes it can feel very confining. Sometimes at my house around, tend to have dinner at five o'clock, tend to five. You know why? You know, in the dinners, you know, the thing to do is make dinner ahead of time really well in advance so that, you know, you don't try to try and make dinner attend to five. It's just boy, and then we finally dinner's on the table when the kids have eaten Then, you know, relief. So I know I know Buddhist monastics who really find that just, maybe they came from that kind of situation or the understand life of working and working and working and working and working. And they just been such a relief not to have to deal with all the kind of things that many householders have to deal with. And they just delighted by that. One story, which I told it is a general, it was a Buddhist monk was being given a tour of some financial district, United States. His person was explained to the American financial system. He's originally from England, so and his tour guide said, it's one point, you're wealthier than most people in United States. And he said, What do you mean I'm a renunciant. I don't have any money. I'm not allowed to have money money. You given up all you know, having money. And so what does it mean I'm richer? And he said, the guide said most people in America are in debt. You don't have any debt, either. So, kinda it's kind of a relief, I suppose. So someone else they certainly have to find certain delight in going forth out of what they consider to be more confining situation. And in the best senses of the monastic life, it's not an aversion to household life or life. But rather, it's an understanding of the benefits, the possibilities inherent in the life of simplicity that monastic lives. So you can engage much more full time and much more wholeheartedly in a spiritual practice. So going forth, one of the meanings is become a renunciant. But it has many other meanings. And it's not just about becoming a monk or nun. But in all the meetings in Buddhism, nekkhamma, is a positive movement of the mind. And it's very clearly stated this way, in Buddhist psychology, where they kind of analyze all the different functions of the mind how the mind works. And they say that nekkhamma is always a wholesome state of mind. Meaning that it's never as there's there's never any This transcript is machine generated and may contain errors Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License audiodharma.org 2 aversion, ill will, greed, fear, or ignorance or confusion or delusion, as part of the movement of nekkhamma of this going forth or this renunciation.
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