Liberating Words I - 
from the teachings of Lama Yeshe

On Renunciation

The reason we are unhappy is because we have extreme craving for sense objects, samsaric objects, and we grasp at them. We are seeking to solve our problems but we are not seeking in the right place. The right place is our own ego grasping; we have to loosen that tightness, that's all. 

The meaning of monks and nuns renouncing the world is that they have less craving for and grasping at sense objects. But you cannot say that they have already given up samsara, because monks and nuns still have stomachs!  You can say that monks and nuns renounce their stomachs, but that doesn't necessarily mean they actually throw their stomachs away. 

So, I want you to understand that renouncing sensory pleasure doesn't mean throwing nice things away. Even if you do, it doesn't mean you have renounced them. Renunciation is a totally inner experience. Renunciation of samsara does not mean you throw samsara away because your body and your nose are samsara. How can you throw your nose away? Your mind and body are samsara --well, at least mine are. So I cannot throw them away. Therefore, renunciation means less craving; it means being more reasonable instead of putting too much psychological pressure on yourself and acting crazy. 

The important point for us to know, then, is that we should have less grasping at sense pleasures, because most of the time our grasping at and craving desire for worldly pleasure does not give us satisfaction. That is the main point. It leads to more dissatisfaction and to psychologically crazier reactions. That is the main point. 

If you check your own life, your own daily experiences, you will see that you are caught up in small pleasures-we [Buddhists] consider such grasping to be a tremendous hang-up and not of much value. 

However, the Western way of thinking-"I should have the best; the biggest"-is similar to our Buddhist attitude that we should have the best, most lasting, perfect pleasure rather than spending our lives fighting for the pleasure of a glass of wine.

The grasping attitude and useless actions have to be abandoned and things that make your life meaningful and liberated have to be actualized. 

The opposite of renunciation of samsara-to put what I'm saying another way-is the extreme mind that we have most of the time: the grasping, craving mind that gives us an overestimated projection of objects, which has nothing to with the reality of those objects. 

However, I want you to understand that Buddhism is not saying that objects have no beauty whatsoever. They do have beauty-a flower has a certain beauty, but that beauty is only conventional, or relative. The craving mind, however, projects onto an object something that is beyond the relative level, which has nothing to do with that object, that hypnotizes us. That mind is hallucinating, deluded and holding the wrong entity. 

I want you to understand that this is due to a lack of wisdom - your not having the penetrative wisdom to go beyond your relative projection.

You should practice equilibrium in your daily life as much as you can. Try to have neither enemies nor objects of tremendous, exaggerated grasping. In this way, in the space of your equilibrium, you can grow bodhicitta-the attitude dedicated to all universal living beings. 

All worldly pleasures and bad experiences are so transitory-knowing their transitory nature, their relative nature, their conventional nature, makes you free. 
The characteristic of ego is to project such fantasy notions onto yourself and others-this is the main root of problems. You then react emotionally and hold as concrete your pleasure and your pain. 

From the Buddhist point of view, it is very difficult for a person to experience non-attachment; it's very difficult.

But it is very important to have the experience of non-attachment; it is very important for all of us. 

Now, I want you to understand what attachment means.  Attachment for something means that it's very difficult for us to separate from it. 

Let's look at this flower from the Buddhist point of view. My attachment for the flower is a symptom. It shows that I overestimate the value of the flower. I wish to become one with the flower and never separate from it for the rest of my life. You understand now? 

It is so difficult for me to let go of it. What do you think? Am I crazy? This craziness is attachment. But, non-attachment is flexible; it is a middle way, a reasonable way. Let go.  Do you understand? 

The psychology of attachment is over-estimation; it is an unrealistic attitude. That's why we are suffering.

All symptoms of attachment have to vanish for you to become a completely liberated human being. 

To some extent we should have an inner, deep, perhaps intellectual understanding, some discriminating wisdom, that the human need is not simply temporal pleasure. 

To some extent, we all have temporal pleasure, but what we really need is eternal peace. Having that highest of destinations is the way to be open. It eliminates the problems of everyday life-we don't get upset if someone doesn't give us some small thing. Normally we do. Our problem is expectation. We grasp at such small, unworthy things. That grasping mind is the problem; it produces the symptom of reacting again and again and again. 

What, then, is renunciation of samsara? Be careful now-it's not being obsessed with the objects of samsaric existence or with nirvana, either. 

Perhaps some people will think, "Now that I'm not concerned with pleasure, now that I'm renounced, I would like to have pain." That, too, is not renunciation of samsara. Renouncing the sense pleasures of the desire realm and looking for something else instead, grasping at the pleasures of the form or formless realms, is still the same old samsaric trip. 

The thing is that renunciation of samsara is the mind that deeply renounces, or is deeply detached from, all existent phenomena. 

In order for the human mind to be healthy, you should not have the neurotic symptom of grasping at any object whatsoever, be it pleasure or suffering. Then, relaxation will be there.

We should all have healthy minds by eliminating all objects that obsess the ego. All objects.

Tied by grasping at samsaric phenomena at the conception level, it is difficult for you to see the possibility of achieving a higher destination. You are trapped in your present limited situation and can see no way out of it. 

So, practically, renunciation means being easygoing-not too much sense pleasure and not so much freaking out. 

Perhaps it's better if I put it this way-you're easygoing with the eight worldly dharmas. I think you already know what they are. If you are easygoing with them, that's good enough.

If you hunger for sentimental temporal pleasure, it's not so good. You don't have a big mind. Your mind is very narrow. You should know that pleasure is transitory, impermanent, coming and going, coming and going …  When you have renunciation, you somehow lose your fanatical, expectations. Then your attitude is less neurotic, and you experience less suffering.  

For some reason, by having an ego, the tendency is always to be unbalanced, extreme. We have so many problems-individual, personal problems; they all come from the extreme mind. 

Our first order of business should be to investigate the extreme view of our ego mind. 

The minute your fanatical view and grasping start, the reaction of hatred has already arrived. They come together. I think you have experienced this; we do have experience. The minute something becomes special for you, breaks your heart, in that minute, the opposite mind of hatred has come. They are inter-dependent phenomena. 

My two extreme minds-desire, the overestimated view and grabbing, and hatred, the underestimated view and rejecting-conflict, destroying my own peace, happiness and loving kindness. In order to balance those two, I have to actualize equilibrium. 

Actually, you should pray not to have desirable objects of the fanatical view. You're better off without them. You should be reasonable. 

Balance is so important.