Striking at the Heart of Renunciation

One of the teachings Ajahn Chah emphasized most consistently was on the theme of uncertainty—that everything is not for sure. In a monastery, for instance, it’s common for the number of visitors to increase, like today, and then decrease; they’re here for a while, then they disappear. This creates a constant sense of circumstances being uncertain, always changing.

We tend to conceive of our practice and training as being under conditions over which we have some control. We can take this opportunity today to investigate and reflect upon how we deal with our practice when it becomes apparent that conditions are really not under our control…

When circumstances change in a way we like, we tend to get excited and happy; when they change in a way that we don’t like, we may get upset and irritable. In both cases, we’re being swayed by the circumstances around us, and that’s a shaky foundation on which to build our practice. So how can we stay present with what’s happening without getting lost in the changing circumstances?

The way to do that is through the quality of our attention—how we direct our attention, how clear we are, and how mindful we are. But mindfulness isn’t always going to be present. For this reason, establishing an internal quality of renunciation is quintessential for us as practitioners.

The rules and conditions that are part of living in a monastery create a framework of external renunciation, such as the giving up of material things. That framework is in place to support an internal quality of renunciation, which needs to be cultivated at all times. Internal renunciation means we’re not desperately holding on to circumstances, moods, and feelings. Giving up material things is not that difficult. When we give up our moods, views, opinions, and preferences, we are striking more at the heart of renunciation.

We learn to bring this quality of renunciation into our daily lives and interactions with others so that when circumstances change, we can let go and adapt to them…

This reflection by Luang Por Pasanno is from the book, Beginning Our Day, Volume One, (pdf) pp. 253-254.