Renunciation by Lama Yeshe
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
Dear student and friends,
I wanted to share this article about Renunciation by Lama Yeshe with all of you as it is so well explained. One can hugely benefit from reading and contemplating on teachings such as those below…
As Lama Yeshe says, renunciation does not mean that you throw away all of your nice things and then you’re renounced!! Instead, he emphasizes that it is, essentially, to not have the grasping need and the attachment for such “pleasures”.
No true Dharma can ever arise without true insight into renunciation. Therefore true Dharma practice only starts from having unwavering renunciation.
When I was very young, I use to wish when I grow up I can be like a Lama Yeshe. I love his style, his humour, his wrath, his love, his expressions, his bodhicitta. I love Lama Yeshe. I met him just once and it was impactual.
May everyone be well always,
Tsem Rinpoche
Renunciation
Renunciation is a tricky word. In the Western world it has a connotation that makes us scared of losing our pleasure. I want you to understand that to be renounced, you don’t have to throw away all your nice belongings. That isn’t the meaning of renunciation. That isn’t only the business of monks and nuns. Anyone who is seeking liberation or enlightenment should have renunciation of samsara.
What binds us to samsara? What makes us unhappy? Our lack of renunciation. We are unhappy because we crave and grasp sensory samsaric objects. We are seeking to solve our problems, but we are not looking for the solution in the right place. The right place is where we loosen our own grasping.
It is good to know the point of reducing our grasping. The main point is that our grasping desire does not bring us satisfaction, but instead leads to more dissatisfaction. If we have enough wisdom, however, we can utilize the objects of the five senses, to some extent, and not have a negative reaction. As human beings, we are capable of judging for ourselves how far we can go into the experience of sensory pleasure without getting caught in it.
For example, many French people like to drink wine. The Buddhist scriptures forbid alcohol completely but not because it is believed that wine is bad. In fact, wine is beautiful, especially red wine, which has a fantastic color. However, because we are only beginners on that path to liberation, it is easy for us to get caught up in negative energy. For that reason, and not because wine itself is bad, it is prohibited.
The extreme grasping mind overestimates objects through projections that have nothing to do with reality. Buddhism is not saying that there is no objective beauty. There is beauty, but it is only conventional or, in other words, relative. The craving mind however, projects something beyond the relative level, which has nothing to do with the object. That is the hallucination. Without intensive observation and without perceptive wisdom, you cannot discover this. For that reason, Buddhism recommends meditation.
If we take our own daily lives as an example, we can see that we are caught up in small pleasures; we develop tremendous hang-ups and grasping about things of such little value. We think that we should always have the best, that we should always have perfect pleasure. This grasping attitude is useless and should be abandoned. We should actualize a meaningful, liberated life.
We are capable of examining our own mind in everyday life and comprehending which thoughts bring problems and are not worthwhile. This is the method of meditation. We can then correct our attitudes and actions. We don’t have to think, “My attitudes and actions are due to my previous karma. I can’t do anything about them.” This is a misunderstanding of karma. Don’t think that you are powerless. You do have power. Human beings do have the power to change their life-style, to change their attitudes and their habits. You can call that capacity Buddha-potential, God-potential or whatever you like.
Bodhicitta
Bodhicitta is extremely precious, like a diamond mine. In order to have space for it you have first to equalize your feelings towards all universal living beings. You need to generate a deep, sincere feeling of equanimity from the bottom of your heart. Without extending this feeling of equanimity to all living beings, it is not possible to say that you want to dedicate your life to others.
When you understand your own disastrous situation, with your problems of egotism, craving, desire, anger, and so forth, you see yourself as an object of compassion. You then remember that you are not the only one in this situation. In society, some people are high class, some are middle class and others are low class; but everybody is the same as you in wanting happiness and not wanting to be miserable.
Consider your relationship to friends, enemies and strangers. Your craving overestimation of one person, your hatred of another and your ignorant indifference to yet another, come from your own three poisonous minds of desire, hatred and ignorance. They are objects of your own mind. They do not exist externally. Like renunciation, equanimity has to do with inner experience.
In your daily life, you should practice equanimity as much as you can be trying not to have enemies and not to have exaggerated grasping towards people. In the space of equanimity, you can then nurture your bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is an extremely high realization that is the complete opposite of the self-cherishing attitude. Self-cherishing thought is like a sword you put through your heart; bodhicitta is like medicine. Once you begin to open your heart to others, you gain tremendous peace, tremendous pleasure, and inexhaustible energy. When you work for yourself, you are in the iron grip of ego.
What really matters is your attitude. The dedicated attitude of opening your heart to all universal living beings brings relaxation. In our lives, we don’t have time for meditation, and even when we try to meditate, our minds are sluggish. However, I really believe that making a strong determination that today, and for the rest of your life, you will dedicate yourself to others as much as possible is very powerful. In my opinion, this Bodhicitta attitude is much more powerful and much more practical in the Western environment than doing meditations in which you squeeze yourself.
The Wisdom of Shunyata
From the Buddhist point of view, having renunciation of samsara and the loving kindness of bodhicitta alone are not enough to cut the root of ego and of the dualistic mind. Practicing bodhicitta eliminates gross attachment and craving desire, but not its human problems
All of us practice loving kindness to some extent, but often it is mixed with fanatical love. This is due to a lack of penetrating wisdom, which goes beyond relative projections. You can see that even religious actions done with a motivation lacking in penetrating wisdom become mundane actions. Western religions seem to place tremendous emphasis on love and compassion, but not so much emphasis on wisdom. However, when I was with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Spain, His Holiness visited a monastery and met a Christian monk who had vowed to spend his life in an isolated place. His Holiness asked him how he felt when he experienced signs of good or bad things coming to him. The monk answered, “In my world, good is not necessarily too good, bad is not necessarily too bad.” I was astonished. When good things happen, you should think, “Okay All right.” When bad things happen, you should also think, “Okay All right.” We somehow have to be reasonable, instead of rolling with the good and bad in an emotional river. Our emotional river, our emotional reactions come from holding onto concrete pleasure and concrete pain. Worldly pleasure is transitory and knowing its conventional, transitory nature frees us. A Buddhist with some understanding of shunyata has a similar experience to that Christian monk through seeing that good and bad are relative, not absolute, and exist only for the conventional mind. It is characteristic of ego to project a fantasy notion of self and also others. Your image of yourself is a projection of your ego. Close your eyes and check this right now. Just ask yourself the simple question. “What is my image of myself?” It helps you to break down the gross concept of ego and banish your self-pitying imagination. You can then go beyond fear. Philosophically of course, we have thousands of analyses relating to the notion of self-existent I. But I am talking about practical, simple things we can do every day without needing to think about Buddhist terminology. Simply ask yourself how you interpret yourself Every time you ask yourself this kind of question, you get a different answer, because sometimes you are emanating as a chicken, sometimes as a pig, at other times as a monkey. You then simply laugh at yourself “lncredible! Fancy thinking I am a pig!” You will then be closer to shunyata because you will see that your projections are fantasies. You will experience selflessness to some extent because you will lose the sense of trust in your own ego. It will become less concrete. Our entire life is built up on the basis of dualistic concepts. Now, what does dualistic mind actually mean? When two contradictory views are always in the mind we call it dualistic mind. To put it simply when we wake up from sleep, as long as the dualistic mind is functioning, you will always experience some kind of irritation and never be able to reach the ultimate state of peace. One- pointed concentration is very useful because it cuts the gross dualistic mind. Recognizing and contemplating our own mind is especially powerful in eliminating dualistic concepts, which is why the Tibetan traditions of mahamudra, or dzog-chen meditation are taught. The purpose of meditation is to stop the irritating concepts of the dualistic mind.
* Excerpt from a talk given in France at Institute VajraYogini in October 1982 during a European tour by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
Thank you Rinpoche and all those responsible for this amazing blog and forum. Nowhere else will you find such dedication to the Buddha Dharma. Grateful for the teachings of H.E. Kyabje Tsem Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe , treasuring them as being highly impactful and most helpful in finding happiness in this short life, may others benefit from your efforts, as I surely have. Thank you for sharing. Be well friends.
In Buddhism, the word renunciation is conveying more specifically giving up the world and leading a holy life. Letting go our materialistic craving and desires that bind us to suffering and attachment. Attitude is more important than the past, choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude. Have no regrets in life because of the choices we make. Good or bad, they are a learning experience, to help us grow. The only regret in life, is to never make a choice at all. Whatever mistakes , attitudes and actions should be corrected and have our mind transformed, learning and practicing dharma is the best choice. Practice letting go helps us to cultivate the mental calmness and evenness of temper that are at the heart of equanimity. We have to accept the reality of change and transforming our mind to give rise to equanimity. Learning not to be attached and allow the flow of life to guide us wherever it is supposed to and accept with equanimity, with balance, with poise, whatever happens.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Something to share as I am getting older. I am a old student of Lama Yeshe and I wish to remain anonymous. I am older now. Lama Yeshe would do Dorje Shugden puja often. If he was alive, he would not have been browbeaten into giving up Dorje Shugden’s practice. After Lama Zopa and FPMT was forced to ‘give’ up this precious practice, I stopped going to FPMT. I never received any teachings from H.H. the Dalai Lama and he is not my guru. Lama Yeshe was my guru. We received this Dorje Shugden practice from Trijang Rinpoche at the urging of Lama Yeshe. FPMT should not have abandoned Dorje Shugden’s practice. How can they abandon the practice of Lama Yeshe who founded FPMT. Lama Yeshe relied on Dorje Shugden fully. It is rumored that Lama Yeshe’s incarnation (Lama Osel) cannot manifest being a successful teacher in this life as FPMT broke their commitment practice to Dorje Shugden as promised to Trijang Rinpoche. This heavy karma of breaking commitment becomes FPMT’s obstacle that Lama Yeshe’s incarnation cannot manifest as a teacher. Too bad. Dorje Shugden cannot punish anyone, but students promised Trijang Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe to do this practice, and the karma of breaking a promise of the guru is what counts and returns as obstacles. In all teachings we consider Trijang Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe as living Buddhas. When getting tantric practice/initiation from them, they are the living Buddhas of the mandala we are being initiated into so they cannot be seen as mistaken in giving Dorje Shugden’s practice. How can we view them as mistaken. If they can be mistaken in giving Dorje Shugden practice to students, then Dalai Lama can be mistaken in banning the practice. If one guru can make mistakes then all gurus including Dalai Lama can make mistakes. Just because Dalai Lama is high ranking does not mean he cannot make mistakes. Dalai Lama listens to Nechung via the oracle to ban the practice. Nechung told Dalai Lama to stop the practice. Nechung is a spirit. Dalai Lama should listen to his guru Trijang Rinpoche to practice Dorje Dorje Shugden and not to a spirit to give up the practice. How can a spirit override the instructions of one’s guru? Nechung never teaches dharma and Trijang Rinpoche taught dharma his whole life to Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama should listen to his teacher and not the spirit Nechung.
I have been following Tsem Rinpoche’s blog for a few years now. I have not read or heard (videos) anything Tsem Rinpoche says that criticizes the Dalai Lama or says anything negative against the Dalai Lama. This is amazing practice. He does his guru proud. Tsem Rinpoche is steadfast in his practice of Shugden because he is keeping his commitment to his guru just as we are taught. Just for this he is criticized and ostracized. That is too bad. Tsem Rinpoche is simply following the rules of Tantric Buddhist practice which is to keep his commitment to his guru and that is why I understand he is doing the Dorje Shugden practice. I commend Tsem Rinpoche for keeping his guru devotion so strong. Tsem Rinpoche is brave in the face of segregation, hatred and ostracizing against him to keep his commitment to his guru so steadfast. I admire this and respect Tsem Rinpoche very much for this. It’s rare to find a Buddhist practitioner who practices not for political correctness but for gaining enlightenment.
Tsem Rinpoche was very close to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. But he was not allowed to see Lama Zopa anymore simply because he did not give up his commitment to his guru Zong Rinpoche to practice Shugden. Tsem Rinpoche has been very respectful of Lama Zopa always and yet he is not allowed to see Lama Zopa only for this reason I was told by other ex-FPMT members. That is wrong. Lama Zopa would in the past call by telephone when he was in the Asia region to Tsem Rinpoche or email Tsem Rinpoche to contact him to meet up whenever Lama Zopa was in Singapore or Malaysia. Now Lama Zopa stopped seeing Tsem Rinpoche only because Tsem Rinpoche chooses to follow his guru’s instruction to practice Dorje Shugden. What is the world coming to? Lama Zopa should embrace Tsem Rinpoche and respect him very much. Tsem Rinpoche did nothing wrong.
The good thing is Tsem Rinpoche is peaceful, calm and patient. He never criticizes Dalai Lama or anyone else that attacks him for his practice. He continues his practice and he is brave to continue and openly. Very honest and admirable.
The many wonderful articles in this blogsite inspired me to speak up about FPMT and their unfair discrimination against Dorje Shugden. Many Dorje Shugden lamas and people made pujas, donations (molney/materials/time) and teachings in FPMT to get it to where it is today. All these things should be returned. Don’t reject Dorje Shugden people but keep their gifts and donations.
I hope Tsem Rinpoche lives very long,
Ex-member of FPMT
(Photos Lama Yeshe and Zong Rinpoche. Tsem Rinpoche with Lama Zopa in happier times prior to the ban against Dorje Shugden. I found these photos on the internet.)
When we are unhappy and suffering, we should know that it is due to our mind grasping on happiness and pleasure. We need to have the wisdom to understand grasping attitude only creates more problems and dissatisfaction. It is like we love food and we indulge ourselves with all sort of wonderful cuisine. We are happy with that, on the other hand we are gaining weight and suffer from health problem
We have to believe that we are able to overcome our attachments to pleasure by practicing renunciation. This is the basic practice on the path to liberation.
Often when we heard about renunciation, it is a heavy word that related to giving up, letting go or scarifying something. In Buddhism, it is not about abandon our family, friends, home, job and things that we like. Renunciation is about practicing our mind to stop craving and grasping onto sensory samsaric pleasure. We still can enjoy while remain detached.
.
A very profound teachings of renunciation by Lama Yeshe. There is so much to learn and understand. I will my best to understand .Renunciation is the determination to be free from not only some form of suffering, but also from its causes. Real renunciation is not a matter of compelling ourselves to give up all nice things but to have renunciation of samsara. It is a wide and huge way for us to think . We need to understand how to renounce current situations and how to overcome the mental pressure on ourselves .
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these profound teachings .
Dear Rinpoche,
From what I have understood from these few years, I think that, ultimately we must have that Bodhicitta as a basis for one’s practice. Simply by understanding and realising Shunyata, one will not actually move further when one found out that actually nothing matters (in my opinion). Shunyata is very important, so that we will not create further karma but Bodhicitta is the one that will push us to be firm in our practice as we cannot stand having the thought where many are still sufferings like us. Many still need guidance. Bodhicitta is such a big word, but like Lama Yeshe has put it, we should practice equanimity as much as we can.
Then, as we know, any structure which are strong and rigid depends on triangle. This is where renunciation, the third important element comes into picture. We should try to reduce our grasping mind more and more. However, sometimes being a lay Buddhist, I think I grasped more, thinking that I have found Dharma, has a Guru who is superb or powerful, who can protect me always and where pursuing BuddhaDharma is the only and ultimate source of happiness without respecting other existing religions and their teaching. With these in mind, it actually binds me more towards samsara. I hope I have understand the article above correctly Rinpoche.
Thank you Rinpoche
So fortunate to chance upon this teaching of Lama Yeshe shared by His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche on the Three Principal Paths – renunciation, Bodhicittan and wisdom of Shunyata. Doing the exact opposite is what keeps us in samsara for ever and ever. Lama Yeshe’s teaching in lay, simple language resonates with my unlearned mind, making these Dharma easier to understand. Our grasping attitude is useless and should be abandoned. We should actualize a meaningful, liberated life. And at the same time debunk the dualistic concepts and develop Shunyata. Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting this well explained article by Lama Yeshe.
During my first vist to a monastery in Jan 2013, one of my most memorable conversation was when we visited a simple old monk in his quarter to offer some vitamins and supplements. The old monk told the group us a phrase that really hit me right on at that time and I still remember it very clearly. He said “Without renunciation there is no dharma”.
I was then a 6 months old Buddhist who didn’t read much and know very little about Buddha’s teachings. But that phrase kept repeating itself in my head. When I heard it I was like “Wow! Okay so does that mean I haven’t really begun doing any dharma yet….”. Then it kind of progressed to “Okay so I think I understand where I need to start. There is without a doubt I have to become a nun.” The nun part actually wasn’t new, I have thoughts of becoming a nun from almost the first day I came to Kechara.
Anyhow in my overexcitement and ignorance of not truly understanding what renunciation meant, I shared with a few people and not all the responses were great. Some thought I was over enthusiastic or that I took the words too literally. I wasn’t discouraged because I really thought it made sense that unless there is renunciation there is no dharma.
Of course knowing something and doing it is entirely two different thing. I was actually thinking about this phrase tonight so I googled it and guess what?! I should not be surprised that the google search brought me to THE HOLY ONLINE TEMPLE of Tsem Rinpoche.
For me no matter how simplistically the dharma is explained and related to our daily lives (I do appreciate the easy to understand version of course), the path to enlightenment is still long and hard, however it is not elusive and it is within our capability as explained by Lama Yeshe. Because we have no true wisdom to discern between truth and illusion, renunciation is essential.
I know I would need to come back and read this article again and again as there is a lot to comprehend, digest and contemplate here.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this teaching of real renunciation by Lama Yeshe with us. It is similar to what Rinpoche has taught us as well… true renunciation is letting go of the “I”, the self, and focusing out instead of within. Lama Yeshe’s teachings reminds me of the teaching Rinpoche just recently gave about fantasies and realities… the advised is similar and it refreshed my memory of Rinpoche’s teachings and gave me a chance to recall, contemplate further. As adviced below from Lama Yeshe…
“Self-cherishing thought is like a sword you put through your heart; bodhicitta is like medicine. Once you begin to open your heart to others, you gain tremendous peace, tremendous pleasure, and inexhaustible energy. When you work for yourself, you are in the iron grip of ego.”
“What really matters is your attitude. The dedicated attitude of opening your heart to all universal living beings brings relaxation.”
“What is my image of myself?” sometimes you are emanating as a chicken, sometimes as a pig, at other times as a monkey. You then simply laugh at yourself “lncredible!
You will then be closer to shunyata because you will see that your projections are fantasies. You will experience selflessness to some extent because you will lose the sense of trust in your own ego.
I felt like my head exploded, reading these short passages! Lama Yeshe crystallised the core of the Three Principal Paths in such an easy to read way but yet so extremely profound! I must read it over and over and over again to internalise these truths. Everyone simply MUST read this…
Thank you so much for sharing this.
To many people, including myself, thought that renunciation is about giving up everything nice in our lives including family and wealth. Hence renunciation is a very big word to me. Only for monks and nuns. Is not possible for lay people like me to practice.
We constantly chasing for something that we like. Sometimes we get it, Sometimes we don’t. We became disappointed and unhappy. We want to know why, but we are not looking for the right solution. When we grasp on something, we normally see this object beyond the true value. We spend and do anything to get it.
We started to believe it’s because of our karma and we cannot change it. We do have the capability to change our attitude, habits and life style. The right solution is letting go what you have been grasping on. This is call renunciation.
When I first listened to Lama Yeshe’s recording on the above subject matters, time passed quickly and he went about it in such a jovial and casual manner, joking along the way. It was even entertaining. It was only later, and even more recently on reading this post that I realized that the subject matters he was speaking about are crucial to one’s practice.
Je Tsongkhapa did many great feats and one of them was how he amalgamated all of the elements in the Buddha’s Teachings into 14 stanzas in his poem “The Principal Paths” – the three paths referring to Renunciation, Bodhicitta, and correct view of Shunyata.
What we have here is a highly accomplished Lama delivering the key foundations of the Practice in such a simple and practical manner. It is awesome although it should not already be a surprising thing.
For me what hit home was Lama Yeshe saying that if we have suffered before, then we should be able to identify with other people’s suffering. We are familiar with the pain they feel. And if we allow ourselves to be objects of our own compassion i.e. be kind to ourselves (although not too much as Tsem Rinpoche cautioned in his various recordings) then we can extend that kindness to others as well. I must always remember that the tremendous hurt and pain that I have experienced in my life IS what everyone is experiencing. So how can I bring myself to give them even more grief?
And by the same token, now that I have found some relief from my “sufferings” and “pain” it would be good if I were to share this great antidote with them.
In an instant, the understanding of my sufferings from my own afflicted emotions becomes the basis for growth of my bodhichitta.
There is so much to learn from this post. Thank you Rinpoche for bringing it to us again.
Thank you for reminding me my attachment. anger, etc comes from my dualistic mind.
thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article!! I love it!
I still feel the playfulness of Lama Yeshe just reading his words. Looking at his face and reading his words its almost like he is still here on earth despite the previous Lama Yeshe had already taken a new rebirth. I do hope I will be able to hear the current Lama Yeshe take up the reins of sharing dharma again soon!
What I need to do is to learn to not hold on to projections and expectations because I get disappointed or unhappy when I do not get the result I wanted. This practice will help me to suffer less. It will not be easy but so will quantum physics to a child.
Renunciation, is the abandonment of our attachments to wordly pleasures, in order to attain permanent liberation from contaminated rebirth. The realisation of renunciation is therefore the gateway through which we can enter the spiritual path to liberation. Without renunciation, it is impossible even to enter the path to happiness, let alone progress along it! Renunciation is of course, not a wish to abandon our family, friends, home, job and so forth. It is the training of the mind that functions to stop attachments to worldly pleasures and seek liberation. The human life we now have, with all its sufferings and problems, offers us a great opportunity to improve our true renunciation and compassion. Thus we should not waste such precious opportunity, but put our strong effort and determination into practice as directed by Lama Yeshe in this Blog, to control our attachments and to solve all our daily problems to attain our Liberation Goal!!
Excellent Wisdom.May all Beings attain enlightenment.
Dear Rinpoche, thanks for sharing this precious teaching! I’m happy to know that you love Lama Yeshe too, because you and Lama Yeshe are the Lamas that can move my heart with any word, you both inspire me and, very important, you both definitely changed me and my life forever!
I wish you to get well soon from the depth of my heart!
Much love,
Sabina
Thank you Rinpoche. Will translate this for lamatsongkhapa.com
Valentina
Such profound teachings. Thank you Rinpoche for reminding us again…