Buddhist Hour
Script No. 441
Broadcast live on 3MDR
97.1FM
9 PM to 10 PM
On Friday 18 August 2006 CE 2550 Buddhist Era
This script is
entitled:
"Lifetimes of Learning "
Class 8 - Exploring
the Perfection of Renunciation
Tonight on the Buddhist Hour we
consider what we mean by renunciation, as our first step in examining the Perfection of Renunciation.
Let's begin this initial investigation with the statement 'Happiness depends on one's own mental attitude', written by Kodo Matsunami in his book Happiness in Your Hands. He observed:
"As a result of high economic growth, all kinds of material goods have become available everywhere in advanced countries. We can get almost anything we want to eat and obtain, so long as we have the money. However, it seems that being rich materially and becoming happy emotionally and psychologically are not directly related to each other."
He wrote that "being poor materially certainly drives some people to try to become so rich, but simply becoming rich does not necessarily mean that we can become happy."
"Our desire for possessions knows no limits. Since we are never satisfied with one thing, new wishes constantly appear in our minds. The time to say, "that's enough'" never comes. Such insatiable avarice will drive us all the more like a carriage horse. As the saying goes, "Snow and avarice forget the way as they pile up." In this way Kodo Matsunami notes, we become ill-mannered before we are even aware of it. By the time we have realised it, we are already in a tight corner."
If then, we take the premise that wanting more and more is not the way to go, that it takes us away from happiness rather than toward it what then must we do as its antidote.
Master Hsing Yun in 'A Life of Pluses and Minuses - between Ignorance and Enlightenment' states the problem and its solution with great eloquence: "This world is filled with temptations, and we need to resist them in order to grow."
If we accept the challenge then the question that now confronts us is how?
The practice we are looking at here and now is that of the Perfection of Renunciation. It is to renounce that which causes us so much strife.
According to the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary it is to: give up, to abandon, forsake, (to) discontinue (an action, habit, intention etc). It is also to abandon or reject a belief or opinion by open declaration.
It sounds a bit strange to say we practice giving up and we want to get really good at it. It does make sense however if you understand what it means when Buddha taught that craving is the root cause of all our suffering.
Renunciation deals with our deep attachment to people, things, experiences, thoughts, feelings and so forth. Normally, we think that happiness is caused by having the things we want, and that unhappiness is caused by not having the things we want. Basically, this is not the case.
It sounds very straightforward to say that following greed and choosing to accumulate every material thing that we think we want, and focusing our life on accumulating wealth and status, is no guarantee of being happy. Sure, as a layperson, to have is much better than to not have, but it's not something that is sure to make us happy; otherwise all the wealthy people would be happy and this isn't the case, even in Australia, which has one of the world's wealthiest societies. Our youth suicide rate is one of the highest in the world, so that measure of unhappiness indicates causes other than material wealth create real happiness.
Renunciation is about letting go. It is about not trying to grab hold of everything we want in order to absorb happiness from those things. You can't grab your way to happiness, it will never be truly satisfying. The pleasure of hearing a great new song fades off, the new clothes become old fashioned, your new car becomes outdated, your cutting-edge computer is soon too slow, and maybe even a past friend becomes a new enemy. The person you loved now seems to irritate you. These scenarios we all know too well. Getting what you want doesn't make you really happy. It looks like it will make you happy, but it is an illusion.
Our happiness will never have a secure base if it is tied to events and conditions which are outside our control.
Our real problem comes from our craving for these things, wanting, not wanting; this is the source of our suffering. The mind wanting or craving is running after things, the mind not wanting is rejecting and hating things. It just never stops. This method we are using to get happy causes us to be unhappy.
The development of renunciation brings us to this view; that our unhappiness is caused by our craving for this and that, and that to become happy we must train our mind to let go of this craving. The mind can only come to true peace through letting go.
With renunciation well developed you can really enjoy life. The difference is, although you can enjoy many aspects of the world, you understand the real nature of the world as being unreliable, impermanent and unsatisfactory. With this knowledge, you strive for a more reliable basis for your well being and happiness; you strive for the true peace of enlightenment.
There is a freedom and relief which comes along with renunciation. It is the relief of knowing you no longer need to follow a wrong view of how things really work in order to be happy. You can put down that burden of trying to make a flawed view do something it can never do.
If our old view of how happiness is produced did work we would be really happy all the time. But we're not really happy all the time. For example, how many hours in the last week can you say you were really happy? And how long did that happiness last? Why is it that the happiness doesn't last long?
Renunciation allows you the mental space for something much better than your old view. And what is better is wisdom.
Just as if you had a glass full of water there's no space left in it to poor more water. Likewise, without renunciation your mind has no space left for better understanding to come in. So with some space in your mind now please listen to an alternative view of how to build your happiness.
Wisdom knows that unwholesome mental states such as worry, regret, stinginess, ill will, doubt, physical or mental laziness, dullness of mind, sadness, greed, restlessness, attachment, conceit, aversion, lack of fear of unwholesomeness, lack of moral shame, boredom, jealousy, and envy are all producers of unhappiness now and in the future. If you harbour these mental states they are unhappiness drivers. Together they make an unhappiness producing platform, or a stress producing platform, or a confusion producing platform.
As the Buddha says in the Dhammapada, Chapter 1,
"Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief: they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of an ox." (Buddharakita).
We train our minds to stop the unwholesome minds arising now and in the future by applying restraint to them and dropping them. Give up the unwholesome minds, renounce them with volition. Recognise them clearly, then let go of them when they arise like they were a hot coal in your hand or a bitter taste in your mouth.
When you see yourself starting to get stuck on any unwholesome thoughts tell yourself to let it go. You actually say that as an instruction for your mind to follow. Tell the unwholesome mind to go away and never come back. It's not you, it's not a self or something precious or important; it's just one possible state that can arise if you let it. Because it produces unhappiness and clouds your view give it up. Develop renunciation of the unwholesome.
You can get quite good at dropping the unwholesome minds if you act quickly - cut them as soon as you first see them, before they become established in your mind. Better still, don't let them enter your mind in the first place. One of Buddha's instructions regarding this practice is to protect your mind like a well thatched roof keeps the rain out of a house. In the Buddha's time roofs of houses were often made from grasses or straw which was placed in a pattern called thatching. The Buddha advises us to protect our minds like a well thatched roof keeps the rain out of a house. You need to develop good mindfulness to do this.
You could also describe mindfulness as being like a guard that stands alert and sees what type of mental state arrives at the mind's door. Mindfulness stops the unwholesome entering mind in the first place. You don't have to remove unwholesome mental states because they never get in.
Wisdom also knows that the wholesome mental states are the true basis of happiness and well being.
The second part of the Dhammapada quote reads:
"Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief: they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow."
We train our minds to produce the wholesome mental states such as confidence, mindfulness, friendliness, generosity, kindness, alertness, fear of unwholesomeness, sense of moral shame, not chasing and grabbing the mental objects (disinterestedness), equanimity, lightness, composure of mind, adaptability, pliancy of mind, pliancy of mental states and loving kindness.
Training the mind to be wholesome is how a true platform for your happiness in this life is built, and, as they say in the commercials 'But wait, there's more!' According to Buddhism, the wholesome minds you build in this life cause you to have good rebirths in your future lives.
So now we've got to the bottom line of this series of Dhamma Classes which is - developing wholesome minds is a true foundation of your long term well being and happiness.
You're going to get old age, sickness and death this life - that's your body's inescapable future destination. However, it is possible to maintain your wholesome minds as you get older, it is possible to maintain bright, intelligent, happy minds even as your body wears out. Many people's minds deteriorate along with their body's deterioration because their minds are not trained to stay wholesome.
In Buddhism we are not just concerned about creating a happy life until the course of nature overruns us with inevitable old age and death. The Buddha's original quest was to overcome the sufferings of sickness, old age, dying and death themselves. That's what he determined to do. He studied under the greatest teachers of his age - and there were many great spiritual masters at that time in India - he perfected the training they prescribed to him. He knew how to have great happiness in the present life. But he left each teacher knowing he still had not found the way to overcome sickness, old age and death.
This is where we look beyond the development of renunciation and look at the Perfection of Renunciation. We understand that "samsara", the condition of having to be born over and over again and craving the pleasure contained therein, cannot offer true and lasting happiness. The Perfection of Renunciation is a turning away from indulging in and attachment to the pleasures of worldly existence.
T. Price writes:
"There is nothing ambiguous about this. The Buddha was well aware that much pleasure and happiness is to be found in the world as it is ordinarily experienced, but he insisted that these pleasures were transient and therefore relative and limited, and that true happiness is only to be found by renouncing what is worldly, transient, relative and limited, and seeking instead what is transcendental, unchanging, absolute and unlimited. This absolute state (if one can describe it so) is what is called Nirvana." (Price 1986)
So whether you are interested in the short term goal of becoming happier this life, or things of greater consequence such as reaching a good state of birth in your next life or finally, the end goal of Buddhism itself, which is to conquer all forms of suffering by becoming fully enlightened, whichever it is they all start out the same. You need to become really good at building, maintaining and strengthening the good mental states.
Here are a few starters to try out during the next week which can each help build and maintain your good states of mind. Some will be easier for you to do than others. You can do some of them maybe only once a day, but others you could do 50 or 100 times per day.
If something doesn't make sense to you don't do it. Buddhism is not something to be followed blindly. If you don't get something it is better to think "at the moment I don't understand that". You don't even reject it, you just move on to something that does make sense to you.
The main thing is you need to have determination and resolve that you intend to generate wholesome minds now and in the future. You say that to yourself. "I wish to build strong wholesome minds for the benefit of myself and others". And you decide: "From now on I abandon the unwholesome minds and I cultivate the wholesome minds". You can say this to yourself everyday to remind you what you're on about.
Then you will recollect there are many good things you can do to make your mind brighter, happier and clearer.
Take time out for a few minutes for a short walk in a beautiful garden and really enjoy your surroundings;
Sit and have a cup of tea with appreciation of your comfort, leisure time and the taste of the tea;
Be kind to your Mum;
Tell your unwholesome minds to go away forever;
Dedicate your merit to strengthening the wholesome minds that have arisen;
Recollect the five precepts in English quite frequently - every time you do it produces clean wholesome energy in your mind;
Learn to chant the five precepts in the Pali language and do it every day. It is more powerful than in English;
Do something kind for another person.
For one hour in every day put the needs of others first;
Send loving kindness to all beings - "May all beings be well and happy and free from suffering";
Instruct your mind to brighten;
Maintain mindfulness of your body where ever you are - if you are sitting be aware of your body's posture every second - this one is really important because it keeps your mental energy in touch and inside your body;
Offer drinks or food to others with the wish that it gives them strength, health, long life, beauty and wisdom;
If you are Buddhist one of the best things is to take Refuge in the Buddha many times a day. You can do it in Pali like we chant it here on the Buddhist Hour each Friday evening.
Chant the mantra of a Buddha or another great being such as "Om Mani Padme Hum" the mantra of Avalokitesvara, the emanation of Perfect Compassion;
Offer flowers or water to the Buddha - they can be the flowers you see as you drive along in your car. It can be the water in a lake, or rain or even water in the clouds;
Send gratitude to Buddha or some other great being;
Offer light to Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha - offer natural light during the day, cars headlights at night - light is light. The kammic result is light comes to your mind so you can become brighter and see things better.
You can turn the time your mind is normally idle or day dreaming, like sometimes when we are driving, into a valuable opportunity to maintain and strengthen your wholesome minds. This can be your homework for this week! Do an experiment for the week where you try out many things from this list every day till the next weeks Buddhist Hour.
It is not just that you're doing some new things to build wholesome minds, it's that you are finding out that you can live in a way where you look after your mind. It's the most important thing in your world to look after.
May you come to understand the practice of and Perfection of Renunciation.
May you be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
References
1. Carter A, Carter F, Sloman A. Lifetimes of Learning - Exploring the Perfection of Renunciation. Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., Tuesday Night Teachings Class 10, 4 April 2006.
2. Matsunami, Kodo. Happiness in Your Hands. The Dhammapada Way. Buddhist Searchlight Centre. Japan 2004.
3. Venerable master Hsing Yun. A Life of Pluses and Minues. Between Ignorance and Enlightenment. Buddhas Light Publishing. USA 2003.
4. Brown, Lesley Ed. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Clarendon press. Oxford UK 1993
5. Venerable Buddharakkhita (Trans.) Dhammapada; A Practical Guide to Right Living. Published by Sukhi Hotu, I-A2, First Floor, Mayang Plaza, Jalan ss26/9, Taman Mayang Jaya, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Eshan, Malaysia.
6. Price, T. 1986. Renunciation. Bodhi Leaves No. B. 36. Published by the Buddhist Publication Society, P.O. Box 61, 54, Sangharaja Mawatha, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
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