What is "Renunciation"?

We often hear about renunciation in Buddhism. For the vast majority of Buddhists, renunciation does not mean giving up a worldly life and becoming a monastic. It means letting go of one’s attachments. The Buddha showed us how for he had no attachments to this world. Unfortunately, as ordinary beings we are still very much attached to the world in our every thought. Although the Mahayana teachings emphasize substance rather than form, if there is substance, it will certainly be reflected in form. Therefore, if our thoughts transcend this world, our behavior will reflect this.

How will our behavior reflect our thoughts of transcending the world? We will not be attached to anything in this world, be it a good reputation, money, or our five desires of wealth, lust, fame, food, and sleep. Our every thought will be like those of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. For ourselves, we come to this world to cultivate, which is to train and discipline our minds when we encounter various situations. We are here to test ourselves to see if we still have wandering thoughts and attachments to this world. For all other beings, we are here to teach and help them on behalf of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. We should have the Buddhas’ great compassion and skillful means to help all beings, who are suffering in this world.

We help different people achieve different goals. We help people with a superior capacity to end the cycle of birth and death, to transcend the Three Realms, and to be reborn in the Western Pure Land to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. We help people with a medium capacity to end delusion and attain awakening and to advance to a higher stage in their cultivation. We help people with a dull capacity to plant the good roots of enlightenment.

In other words, regardless of a person’s capacity, we should benefit him or her impartially, like Buddhas and bodhisattvas do. On our part, we are impartial at the level of inner truth and the level of phenomena when it comes to helping beings. On the part of the beings, they are equal at the level of inner truth but are not equal at the level of phenomena. For example, when we teach Buddhism, we teach everyone to the best of our ability. But people will understand the teachings differently so some people will grasp more, others less. This is because every being’s good roots, good fortune, and conditions are different.

To renounce the world is to see through the truth of impermanence, to let go of all wandering thoughts and attachments, to attain freedom of mind and spirit, to accord with proper conditions, to be mindful of Amitabha Buddha, and to aspire to attain rebirth in the Western Pure Land.

~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra