Gyalsey_Laglen_v2_24092014_e-book

To speak about renunciation is not very easy: it is a very subtle and profound
teaching. To renounce, you have to be extremely wise or stupid. People in-between
cannot do it. Most of the stupid people who try are beginners, usually from the
West - from modernised, civilised countries like Japan and others. Anyway, when
they hear that renunciation is important, they just leave everything and go away.
They pretend to be practising or renouncing but they have not really renounced.
They are only being dumb. For example, they may try it by going to India or
Nepal, considered to be the best place for them because it is inexpensive. You do
not have to spend any money. With just USD100, you could live very well and
happily for six months. So they think, “Great!” They think they have renounced
by doing this. It is not the way to renounce. Renunciation has to come from an
understanding of the heart: from wisdom.
Genuine renunciation must come from genuine understanding, not what I was
just talking about. And this has to come from non-attachment. Non attachment
also has to be inner renunciation, inner non-attachment - a deep understanding
of renunciation and non-attachment. The inner renunciation has to be practised
first. This is very important. The external renunciation is not very important.
Inner renunciation and inner non-attachment are more important. This is what
we lack. As practitioners, no matter what we do, we need this. It is like those who
go to Nepal and think they are practising, but they are living there because it is
easy and cheap. I would not say that all of them are rubbish, though it is a big
question whether they have totally renounced or they go for other reasons. Such
questions should not even arise. It has to be genuine non-attachment, genuine
renunciation. Inner renunciation must be developed first, and then, whether
external renunciation is developed or not depends on circumstances.
Inner renunciation has to be developed through the understanding of nonexistence.
For example, understanding the phenomena of a home. In the text it
says that in order to be free, a Bodhisattva practitioner should leave his own home
and go to places where there are no emotional attachments. The home is supposed
to create a lot of desires, lots of hatred and lots of upsetting emotions. But if you
do not have inner renunciation, leaving Japan and going to America, for example,
could cause you even more trouble and even more emotions. Though you would
be economically better off in America, what is the point of leaving Kyoto to buy
another home in San Francisco You would then buy a house, look for a wife or
husband, create a family and buy a car and it would be exactly the same as when
you were in Kyoto. So what I am trying to say is that before leaving home, you
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