Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Probably many people think that renouncing this life means throwing off your clothes and
running around naked in the forest or the street. Then the police take you to prison. Of
course, it’s not like that. It’s important to understand how renouncing this life means
renouncing this life’s problems. If we can think like that, it is a huge solution. That is what
Dharma practice is. If we practice like that, we are practicing Dharma purely; if we don’t,
what we are doing might outwardly look like Dharma practice but in reality it won’t be. We’ll
just be practicing attachment to this life. That is the first cause of all the confusion, all the
fear, all the desire, all the problems of life.
Another thing to understand is how the fundamental suffering of this life comes from the
eight worldly dharmas. There are four desirable objects—receiving comfort, receiving
material things, receiving reputation and receiving praise—and four undesirable objects that
are the opposites of those. The four undesirable objects are what we don’t want to
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When the four undesirable objects happen or the four desirable objects do not happen, we
get angry and many problems arise. We become unhappy and our life goes down. Then
when we get the four desirable objects, our life goes up—we feel happy, but in reality it is
the suffering of attachment. Our mind has a very uptight quality. Just as we cannot remove
oil from paper once it’s soaked into it, when our mind gets attached to an object it’s almost
impossible to separate the attachment from it. This causes a sickness of the mind that brings
much mental pain. And we have suffered from this chronic disease since beginningless
rebirths.
So, whatever happens, we suffer. We feel elated when we get the four desirable objects but
suffer with attachment, with so much pain. When we experience the four undesirable
objects, our life goes down and again we experience great suffering.
Renouncing attachment to this life means having neither attachment to desirable objects nor
aversion to undesirable ones. In our mind, both desirable and undesirable objects have been
equalized and we have no expectations. At present, our life is full of the expectations that
arise from the eight worldly dharmas. Working for this and working for that keeps us busy
all the time. However long we live, even a hundred years, our whole life is spent like that,
creating countless expectations and fears.
By renouncing this life we renounce our attachment and confusion, which are in the nature
of ignorance. We see the pain that attachment for desirable objects and the wish to be
separated from undesirable objects brings and, not wanting that pain, we free our mind from
it. Like that, we have neither the ups nor the downs of having one of the four desirable or
four undesirable objects. So, you can see how much peace we can have in our heart when we
really practice Dharma.
Also, practicing Dharma is not only for the shrine room or the temple; it’s not only reciting
mantras. Practicing Dharma really means having the huge determination to give up
attachment to this life, which brings incredible peace. Renunciation of this life is the basis.
All other realizations naturally come from this: renunciation of samsara, realization of
bodhicitta and direct perception of emptiness, followed by the realizations of the tantric
path. So this is just to give you an idea what Dharma practice actually means.
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