So we have been exploring what are known as the paramis.
The paramis mean these kind of characteristics that perfect the mind.
That's what parami means,
The perfection of the mind.
And not in the way that we usually use the word perfect.
More like what the Buddha said in the in the very first verse of the Dhammapada which I will offer you.
He said all we experience is preceded by mind,
Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak and act with a corrupted mind and suffering follows as the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox.
All we experience is preceded by mind,
Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak and act with a peaceful mind and happiness follows like a never departing shadow.
This verse is the practice of the paramis.
We can say that the mind has been conditioned,
Corrupted by the culture of greed,
Of aversion,
And delusion.
And over the course of our human existence,
Speaking and acting from a corrupted mind is kind of the default setting.
The paramis are trainings in speaking and acting with a peaceful mind where happiness follows us.
These are not ideals somewhere out there to get,
But capacities already within us.
They're inclinations of the mind that can be strengthened and expressed moment by moment by moment in relationship to the very ordinary texture of our lives,
Of our days.
And last week we began exploring these practices with the cultivation of generosity.
That is the first teaching the Buddha offered the lay community,
Generosity.
And then becoming more sensitive to telling the truth to ourselves,
To others.
Ethics is rooted in sincere attention.
Sincere attention to access our goodness.
And today,
Today we're turning to cultivating peace in the mind through the parami that is central to my own path and perhaps to yours as well,
And that is renunciation.
Letting go.
The focus of our meditation,
The focus of the poem.
Letting go.
Renunciation is not a popular word,
You know.
We live in a culture that is an acquisition culture,
Like leaning into more,
Leaning into better.
So when we hear renunciation,
It can sound like loss,
Like becoming less,
Giving up something that we don't really want to give up,
Or that we've been so deeply conditioned to hold on to.
A word that is often associated with renunciation is sacrifice.
And sacrifice can also sound painful.
But the root of the word means to make sacred,
To make something sacred.
So what if renunciation isn't about deprivation,
But about sanctifying our life?
About choosing what is sacred over what is habitual.
Generosity is sacred.
Acting from our goodness is sacred.
In the early teachings,
Renunciation is described less by what is lost and more about what is gained.
In my experience with letting go,
With renunciation,
It's not pushing away.
That's aversion.
It's not tightening against life,
But really softening.
It feels like softening.
A willingness to just let things be as they are,
And then to step in a new direction.
You know,
Firmly stepping in a new direction.
There's some resolve there.
When we step into something,
We are stepping away from something else.
But what we're stepping away from,
And this is important,
We're really stepping away from a story.
In some ways,
When we let go,
It's like we are quietly announcing to ourselves,
It was like this,
And now it's not.
And then we move towards something more open,
And more alive,
And more truthful.
And this movement,
It's not external.
It's an internal movement.
I notice this a lot in my aging process.
It was like this,
And now it's not.
And there's a familiar pattern that arises from some belief about who I am,
And with that,
A reaction.
And that reaction is often sort of like a fix-it reaction.
And I've had this reaction for decades.
Aging has been a fix-it project,
Right?
A little bit.
And seeing this,
Maybe for like the hundredth time.
Something inside of me lets go.
Something within says,
This is not the way.
It was like this,
And now it's not.
And that turning,
No matter how slight that turning is,
It's towards something more spacious.
There's freedom in it.
There's more kindness.
It was like this,
And now it's not.
It's not resignation.
It's a deep acceptance.
That turning is renunciation.
I have patterns that have been with me for most of my life,
And I truly believe that all of us do.
Everyone here.
Limiting beliefs that still arise,
And each time that I see them,
There is a choice.
And it's not a dramatic choice,
And it's not final,
But it is real.
It's a willingness to go in a different direction,
Into something sacred,
Into something beautiful.
We're letting go of the movements of the mind and the heart that keep us from what is really the best in us.
Our Buddha nature.
This awakened part of ourselves.
Every time we turn away,
Let go of something,
And move in a different direction,
I encourage you to try this,
To see for yourself how there is peace in that movement,
Happiness in that movement.
And this is something that is a cultivation,
Again and again.
You know,
We are gently and steadily,
With there is a level of effort,
And a level of wisdom,
Which are also paramis that we're going to be exploring.
We cultivate letting go,
With the support of these other sacred qualities that are already within us.
And then what we're letting go into,
Is our goodness.
We're inclining the mind towards our goodness.
I was sharing in practice discussion last week,
With one of our friends,
That a contractor who was remodeling a bathroom in our home last year,
He was reaching for a paper towel on the counter,
And he accidentally knocked over a cup that I've used every day for 10 years.
And it was made by this young artist,
Who later died in a car accident.
So the cup held a lot of meaning for me,
And then just like that it broke.
And there was sadness,
You know,
Of course there was sadness.
And then there was also this teaching,
This teaching that I first heard about from Ajahn Chah,
The teacher of many of my teachers.
He's a Thai forest teacher.
He used to hold up a beautiful cup and say,
For me this cup is already broken.
It's already broken.
So when we understand that,
We can truly use the cup,
And we can love the cup.
And when it breaks,
As it will at some point,
We can feel the sadness and the loss,
And we can let go.
So there I was,
Holding my broken cup,
Sad,
But also something else,
A kind of,
A kind of rightness.
Already broken,
This is the practice.
Renunciation,
It doesn't remove feeling,
It allows for it,
It frees us from clinging.
And we see this also in how we show up in relationship.
When someone we love is in need,
A child or a friend,
A family member,
We let go of our plans,
And we give up what we thought the day would be.
And maybe it's inconvenient,
And maybe even disappointing,
But there is a feeling of rightness in doing,
Doing that action.
There's like a deep alignment there.
The,
The letting go isn't obligatory,
It's inspired and informed by generosity.
And generosity naturally leads to renunciation.
And the same is true with our ethical conduct.
Like when we restrain ourselves from causing harm,
We're not just giving something up,
We're actually gaining integrity.
We're gaining trust in ourselves and freedom.
Renunciation is not a narrowing of life,
It's an opening.
You know,
A release of what the mind clings to and insists on,
That is actually limiting.
It takes a level of courage.
And the courage that these teachings kind of point to,
Is the question that we have been offering over and over again.
What leads to suffering,
And what leads to freedom?
Keeping that question right in the forefront of the mind,
Does this lead to suffering,
Or does this lead to freedom?
And then to gently and persistently orientate our life in the direction of freedom.
So these are the teachings,
And I thank you for your attention.
