Wisdom Energy: Basic Buddhist Teachings by Jonathan Landaw & Lama Yeshe & Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Author:Jonathan Landaw & Lama Yeshe & Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781614290469
Publisher: Wisdom Publications
Published: 2012-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

The Fully Renounced Mind

If all the main points of the Dharma were reduced to their essentials, they could be grouped into three categories commonly called the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment. These are the fully renounced mind, the enlightened motive of bodhicitta, and the correct view of emptiness (shunyata). Blended together, they are like the fuel propelling our rocket to the moon of enlightenment. Thus it will be beneficial to organize the remainder of these lectures in terms of them. In this way, it may be easier and quicker for us to subdue the negativities that have been plaguing us since beginningless time. Je Tsongkhapa has written a famous work on these three principal aspects, and I shall follow a commentary on it written by Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche, a great Tibetan ascetic lama recognized as having achieved oneness with the tantric meditational deity Heruka Chakrasamvara.

The gateway to all spiritual paths, whether leading to personal liberation or supreme enlightenment, is the fully renounced mind. Just as a passport, visa, vaccinations, and sufficient money are necessary before we can undertake a long journey, so is the fully renounced mind essential if we are to follow the Dharma successfully. It often happens that even meditators in strict retreat find it difficult to make any progress in their practice. Despite the fact that they are in a conducive place and have received detailed instructions concerning their meditation, they are beset by continual mental and physical hindrances. This is primarily because they have not developed a sufficiently powerful renounced mind. As soon as the strength of true renunciation increases, all such hindrances decrease automatically, and the meditations yield their fruit readily. The remedy, then, to our own difficulties in achieving significant realizations is to develop such a mind.

Shakyamuni Buddha undertook his spiritual quest because he had developed a fully renounced mind. Thus he was able to cleanse himself of impurities, achieve omniscience, and show countless beings—even today—paths to higher rebirth, liberation, and enlightenment. Similarly, the satisfaction and pleasure experienced by the Tibetan yogi Milarepa while leading an ascetic existence, as well as his attainment of enlightenment in one lifetime, can be traced to his renunciation.

Contrary to the popular belief that developing a renounced mind is a gloomy and pessimistic process, the meditators who work to achieve such an attitude experience great happiness even while in the midst of samsara. If we think that renunciation destroys all possibility of enjoyment in this life, we have not understood what this term means at all. When someone develops true renunciation, he or she experiences far greater pleasure and enjoyment, both mental and physical, than someone who is surrounded by material luxury yet lacks such a realization.

Let us look into this matter more deeply. A person possessing great wealth may claim that he is enjoying life to the fullest and that therefore he has no need of the Dharma. He may say this even though his mind is subject to hatred, ignorance, pride, jealousy, and so forth.

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