I think it was Gandhi who said – “Renounce and enjoy.” The Buddha tells us that at the root of all suffering there is desire. Desire is attachment or aversion. I am not talking about renunciation as aversion, just the opposite. Once we renounce, we should just bounce. In addition, we should leave well enough alone.
We also know that – What we resist persists. I know that renouncing for most of us means – picking that psychic wound, and not letting something heal. We talk a good game, but then we whine, complain, and gossip. It is hard to leave something behind and walk away.
Our life is a garden. We must muster up the strength to pull that dreaded weed and toss it aside. There is no reason to keep that, which does not serve. We must eliminate what does not serve and embrace that which does.
How many of us cannot seem to end that unhealthy relationship and move on? Many of us have trouble with that one. We feel if we renounce that, which does not serve us we will be in turn renounced. I myself ended a relationship only to turn around and try to preserve that, which brought me so much pain. I ended it because my daughter was in distress. When push came to shove, I did not want to be excluded. There was a lot of suffering. In my case, there was a lot of attachment and aversion. It was a very tenuous situation fraught with plenty of cognitive dissonance.
If we could just truly renounce then only can we enjoy; enjoy our life, our piece of mind, and enjoy the moment. If we could live in the moment, we would not need to renounce. We would live in truth and in the holy instance, and we could live moment to moment. Renunciation is like editing a book, or a movie. We constantly have to go back and trim and leave out without attachment that which does not serve. With compassion and equanimity, we would simply lay down our burden, our frustrations, our sins, and our misgivings, and just let go and let god.
Renouncing is not denouncing. We let go knowing that what we have given up what is best let go. Let go for moral reasons, we step down and step aside and away for those who are supposed to occupy that space or moment and allow what is to be to be. There is no sense in forcing or pushing something away or drop something and running for the hills, for that is disruptive and does not serve the greater good. The greater good is what I am getting at here. For the greater good is just that – greater than the individual and I. I am approaching this from the Hermetic perspective and look for the divinity and the unity in all situations and in everything. Gravity does not push up it pulls down. We should let the laws of nature sort things out and not force what does not fit. Because as we all know – force negates growth. So remember to weed your gardens and encourage growth in all things and in all forms.
EMERALD HERALD 