An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series
What is renunciation? Do you have to give up your car? No, I have a car, and I have no plan to give it up. Do you have to give up a nice place to live? No, you don’t have to give up a nice place to live. What then do you have to give up? You have to give up self-absorption. You have to give up selfishness. You have to give up a life filled with non-virtue. That is true renunciation, regardless of the outer form or appearance. You may choose to adopt the outer form of renunciation, which is a time-honored, pure and useful way to utilize these teachings. But you can also adopt it in an inner way. If you have the ability to practice renunciation in an inner and profound way, it is also useful. It also works.
What you renounce is self-absorption, and you begin to live an extraordinary life, one that is involved in Bodhicitta, or compassion. That is the way to understand Bodhicitta in the simplest view, to understand it as compassion. You must live an extraordinary life, and in living an extraordinary life you are actually taking the cure, you are taking the medicine. Not only is it a nice thing to do, not only will you be known worldwide as a nice guy, but you will also be taking the medicine of selflessness. If the sickness is the belief in self-nature and the desire and grasping that come from all the phenomena surrounding the idea of self, then the cure is a selfless life. The cure is compassion, and you are taking the cure.
© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
