Renunciation, the third of the ten perfections – our inherent good heart qualities.

Many of us have been conditioned to see renunciation as a kind of penance or deprivation or punishment; maybe a way of ‘paying for our sins.’ But, here, although challenging and certainly requiring courage, the teachings speak of renunciation as freedom from or letting go of anything that binds us to stories of suffering we create for ourselves.

The most common and insistent ways we make ourselves unhappy is through our grasping and greediness toward things outside ourselves; things we believe will make us feel happy, safe, and secure. We want things that stay the same and are unchanging. However, despite our best efforts, we can plainly see that everything is really impermanent and always changing. When we can deeply accept that reality and apply it to our own attachments and desires, the letting go or renunciation of those things happens naturally. We move toward more freedom from suffering.