Renunciation

I was stunned when I realized that all my ideas about renunciation were mistaken. As I came to understand it, the renunciation of external things – sex, money, fame, comfort, was only a preparation: preparation to renounce the most stubbornly and tightly held thing of all – the attachment to and identification with the individuated personal identity. The practice of renunciation (which I was never very good at) suddenly made total and complete sense.