Buddhism And The Importance Of Renunciation

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The Life of the Buddha: and the Importance of Renunciation
Could you imagine, trading in all of your worldly possessions, leaving your family, and going against everything you were raised to do? This is exactly what one of the most influential people in the history of the world had to do in order to reach what Buddhists call “enlightenment”. Siddhartha Gautama, or the Buddha renounced his life of riches to seek enlightenment and along the way created the guidelines to a very popular worldwide religion called Buddhism. What is Buddhism? To answer this question, and for someone to understand the principals of Buddhism, they must first understand the life of the Buddha and his journey to enlightenment.
The foundation of Buddhism is based on the life of not a God, but one person, …show more content…

The second is Tahna, which is understanding that suffering in life happens because of our desires. The third truth is, the cure, which is understanding that there is a way to end suffering. The fourth noble truth is the middle path. This is the main idea behind Buddhism; the middle path is the way to enlightenment. The middle path is basically the idea that it is “okay” to give into some of our desires, but not to be over consumed by them, and at the same time not depriving us of them. The other big part of Buddhism is the eight-fold path. The eightfold path includes having the right knowledge, aspirations, speech, behavior, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and absorption. If you can honestly follow all of these you can reach enlightenment. So why does someone have to renounce him or herself in order to reach enlightenment? (O’Brein). Compulsive desire is caused by attachment. If you truly renounce yourself from worldly possessions you will have no compulsive desires. The right effort also plays into renunciation. The effort of renouncing all of your excess possessions is a good effort and necessary to achieve

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