The R word

Tonight our sangha talked about renunciation. CT gave the dharma talk. It spoke so directly to my current low-impact month and got me thinking about why I have been renouncing shopping. I have done it to teach myself new patterns of behavior and to maybe make a teeny, tiny dent in the size of our landfills and to maybe direct a slight shift in focus in my daughter's priorities. CT's talk got me thinking about how much more could be behind the why of what I do, how renunciation can open more doors for us, free us from attachments, and therefore make us happier.


At this point, I haven't renounced shopping enough to fully see its impact on me. I respect those who renounce shopping for an entire year; it's not an undertaking I'm willing to accept at this point. I suspect that to fully see how shopping impacts my life, I would have to give it up in full for a year.


Up until recently, I have led a self-indulgent lifestyle. I bought what I wanted (within budgetary reason (a squishy term)), ate what I wanted, did what I wanted. This whole renunciation thing is new to me.


But I did decide to list all the major attachments I have in my life that I could renounce:

• coffee
• sugar
• my iPod
• computer time
• TV time
• movie time
• naps
• negative talk
• alcohol

These are listed in order of hardest to easiest for me. The thought of giving up coffee sends my head into a dizzy tail spin. So the question then transforms: If I choose to renounce one of these, which one? The hardest? The most beneficial? The easiest?

It's cushion time. Blog w/ya later.