The value of renunciation

In the ongoing classes at the Center this week we have been discussing the topic of "renunciation" as an aspect of "right effort". I thought I'd share with you a wonderful paragraph from Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das:

Renunciation refers to opening the tight fist of grasping and relinquishing our weighty burden of accumulated excess baggage. The heart of renunciation implies allowing rather than controlling. It requires letting go of that which is negative and harmful while opening up to sanity and wholeness. The question is: Can we let go of holding back? Can we relinquish our fears and defenses? Can we forgive? Can we surrender and learn to better accept things as they are? Typically, this is accomplished in small gradual steps. We grow up, and we adopt a more mature attitude. When we do this, we leave the homeland of our childhood. We give up our childish ways. We depart from the nest of our family of origin and free ourselves from frozen behaviors. We stop telling ourselves stories; we stop spinning fantasies. We're all carting heavy baggage that is not helping us get where we want to go or do what we want to do. Once we realize that we no longer need this baggage, we can relinquish it: once we have inner certainty, we can leave our old habits and negativities behind.

The inner certainty I believe he is talking about is the certainty - the deep conviction - that the way of compassion and staying in the moment is actually in our best interests. So a healthy renunciation is not about deprivation; it is about true freedom.