Episode 79 - To Live a Holy Life

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What does it mean to live a holy life in this modern world? The Pali word ‘nekkhamma’ in the Buddhist canon is generally translated as "renunciation". This word also conveys the meaning of</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">giving up the world and leading a holy life.</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">What would our most holy life look like? Do we want to pursue and prioritize a holy life? This episode is dedicated to searching inside ourselves to ask these most meaningful questions. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What the development of true renunciation implies is that we no longer rely on sensory pleasures for our ultimate happiness; we see the futility of expecting deep satisfaction from such limited, transitory phenomena. It is important to understand this point clearly. Renunciation is not the same as giving up pleasure or denying ourselves happiness. It means giving up our unreal expectations about ordinary pleasures. These expectations themselves are what turn pleasure into pain. It cannot be said too often that there is nothing wrong with pleasure. It is our grasping, exaggerating, distorting, and polluting attitude toward pleasure that must be abandoned.” —Lama Yeshe</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Although we are social animals, forced to live together, we lack a sense of responsibility toward our fellow humans. Does the fault lie in the basic structures of family and society? In the facilities produced by science and technology? I don’t think so. I think that despite the rapid advances that civilization has made over the past century, the immediate cause of our present situation is exclusively privileging material progress above all else. We have thrown ourselves so frantically into its pursuit that we have neglected to pay attention to the essential human needs of love, kindness, cooperation, and caring. It is clear to me that an authentic sense of responsibility can emerge only if we develop compa