Page 37 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

seriously, what have I given up?' If we have developed a degree

of insight, if we are convinced not just intellectually but
spiritually that the things of this world are not fully satisfactory,
then our hold on them should have loosened. Buddhism should

make a difference to our lives. We should not be going along in
the same old way as before. If there is no difference, it means

there has not been even a glimpse of Perfect Vision, and that our
interest so far, although it may be a genuine one, is no more
than intellectual, theoretical, or even academic.

There is no single uniform pattern of renunciation. No one has

the right to say that because another has not given up this or
that particular thing they therefore have no Perfect Vision and
are not practising Buddhists. Different people will give up

different things first, but the net result must be the same: to
make life simpler and less cluttered up. Most of us have so many

things we do not really need. If here and now you were to take a
piece of paper and write down all the unnecessary things you
possess it would probably be a very long list, but you would

probably think a very long time before actually giving any of
them away. Sometimes people think in terms of sacrifice: that

with a great painful wrench you give something up; but it should
not be like that. In Buddhism there is really no such thing as
'giving up' in this sort of way. From the Buddhist point of view it

is not so much giving up as growing up. It is no sacrifice to the
adolescent to give up the child's toys, so it should not be a

sacrifice for the spiritually mature person, or for a person who is
at least verging on spiritual maturity, to give up the toys with
which people usually amuse themselves. I do not suggest that

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