katy steger:
Are you wondering if ultimately in this, your only life, if you may need to become monastic or hermetic (& and renounce all sensual pleasures) to relalize this stated framework's outcomes: ending dukkha, understanding phenomena and experienciby nirvana?
Or would you say more to explain that tension you're considering?
Well, I suppose my original post is really just an example of a modern-day meditator struggling with the idea of renunciation.
My original post stemmed from my attempting, lately, to follow the five precepts more strictly. And trying out parts of the 8 precepts on upostha days, which seems to be uncommon in America.
To be frank, it seems like the routine of following the five precepts generally, and then the 8 on retreats or on uposatha days, makes one very different from most americans. And yet, I am wondering if this sort of rule-following, traditionalist renunciation is a very, very valuable training tool. I mean, not eating dinner or using cosmetics seems so arbitratry and needlessly traditional at first, but really it is not arbitrary at all.
Does that lead to monasticism for me? No, I have a family and like listening to music and eating dinner, thanks. But I think it really comes down to sila, which is tied up with some degree of renunciation, outside the norm in modern America.
As Ingram says in MCTB, morality is the first and last training, which I think I am just accepting now, after a couple of years of practice.