Renunciation in Hinduism and Buddhism

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Renunciation In Hinduism and Buddhism The action of renouncing means a lot of things to a lot of different people. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines renouncing as: “to formally declare one’s abandonment of a claim, right or a possession,” or to “declare that one will no longer engage in or support.” Although this definition provides us with a general view of what it means to renounce, to get a clearer picture of this act, we must take a look closer at different forms of renouncing through the lenses of two of our world’s most influential religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. To start off, in Hinduism, renouncing is considered part of the four stages of life commonly seen in India. First, a man becomes a student who devotes many hours of study to memorizing the holy books of Hinduism. Then, the man becomes a householder as he serves as a husband and a father. The next two stages are only applied if the man wants to become a renouncer and only after the man has completed the first two and his children have grown and now have their own lives or a situation has come up that allows him to renounce. If the man is considered able to renounce, he becomes what is called a “forest dweller” and then leaves all earthly possessions and pleasures and lives in the forest by himself for a number of years. He is usually completely alone. Sometimes however, the men take their wives with them although women cannot properly renounce as the men can. After he has completed this stage, he becomes a wandering renouncer and is completely homeless as he wanders from place to place. He is now only focusing on achieving an escape from the cycle of reincarnation. In Buddhism, one renounces by giving up all forms of desire. He or she does this by following all of the four Buddhist paths. These paths are: 1. Knowing how to end suffering and having the right understanding. 2. Having

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