NEKKHAMMA

Nekkhamma is a Pali word translated as "renunciation," or "the pleasure of renunciation." It conveys specifically "giving up the world and leading a holy life," and "freedom from lust, craving and desires."

Nekkhamma is the first practice associated with "Right Intention," in Buddhism's Noble Eightfold Path.  In the Theravada list of ten perfections, nekkhamma is the third practice of "perfection," and involves non-attachment (detachment).

Worldly desires based on craving, cruelty to living beings based on anger, and the misdirection of one's own path through ignorance, are all destroyed by real renunciation.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Theravada Buddhist monk who was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and who has edited and authored several publications concerning Theravada Buddhism.  He describes the various and ultimate benefits of nekkhamma:

"Contemplating the dukkha (suffering) inherent in desire is one way to incline the mind to renunciation. Another way is to contemplate directly the benefits flowing from renunciation. To move from desire to renunciation is not, as might be imagined, to move from happiness to grief, from abundance to destitution. It is to pass from gross, entangling pleasures to an exalted happiness and peace, from a condition of servitude to one of self-mastery. Desire ultimately breeds fear and sorrow, but renunciation gives fearlessness and joy."