17 / 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

9 Quaint gate.jpg
一百八法明門
IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON
One Hundred and Eight Gates of Dharma-Illumination

[17] Abandonment is a gate of Dharma-illumination; for [with it] we turn away from the five desires.

In Buddhism, "abandonment" refers to the profound practice of letting go of attachments, desires, ego, and negative emotions like craving, aversion, and ignorance that cause suffering, enabling spiritual growth, freedom, and enlightenment, not abandoning people or life itself, but rather our compulsive grasping to them. It's about loosening the grip on outcomes, expectations, and self-identity to live more freely and fully, recognizing impermanence.

Do you have difficulty Letting go of attachments, desires or ego ?? What plans do you have to reinforce this virtue in your daily practice.

合掌,生開
gassho, Shokai
stlah
仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai
"Open to life in a benevolent way"

[FlowingPastPatrick]

Yes, letting go is difficult - especially when it comes to subtle attachments like self-image, expectations, and preferred outcomes. Gross desires are easier to notice; the quieter ones often hide inside good intentions or habits of control.

What helps me isn't a plan to abandon more, but staying close to practice. Sitting Zazen makes grasping visible without needing to fix it. Over time, some things loosen simply because they’re seen clearly. Reinforcing this gate in daily life mostly means noticing when I’m holding on - and being willing, at least a little, to not act on it.

Abandonment, as I experience it, isn't a dramatic release. It's modest, repeated, and unfinished. But each small letting-go creates space, and that space feels like freedom functioning.

Gasshō,
Patrick
ST lah

[dorgan]

I found this a major Gate for me, one I wanted to explore. The following is what I found, which I share with recognition that it is a lengthy read. I hope that it adds value and does not impose a burden on readers.
Abandonment (捨, sha in Japanese; prahāṇa in Sanskrit) is another of the Seven Factors of Awakening. The "five desires" (go-yoku, 五欲) traditionally refer to desires arising through the five sense gates: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. More broadly, they represent a craving for sensory gratification.
"With it we turn away from the five desires": doesn't mean rejecting sensory experience itself; it means abandoning the “grasping mind” that tries to possess, perpetuate, or manipulate experience. Dropping Body-Mind (shinjin datsuraku): we release our habitual attempt to control, acquire, and solidify experience. The senses function naturally; we simply stop adding the extra layer of “wanting.” In shikantaza (just sitting), we don't suppress desires: they arise and pass naturally. The practice is not about resisting them, but about "not following" them. This cultivates abandonment organically. Nonattachment vs. Detachment: coldness or withdrawal from life is not the point: flowers are beautiful, food is delicious, relationships matter; abandonment means engaging fully without the sticky residue of craving and aversion.
Do I Have Difficulty Letting Go? Yes, of course.
Some examples of potential challenges to practitioners for general reflection are as follows: 1) Subtle intellectual grasping: Attachment to "understanding" the dharma rather than embodying it. Collecting insights like trophies. This is particularly insidious for intellectually-oriented practitioners. 2) Identity attachment: Clinging to "being a Zen practitioner" as a self-concept. Pride in one's practice, comparing oneself to others, wanting to be seen as "advanced." 3) Comfort-seeking in practice: Preferring the cushion when sitting feels "good," avoiding it when restless. Wanting zazen to produce specific states. 4) Digital/informational desires: In contemporary practice, the pull of screens, the dopamine cycle of social media, the endless scroll. These are particularly challenging forms of the five desires in modern life. 5) Relational attachments: Not romantic love itself, but the grasping quality: needing validation, fearing abandonment, controlling behaviour.
Plans to Reinforce This Virtue:
Daily sitting commitment: Morning and evening, 20-30 minutes. Consistency matters more than duration. During zazen: Notice the subtle movements toward seeking comfort—adjusting posture unnecessarily, fantasizing about the bell, planning what comes next. Each noticing is an opportunity to just sit. After-sitting: Observe the mind's tendency to evaluate: for example, "that was good zazen" or "I'm terrible at this." Practice abandoning these judgments.
Working with the Five Desires in Daily Life:
- Eating practice (oryoki-mind even without formal bowls): notice craving before meals, grasping during eating, wanting more afterward; eat with attention: taste fully but don't chase pleasure; include some deliberately simple meals.
- Sensory fasting: periodic reduction of input: less music, less scrolling, more silence, not as punishment but as exploration: what happens when stimulation decreases?
- One thing at a time: when washing dishes, just wash dishes; notice the impulse to think about the next activity, to listen to a podcast or music, for example, to "make it interesting"; return to the simple sensory reality of warm water, soap, surface.
Working with Ego-Grasping:
- Gassho to imperfection: when mistakes happen, instead of defensive reaction or self-criticism, just bow to the moment; practice saying "I don't know" without shame;
- Anonymous practice: some practice done where no one sees or knows; this tests whether we're practicing for others' approval.
- Regular sesshin or retreat: extended intensive practice reveals ego-structures that daily sitting might miss; being uncomfortable for days shows where we grasp.
Study That Supports Practice: Shobogenzo study, particularly fascicles like "Genjokoan," "Bendowa," "Uji", not for intellectual accumulation but to have one's assumptions questioned; Dokusan or practice discussion with a teacher.
Vow and Precept Practice: working with precepts as positive practices, not just prohibitions; the precept of "not elevating oneself above or blaming others" directly addresses ego-grasping; regular jukai (precept) ceremonies or renewal of vows.
Sangha Accountability: Samu (work practice) together: ego gets revealed when working with others; honest practice discussion: example, "I noticed I wanted you to think I'm a good practitioner"; serving others in sangha roles, which require setting aside personal preferences.

gassho, david
stlah

[Choujou]

I do sometimes have difficulty with letting go… not so much of material things, that is no problem for me usually… but I have a hard time with more of the emotional side of letting go, especially people. This last year, I lost a few important relationships in my life, and it was hard to let go of those people as I deeply cared for them and didn’t want our relationship to change. But I’ve come to realize, all things are emptiness and impermanent, including relationships and feelings… always in flux and motion… and sometimes people change and drift away from each other. I plan to just accept and allow for whatever happens to happen, and try my best to not attach to moments with people, as that tends to make me cling and then suffer when I can get those moments back, or when things change and I no longer have any moments with that person.
All of Samsara/nirvana must be embraced, but not attached to. I plan to just go with the flow of life… see where it takes me… and just sit. Allow. Accept. Follow the precepts and eightfold path, and help others when I can, and then let go of that too!

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

[Tairin]

Thank you Shokai

When it comes to letting go (much better expression than abandoning) of attachments and desires, it very much depends on the object and the circumstance. Some are easy to let go of. I some cases the attachment is irrational and so is more easily rationalized away. Others are baggage I keep picking up. It is part of my practice to work with those. Maybe someday I will finally completely abandon them at the side of the road and move on.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Seikan]

Do I have difficulty in letting go of attachments, desires or ego? Well, I am human after all, so 110% YES!

Like Choujou said above, letting go of material things isn't too difficult for me as I've long tried to live by Thoreau's maxims of "Simplify, simplify" and "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone." My biggest attachments as of late tend to be my expectations—expectations of what will happen, what may happen, and what I truly desire to happen in order to maintain my other attachments to my notions "normalcy". If someone could make these attachments into corporeal objects that I could just abandon by the side of the road, it would be so much easier. But alas, they attach themselves to me like mental velcro and I often struggle to detach from them for fear of the noise it will make. Thankfully, I have our Zen practice to help me detach gently (and quietly!).

For comparison, the SZTP translation of this Gate is noticeably different and may resonate a bit differently with folks:

"Equanimity is a gateway to the illumination of the dharma, for one loathes the five desires."

While I like (and kind of prefer) the use of "Equanimity", I don't so much like the use of the term "loathes" as that feels more emotionally charged compared to the Nishijima translation above of ". . . we turn away from the five desires." Does the wording difference resonate strongly with any of you?

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[Shokai]

Bumping this up

[Ryūdō-Liúdào]

I don’t find myself especially attached to things or status so much as to habitual patterns. You know, old ways of reacting, thinking, and moving. That’s where attachment tends to hide for me.

As I’ve gotten older, letting things slide has become more natural. I don’t feel much pull toward “getting ahead” or competing in some imagined race. Life feels less like something to control and more like something already unfolding, and my work is mostly about not adding resistance.

I experience life a bit like floating down a river on an inner tube. We can paddle left or right toward what draws us, but trying to go upstream is wasted effort. Letting go often means allowing missed turns to pass without turning them into a problem. Oftentimes, one just needs to abide and accept.

In daily practice, abandonment is reinforced in small, ordinary moments by noticing when habit tightens into grasping and choosing not to follow it. Nothing heroic, just easing the grip and letting the current do its thing.

Gasshō,
流道-Ryūdō-Liúdào
Satlah

[Chikyou]

Once again I wrote a journal entry and then read the replies here and it opened up a treasure trove of things I hadn’t thought of.

This is what I wrote:

Abandonment is something I don’t practice with enough. It’s really easy to take solace in material things, especially in a society that constantly encourages it. But material things don’t last. Dharma is forever.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[FlowingPastPatrick]

For comparison, the SZTP translation of this Gate is noticeably different and may resonate a bit differently with folks:

"Equanimity is a gateway to the illumination of the dharma, for one loathes the five desires."

While I like (and kind of prefer) the use of "Equanimity", I don't so much like the use of the term "loathes" as that feels more emotionally charged compared to the Nishijima translation above of ". . . we turn away from the five desires." Does the wording difference resonate strongly with any of you?

Yes, that difference resonates strongly with me as well. 'Loathing' feels emotionally charged and actively negative, almost like replacing desire with aversion. 'Turning away', as in the Nishijima translation, carries a very different tone for me. It suggests letting go rather than pushing away.

From my perspective, loathing the five desires doesn't sit comfortably in a Zen context. It feels like staying entangled, just on the opposite side. Turning away, as I understand it, points more toward seeing things clearly and allowing their pull to soften on its own. That is closer to how equanimity shows up in my practice, not as rejection, but as non-fixation.

Gasshō,
Patrick
already sat and lah