When most of us hear the word renunciation, our minds immediately picture extreme acts: monks giving up worldly possessions, ascetics wandering off into the wilderness, or living a life stripped of every comfort. But as Susan Kaiser Greenland highlights in her exploration of Buddhist principles, that outer renunciation wasn’t even enough for the Buddha himself. True transformation required an inner shift—and for those of us trying to navigate real-life responsibilities, that inner shift is where the actual practice lies.