Renunciation as Ultimate Non-Attachment

Sor Juana's life narrative culminates in an apparent paradox: after fighting for the right to study and write, she renounced her books and intellectual work, returning to silence and obedience in her final years. Western readers often interpret this as defeat or loss. Buddhist understanding reframes it as the deepest practice of non-attachment. She had constructed her identity through intellectual achievement; she had advocated powerfully for the value of knowledge. Yet ultimately, she released even this cherished identity. This enacts the Buddhist path: use the raft of intellectual inquiry to cross the river of ignorance, then let go of the raft on the far shore. Her renunciation was not a rejection of her earlier work but its completion—demonstrating that even the identity of 'brilliant intellectual' must ultimately be surrendered. For practitioners, particularly those invested in achievement, knowledge, or status, Sor Juana offers a model of nonattachment that includes the willingness to release even what we have fought hardest to build and claim. This doesn't negate the earlier struggle; both struggle and release are expressions of wisdom. The concept teaches that ultimate liberation requires non-clinging to all identity positions, including noble ones.