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Forget Detachment, Attach.

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by HariLakhera, Sep 22, 2019.

  1. HariLakhera

    HariLakhera Platinum IL'ite

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    Forget Detachment, attach.
    We have been told to detach ourselves from everything we have-wealth, relationship possessions- because the real cause of our unhappiness is the attachment. This is my house, she is my wife, they are my children, these are my belongings, they are my friends, those are my enemies – the list is endless. I will do this, I can do that, I will have what I want, I don't care –a lot of egocentric ideas.

    Centuries have gone by but we are still attached whatever we have. It only proves that it is not working.

    How about trying to attach ourselves to everything? Not only with our wealth, relationships and belongings but also with everything including -the rivers, oceans, trees, mountains, flowers, animals- in short, the whole universe. This way our attachment will be distributed all over the universe. Above all, we are a part of the Universe only. How can we detach ourselves from the Universe?. Everyone and everything will belong to us and thus dear to us.

    ‘Love thy neighbor’ will turn into ‘love thy surroundings'. It will solve many of our problems of religion and the environment. There will be no room for discrimination on the ground of caste, creed, color, and class. There will be no room for doing any harm to nature and all living beings.

    Start attaching yourself- it is for the living.
    Forget about detachment-it is for the dead.
     
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  2. Vaikuntha

    Vaikuntha Platinum IL'ite

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    Great idea, instead of being attached to few people in life, once should distribute the “attachment” among many living and non living things.
    I agree, I love house plants and love to watch them grow and feel very protective towards them.
     
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  3. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    Yes we urgently need to attach ourselves to our environment, the very awareness of which was almost erased by the industrial civilization that blinded by profit motive cared too hoots for the world. In fact champions of that kind of civilization are the real detached peoople, detached from the surroundings with their eyes focused only on balance sheets.
    They have ruined this world long enough. So it is high mtime we proactively practice attachment.
     
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  4. Anusha2917

    Anusha2917 IL Hall of Fame

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    We are such selfish beings that we are attached to the wrong (non permanent things like relationships and materialistic pleasures) and not attached to permanent things like nature and environment.

    We as human beings can't prioritize what is important to us now and for the future.
     
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  5. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear Hariji,
    Yes. Attachment to family , friends and our own interests is a natural thing. We need not specially cultivate. They are there by default. Detachment....which many preach is difficult and why should we be detached? Is it for Salvation? That is after this life...from birth to death. Let us first try to make this period more worthwhile and live a life of values....do all our duties.
    I absolutely agree attachment should be extended to environment...which is very important as we see the world now. We are attached to our house, plants in our garden or balcony, keep the house clean . But we should extend that attachment beyond our house.....rivers,trees, animals etc. Then we can give a better world to future generations.
    Syamala
     
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  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Hariji
    Being a 'mooda madhey', I find it difficult to agree with this. The following words of Sankara have been my guiding spirit:
    यावद्वित्तोपार्जनसक्त-
    स्तावन्निजपरिवारो रक्तः ।
    पश्चाज्जीवति जर्जरदेहे
    वार्तां कोऽपि न पृच्छति गेहे ॥ ५॥

    So long as a man is fit and able to support his family, see
    what affection all those around him show. But no one at home
    cares to even have a word with him when his body totters due to
    old age.

    Detachment will come eventually. Otherwise, dying will be very hard. Maybe that is why, the ancient kings went for 'van vaaas' after giving up everything when they reached the end-stage of life.
    Sri
     
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  7. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Shri Hariji,
    While talking about getting attached to nature, it appears to me that you have got the correct notion what detachment is.You are giving the nomenclature of 'attachment' to actual detachment.

    It is true that we can't use detachment as an excuse not to deal with fundamental issues such as livelihood, power, self-esteem, and relationships with other people. Nor can we make detachment a synonym for indifference, or carelessness, or passivity. Instead, we can practice detachment as a skill—perhaps the essential skill for infusing our lives with integrity and grace.


    Krishna tells Arjuna that acting with detachment means doing the right thing for its own sake, because it needs to be done, without worrying about success or failure.

    Detachment cannot be achieved in a day. It has 5 stages.
    Acknowledgement, Self enquiry,Processing,Creative action.The last one is Freedom.
    Unless we go through all the above 4 stages ,it is extremely difficult or rather impossible to reach the 5th stage where you offer everything around you, including natural objects to the Source.


    Only in the last stage you can have the maturity of 'Love thy neighbour and love all surroundings' without any bias towards caste, community, religion, species etc etc.

    Desire, fear, and hopelessness are deeply embedded in our psyches, and we feel their pull whenever any remnant of attachment exists. We know that we've begun to achieve real detachment in a situation when we can contemplate what's occurring without immediately getting blindsided by these feelings.

    . It's no small thing. Every time we free ourselves from one of those sticky feelings, we unlock another link in what the yogic texts call the chain of bondage.


    Every spiritual tradition includes some form of offering (and some form of God), but for detachment practice, the two most powerful ways to offer are to dedicate your actions and to turn over your fears, desires, doubts, and obstructions to the one Consciousness.

    Here is what the practice of offering might look like.
    First, call to mind the largest and most benign level of reality you can connect to—whether it is humanity, a particular teacher or divine form, a sense of oneness, or
    simply the great collective of the natural world: humans, animals, plants, the earth and air, the stars and planets and space itself. Or simply become aware of your own being, the Presence or energy that feels most essential to your life.

    Once you've done this, bring to mind the action you're about to do or the outcome you're hoping to bring about. Mentally make an offering of it to the Presence. You can say something like, "I offer this to the source of all, asking that it be accomplished in the best possible way."
    If you care deeply about what you're offering—your desire for a particular relationship, or your wish for the well-being of yourself or of someone you love—you may notice that you're reluctant to let go of it. If that's the case, offer it again. Keep offering it until you feel a loosening of your identification with your hope, fear, desire, anger, or feeling of injustice. Whenever you feel the clutch of attachment, offer it again.

    And that's when our detachment becomes something greater—not detachment from desire or fear but awareness that what we are so large, it can hold all of our smaller feelings inside itself and still be completely free.
    The Universal brotherhood etc will be vain talks until we reach the 5th stage of INNER FREEDOM, which is actual detachment, but referred to by the author as ATTACHMENT.
    Jayasala 42
     
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  8. nemesis

    nemesis Platinum IL'ite

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    Sadhguru says 'Wish for everything'

    அத்தனைக்கும் ஆசைப்படு
     
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  9. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    Includes "detachment'also.The word'Mumukshu'in Sanskrit means one who desires for liberation or moksha.
    Jayasala 42
     
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  10. HariLakhera

    HariLakhera Platinum IL'ite

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    Heard a joke yesterday.
    Head of the family terminally sick, breathing his last, is lying on the bed surrounded by the family members. He enquires about everyone and each one of them says his or her pranams. Then he tries to get up, takes a deep breath and says 'if everyone is here in this room, why the lights are on in the adjoining room?'
     

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