Detachment
renunciation of clinging
What does it mean to be detached in the midst of life? Or in the midst of a spiritual practice? How do we prevent getting attached to the path of detachment? These are all raw and real questions that one will face along the way. It is easy to grasp a new attachment in the name of spirituality / sadhana / practice (or create a new identity even). However, at the end of the day we have to go beyond even the tools of detachment. We have to give it all up. And to renounce something doesn’t mean we have to remove it physically or change anything on the outside - but rather drop it internally. It is our mental attachments that are between us and full freedom. The renunciation happens at the level of attitude.
As we go through our day-to-day life we can practice staying detached - to people, emotions, situations - to anything coming our way. It starts with our attention to their effects on our inner peace. At the heart of this inner work lies complete honesty with oneself.
The BIG questions will arise: How can we be completely involved with life, yet detached? How can we love - FULLY - yet not be tangled? It is no small quest to hold these questions at heart. And their fragrance often brings up a lot of emotion. These emotions give us pointers as to where we hold on tight - and where we are held back by beliefs.
Detachment implies that we are attached to a person / situation / pattern / thing / belief etc. Attachments can take many attributes, physical or non-physical. We can be attached to thought patterns and behavioral patterns as deeply as we may be attached to our lover. At the core of it, we are resisting change or deviation from what we know.