THE TRIAD OF BECOMING #8
NON-ATTACHMENT
We see as we think.
We are as we believe.
We transcend as we surrender.
We transform as we trust.
The journey itself is the place of being. It is never finished. The being is always becoming. The road to this place is the road of surrender.
Trust leads to Surrender.
Surrender and Non-Attachment go hand in hand.
“20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the wind in your sails.
Explore, dream, discover.”
Mark Twain
“Zidele amathamba – Give yourself up, bones as well.”
Ndebele Saying
“Give up owning things and being somebody. Quit existing.” Rumi
Non-Attachment is really about being non-attached to our self-cherishing and desirous attachment to "stuff", to the material and all of its attractions as well as our ego and persona.
Non-Attachment understands all the ramifications of Impermanence.
“Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench
Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”
Tao Te Ching
Do not think to store in cisterns for they will break and crumble and the water will be lost.
Non-Attachment does not exclude a higher consciousness expectation. We should be attached to our spiritual transformation!
Faith, belief, trust, hope and surrender all have subtle but important distinctions which reinforce one another.
They help to lead us to Non-Attachment.
THE HERO/INE'S JOURNEY
There are three phases to this journey.
All require Non-Attachment for their success.
All three involve the fear of loss.
SEPARATION
from the old small self.
THRESHOLD
The dark night of the soul where we receive the "grail," an "aha" or some form of enlightenment for the path ahead.
INCORPORATION
We come back to serve the greater good with our new vision.
SEPARATION
Requires letting go, not grasping.
“Be willing to give up who you are (the old familiar) for who you might become - to reach that which is beyond you.”
Rev N. of Braztlav
“In order to possess what you do not possess you must go by the way of dispossession. In order to arrive at what you are not you must go through the way in which you are not.” T.S. Elliot
We have to let go of our comforts and attachments which are many and go with the flow in spite of the fear of taking our "boat" out of its safe harbor into unknown waters.
“…put out to sea! Save your boat’s journeying soul and your own pilgrim soul, cost what it may.” Dom Helder Camara
On the journey all we take with us are our-Selves and the bare minimum.
"S/He who would be what he ought to be must stop being what he is.” M. Eckhart
Leaving the old you behind can be terrifying.
“There came a time when staying tight within the bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom.” Anais Nin
Embracing the fear and doing it anyway - realizing that this is the only way if we want to actualize our yearning for the extraordinary.
Accept surprises that upset your plans, shatter your dreams, give a completely different turn to your day and who knows, your life. Leave the Father free to weave the pattern of your days.”
Dom Helder Camara
One is usually given an object of power or has faith or can believe that the Field, your guides, the Creator will assist you.
“Out there beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a Field. I’ll meet you there.” Rumi
"The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf."
Shakti Gawain
If we are willing to open up to it then it is just the unknown, the unplanned, the unexpected, the unfamiliar which can best teach us. In the tiny prefix “un” which so often spells trouble, lies the potential for change, for the new, for the hitherto unconsidered, unimagined, unrealized.”
R. Hinshaw
That includes being Unattached or being Non-Attached.
Surrender and Non-Attachment have spiritual power and are a giving in to something bigger than ourselves - even bigger than we can even imagine. Resignation is a giving up which leads to detachment.
When trust is lacking there is no surrender or non-attachment but simply resignation; a sometimes non-caring, sometimes hopelessness, sometimes fearful giving-up that is prompted by Narrow (Monkey) Mind.
THRESHOLD
Also requires Non-Attachment.
To stay the coarse in spite of the physical, material, psychological and spiritual difficulties encountered.
“If a person wants to be sure of the road s/he treads on, s/he must close his eyes and walk in the darkness.”
St John of the Cross
To not submit to the accumulation of all the fears encountered on this critical part of the journey.
INCORPORATION
“Everyone has in him something Divine, something his/her own, a chance of perfection and strength, however small, a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find, develop and use it.” Sri Aurobindo
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” C. Jung
Becoming reattached to the old you.
In this final third phase of the journey the fears are more subtle. One must not deviate from the lessons of the Threshold and fall back into old patterns. This has been called
"The Fall."
Rather to hold to the vision in spite of the temptations of civilization and that of peer pressure to be the old you - the one they remembered and liked or preferred.
When we commit to Non-Attachment ...
“We return to our places these kingdoms, no longer at ease here in the same dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods.”
Journey of the Magi
And follow our "bliss"or mission.
“Hold to your vision - be true to your myth.“
J. Campbell
"I implore you to submit to your own myths. Any postponement in doing so is a lie.” William Carlos Patterson
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Goethe
Harrison Owens' teaching can release some of our concerns when things do not go according to plan. Everything that happens is a lesson and a test of our resolve. Its not what happens to us but what we do with it.
Whoever are present are the right people.
Whenever it begins is the right time.
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.
When its over - its over.
With this vision, no matter how small, we find a way to help the planet and any of the Four Beings of Nature.
A vision without a task is a dream
A task without a vision is drudgery
But a vision with a task can change the world.”
Black Elk
“I think I have told you but if I have not, you must have understood that a human who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision for the people to see.” Black Elk
We are not asked to embrace all that makes claim on us – we are asked only to embrace that which ennobles us. We are not asked to be other than who we are – we are asked only to become all of who we are.
