Resources on Attachment and Detachment/non-Attachment?

[AnyDream]

Non-attachment is different from emotional detachment...one stems from being in a place of balance, the other from being in a place of huge unbalance. In my life I try to think about non-attachment like it's acceptance of what is, surrending to what is - rather than wishing with all your being that things are different. It does make a difference in your level of suffering - I think of the huge distress & physical pain I experienced when I was having my first CT scans - when I just wanted to climb out of my own skull and run in the opposite experience...compared to now - and I have worked *very hard* on my acceptance/surrender levels in the meantime - I can now calmly sit thru whole cycles of needles and pain and scans but instead of being completely 'inside' and therefore overwhelmed, I now feel like I'm sitting a step back from it - it seems a smaller thing & therefore easier to cope with (ie less emotional pain). I hope this isn't too much of a ramble, it's the most obvious example I can think of in my life because it's quite physical.

BTW I don't think denying your own state of mind is the same as attachment either, I don't know what the Buddhists say about it but sometimes I just need to 'process' in order to get a grip on stuff.

Have you read any Pema Chodron books...she has an excellent one that I've dipped into called "when things fall apart". It might be worth looking her up as she writes in a way that is really easy to understand. Eckhart Tolle covers a lot of the same territory in A New Earth - which, while not Buddhist, might be worth a read too.

[Indadhanu]

Just thought I'd come back and update on this... After I opened myself up to non-Attachment, I seemed to be given the ultimate lesson. I'm still working through it, seeing as I resisted and then caused myself a lot of stress and pain, but realising that I've opened myself up to it, I can see the answer. I just have to work out how to get to it. I have to work out what I am attached to in this circumstance, and let it go. Be ok. Be unified. Know that I don't need to hold on with a clenched fist nor throw it away. Just live it, right now, without wanting what was or what could have been...


For others interested in Attachment and non-Attachment, I read a really good explanation of one person's view on attachment and non-attachment. That attachment implies viewing yourself and your 'attachment' as separate from all other things. Non-attachment is viewing youself in unity with all, separate from none, so there is nothing to attach to.

"According to the Buddhist point of view, nonattachment is exactly the opposite of separation. You need two things in order to have attachment: the thing you’re attaching to, and the person who’s attaching. In nonattachment, on the other hand, there’s unity. There’s unity because there’s nothing to attach to. If you have unified with the whole universe, there’s nothing outside of you, so the notion of attachment becomes absurd. Who will attach to what?"
John Daido Loori