rachelctb's Post

(NOTE: While writing the nonattachment chapter of the Global Wisdom System Handbook, I asked Jeff DeCelles for some advice about how to resolve a paradox I was seeing. That discussion inspired the following musings. I’m not finished with this chapter, so any suggestions from others would be gladly received. The Global Wisdom System Handbook is described in my Intentions Profile and Professional Profile. Methods from this document are part of the upcoming Energy Healing Course and Chrysalis Wisdom Council, both of which are available world-wide using Webcam technology.)

I believe that frequently, when two values or goals seem to be in conflict, the apparent paradox points to the need to clarify what the value really means at a deeper level or to find a more creative approach to actualizing the value, one that has yet to be discovered. An example of this is the apparent conflict between the two goals of 1) nonattachment and 2) following your dreams.<!--break-->

Nonattachment is frequently misunderstood by people who use the concept to avoid dealing with parts of their life that make them uncomfortable. For example, people who are uncomfortable with intimacy or with commitment sometimes avoid relationship attachments, thinking that this puts them on the road to self-mastery. In reality, their nonattachment simply means that they’re wounded people who have trouble opening themselves up to the experiences of their hearts.

Such people are often very divided—on one hand, wanting intimacy very, very deeply, and on the other hand, feeling afraid, repulsed, or trapped the moment that intimacy comes calling. At that point, they may hate themselves for their own need for intimacy, which they might condemn as attachment, as well as condemning their lovers for their attachments.

The lure of false nonattachment is frequently based on repression, self-denial, and self-hatred. The history of the world is replete with examples of priests who renounce their libidos to “marry” Christ, only to be exposed as child molesters after they’ve harmed many people. Or people who renounce their attachments to go live a life of austerity, only to be seen across the road at the McDonalds when they think no one is looking. Or people who encourage others to renounce wealth and donate to a worthy cause so that they themselves can live a life of luxury and self-indulgence.

Most spiritual and psychological paths recommend an attitude of acceptance of reality—a form of nonattachment—as important to both psychological health and spiritual development. Yet, empowered people must frequently struggle to achieve their ends. On the face of things, these look like expressions of contrary values. If you accept reality as it is, how do you motivate yourself to struggle to achieve something of value? If you’re not attached to any outcome, what’s the point of doing anything?

However, when you dive more deeply into each of these values, you find that you must redefine them so that there is no conflict between them. When you delve deeply into each one, you identify what’s essential at their core, as well as what’s nonessential that you can discard, and you find that they are, in fact, truly complementary values.

Being nonattached does not mean that you are unengaged to the values that you have consciously chosen to commit yourself to or that your heart leads you to pursue. Healthy nonattachment allows you to unhook yourself from the unhealthy attachments that prevent you from acting coherently and in an undivided manner. In addition, unhealthy attachments are the things that can subvert your progress by driving you to neglect the needs of your body, the needs of your soul, the needs of your relationships, and the needs of your family or tribe.

Nonattachment does not mean that you do not care what happens: Emotionally and spiritually evolved people have well-developed hearts (and heart chakras), and the only way that your heart can be truly healthy is if you share your heart freely—which means that you care. Neither does nonattachment mean that you give up all struggle to achieve difficult results: Emotionally and spiritually evolved people have well-developed wills (and third chakras) and are more highly capable of expressing their unfettered personal power without limitation.

Being nonattached does not mean being unengaged. Properly understood, nonattachment is actually an effective way of ensuring that you act quickly, powerfully, and resolutely to achieve what you choose to achieve, because among other things, you unhook yourself from the unconscious and unchosen patterns that stand in your way.

A crucial psychological sign of healthy nonattachment is the ability to accept the events as they occur (including your own impulses and needs) without resistance or negative reactions. To fully accept anything is to be completely aware of all of your thoughts and feelings about it, so that you can make conscious choices about them, evolve them or transform them, and actualize them when appropriate.

In other words, full acceptance requires more than simply being aware of the things that come readily to mind about the situation. It also means that you are in touch with your hidden or subconscious reactions and emotions about it. Thus, healthy nonattachment requires you to use your whole mind to identify your attachments—not just your everyday, conscious mind or your reactive, programmed mind, which is controlled by guilt, trauma, fear, fantasy, and unconscious rebellion.

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Related Links

I have explored the concept of nonattachment in two other blogs:

• My New Year’s Intention is a Resolution of Inner Conflict
• The Make-Wrongs that Masquerade as Nonattachment.

Both Jeff and Rachel have participated in the Webcam Chrysalis Wisdom Councils that I have been hosting. Previous online Wisdom Councils are described at: What I Learned About Getting Things Done from a Noetic Perspective and Bringing Chakra Awareness into Daily Consciousness. The next online Wisdom Council will take place on January 6 at 10:00 PST, entitled What is Your Energy Medicine? What Delights Do You Radiate? (Available World Wide).

You can also use the Chrysalis Wisdom Council as a private meditation when you’re all alone. For examples of this, click Invocation of a Global Wisdom Society that Embraces the River and The Scent of a Practice.

Plan to take the Energy Healing Course in the New Year. (Dates yet to be determined.) Evaluate the curriculum design at: Course in Energy Healing Available World-Wide By Webcam

The links on the page Details about the Global Wisdom System Vision provide you with:

• A brief overview of my commitments to the future evolution of the planet through developing the Global Wisdom System Organization,
• A more detailed overview of the Global Wisdom System Handbook, and
• An expansive view of the future society that we're evolving towards.

Do a 60-second meditation with the animated invocation of global transformation by visiting the Circles of Light Invocation Web page.

Explore these possibilities in more detail, as well as my personal stake in completing this project at: Being Congruent About My Multiple Sclerosis