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Originally Posted by Altair
Your body requires food and water. You need other things as well to have a decent living. Attachment is described as having a strong feeling or affection to something or someone [think of other people, activities, one's own life, body] or a set of values [for clarification: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionari...sh/attachment]. Can you honestly say you are ''not attached to the material world''?
If we take this context of ''non-attachment'' a bit further still, as in looking at religious scripture, we can see how it indicates a monastic life. Those who preached about non-attachment were guru's and monks. Is that the life you are having? It doesn't seem to be the case, because those people aren't supposed to chat on forums [which could be argued is an attachment also]. And even they are not exactly ''not attached to the material world''. It can perhaps be said they have less attachments.
Possible in a scientific experiment, less so in any social context [usually, and, thankfully!]. |
Hi Anne
Many people on the spiritual path learn about healthy and unhealthy attachments. This isn’t something a spiritual community deals with alone, all the same. These issues are formed in the formative years in the ways people are cared for and loved, which then plays out in ways people attach to ‘stuff’ and ‘people’ in unhealthy ways, this goes further than having essential needs met.
I’m an every day person living a normal life but I’ve had to let go of attachments to live more open, clear and authentic. I still engage life but I’m very conscious now of ‘how’ I’m living. The world is evolving so all those ‘places’ of isolation are now becoming mainstream living.
To be in the world but not of it, doesn’t mean your not living a life and engagingvthe world,, it means your living your life no longer attached to unhealthy attachments.
For me living non attached to the material world means I am connected to myself.
Ultimately the monastic lifestyle is a provision for people to shut out everything they eventually address within. It’s a pathway for building what many spiritual people in the real world are understanding and getting, through their own seeking and various alternate pathways. The choices and rules laid down by a belief are really about discipline, focus and training, with a view for something grander beyond this life.
You can be liberated and still participate in the world.