September/October 1999
Articles on the theme "Attachment & Detachment"
Life's Parade
by Bob Gonzalez
Of death, meditation, possessions and
true detachment.
Responding Resourcefully to Criticism
Cydné Battreall
Learning to detach or disassociate
to create new ways of responding to criticism.
The Ultimate Release
by Constance Felos
Forgiveness: the conscious, energetic
release of debilitating attachment. Death of the body: the ultimate release
of physical attachment.
You and Your Thoughts
by Patrick Plaskett
The problems of identifying ourselves
with our thoughts and emotional responses.
Cultivating Detachment
by Dr. Neil Cooper
Detachment as part of a spiritual practice.
Its role in connecting us with Source, Spirit, Energy, Qi, Consciousness.
In The Heart of God
by Ron Graham
How attachment and detachment can be
good or bad. Sorting out which is which.
Attachment & Detachment - Their Hidden Meaning
by Magzcha Westerman
The numerological significance of the
words Attachment and Detachment.
The Rewards of Release
by Dr. Audrey Craft Davis
The rewards of releasing losses to
the universe. Releasing others from the bondage of our thoughts.
Transcending Attachment
by Rev. Pat Cross
Using attachment and detachment to
help us reach a higher spiritual level - a connection with our true Source.
Detachment Brings Joy
by Rev. Nancy L. Buchanan
Of going with the flow to achieve a
positive lifestyle.
Other Feature Articles
Natural Health Q & A
by Dolores Puterbaugh
A discussion of some of the physical
and emotional changes and challenges women face going through menopause.
2000 and Beyond!
by David Findlay/ Patricia Diane Cota-Robles
What is . . . Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)?
by Sam Jarcynski and Greg Stanek
Mineral Kingdom
by Judy Power
Featured stones for September and October:
Peridot and Natrolite.
You and Your Thoughts
by Patrick Plaskett
We all need an identity. We have a need to define ourselves, to establish our individuality. Once we have a clear picture of who we are, we can conduct ourselves to conform to this picture. The self image becomes a touchstone of our most intimate reality, the reality of our own being. However, rather than being self-made creatures, we are often the product of the influences of our birth, our lives and our environment rather than any conscious or rational choice on our part. We often end up suffering under the tyranny of a self image that has developed more by accident than anything else. Do we ever stop to think about how we identify ourselves? We often identify ourselves with the thoughts and ideas that we have in our brains. We accept "I think, therefore I am." But that doesn't indicate who we are. Furthermore, we may have some control over our thoughts, but do we control our identification with them?
If you don't know that you're in prison, you'll never look for a way out. If you feel that you're in total control of all your thoughts and all of your reactions to whatever life places before you, then you can either walk on water or you're in a serious state of delusion. More likely, you'll respond to life the best that you can and rationalize it later. That rationalization often involves our identification with our thoughts.
Welcome to the world of ideas! They have a reality all their own. Our ideas are so close to us that we naturally identify with them. But this leads to many problems. If we change our ideas, are we really different people? If we stop thinking, do we cease to exist?
The problem with ideas gets deeper still. If someone attacks an idea that we believe in or hold closely, do we not feel we are being attacked? Will we not go to extreme measures to defend an idea for no other reason than we have found some merit in it, or for the reason that we originally held the idea? We often can withdraw our identification from an idea to a more workable level with the rationalization, "Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion." Other times we are ready to come to bloody blows in defense of our opinion.
We have a tendency to think of ourselves as absolutely right and others with opposing views as absolutely wrong. This tendency comes from the absolute quality of the brain. We have to realize that the rational brain is very limited in its perception, yet, many of us live mainly in the brain. The brain knows yes and no, right or wrong, up or down, black or white. It works comparatively. It's the positive and negative function of the brain that allows it to work. Yet, many of us use the either/or function of the brain as an end in itself. This makes life very difficult for us when we identify with whatever we have in our brains, for life is not all black and white. Nor does everyone agree with our best appraisal of what's right or wrong, good or bad.
The greatest difficulty in mastering our brains comes from our intimate identification with our thoughts. If we can relate to our thoughts as phenomena produced by us rather than as appendages to our very souls, then we can begin to work with them, rather than simply having them work us. Although we needn't identify with either positive or negative thoughts, it is the identification with the more negative ones that make life most difficult. Imagine a situation in which your expectations are not met. Perhaps you believe that a driver on the road should have responded more courteously, or a relative should have sent you a nice note, or your spouse should have understood why you do something a certain way, and you then feel indignation over this apparent lack of sensitivity or intelligence. Perhaps you privately berate the offending party and feel negative. Perhaps you even express your indignation, only to find that others around you disagree with your response. You may feel your very intelligence is being challenged. You may then launch into detailed rationalization of what you think. The defense could even become emotional. Just as likely, the initial response could be emotional and the rationalization could follow.
The truth is that we are neither our emotional reactions nor our thoughts. If we know this, we stand a chance of gaining the upper hand. If we practice suppressing negative reactions, then we might develop the capacity to express them or not. Until we can suppress them, they will always be expressed, and rationalization will follow or, less likely, we will feel remorse over the inappropriate negative expression (hindsight can do wonders.) When we finally can suppress negative reactions, most often we feel unburdened by the lack of need for rationalization. Without the rationalizations, the negative reactions diminish and life becomes more positive.
Here's how you can use this: notice how often you feel a negative response, whether or not it is expressed, realizing that it is not you. After you have done this for a time, you might move to the next step and try to cease all negative expression. This will certainly teach you something about how quickly and irrationally this all takes place. If you are successful, you will have greater self knowledge, more compassion for all people, and you will be well on your way to being your own master and living positively.
Patrick Plaskett is a hypnotist and the directory of Mind Advantage in St. Petersburg, FL. He is a member of the Florida Association of Professional Hypnotists and holds a bachelors degree in psychology from USF. (727) 381-9101.
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