A man is a slave to anything…
A man is a slave to anything he cannot part with that is less than himself.
« πλ | 28 Sep 2004 »
Quotes — Detachment (14 entries)
Becoming free for God…
The first step toward becoming free for God is the realization of how unfree we are.
« πλ | 29 Sep 2005 »
Beginner’s mind…
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s there are few.
« πλ | 10 Jun 2006 »
Death is…
Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is.
And yet, never stop loving them…
« πλ | 3 Jul 2005 »
Desire is often talked about as…
Desire is often talked about as something we ought to overcome. Still, being is desiring: our bodies, our minds, our hearts, and our souls are full of desires. Some are unruly, turbulent, and very distracting; some make us think deep thoughts and see great visions; some teach us how to love; and some keep us searching for God. Our desire for God is the desire that should guide all other desires. Otherwise our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls become one another’s enemies and our inner lives become chaotic, leading us to despair and self-destruction.
Spiritual disciplines are not ways to eradicate all our desires but ways to order them so that they can serve one another and together serve God.
« πλ | 8 Jul 2006 »
If you are pained by external things…
If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.
« πλ | 28 Sep 2006 »
Perfectionism is imprisoning…
Perfectionism is imprisoning. As long as I demand it, in myself or anybody else, I am not free, and all my life…I’ve believed that freedom is important, that despite all our misuse and abuse of it, freedom is what makes us a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, according to the psalmist; how like a god, according to Shakespeare; freedom to remember, to share, to dream, to accept irrationality and paradox is what makes us human animals.
« πλ | 27 Oct 2004 »
The fear of loss is…
The fear of loss is a path to the dark side. … Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.
And yet, still love and give of yourself…
« πλ | 4 Jul 2005 »
The great fabricator of illusions…
Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.
« πλ | 8 Sep 2006 »
The moment you place your happiness in…
The moment you place your happiness in the fulfillment of any want or wish that is outside yourself, outside the Way, in anything but the thing as it is, as it is becoming, at that moment your balance is lost and you fall straight from Heaven to Hell.
« πλ | 6 Oct 2006 »
The one thing that causes unhappiness…
If you look carefully you will see that there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is attachment. What is an attachment? An emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy.
« πλ | 30 Jun 2005 »
The opposite of grasping…
Mindfulness in a way is the opposite of grasping, or attachment, or identification. And it can go very, very deep when we allow ourselves, because what we start to see—if we slow down a little bit and pay attention—is how it is a kind of conditioned phenomenon, like a machine, the mind spins this stuff out in a very orderly way by habit - thoughts, fantasies and memories. The world works in certain conditioned patterns, and that’s it’s nature, and it’s all impermanent and quite ungraspable. Where is yesterday? What happened to your weekend? Where is it? What happened to 1984, your 20’s, or whatever it was—where did they go? They all disappeared, gone. Isn’t that an amazing thing?
It’s a very profound thing to start to be aware of life coming out of nothing and disappearing into nothing. A day appears for awhile, and then it’s gone. It can’t be grasped, it’s like a bird flying. You cannot hold time and fundamentally you can’t hold yourself.
« πλ | 7 Nov 2006 »
We never lose an attachment…
The process of practice is to see through, not to eliminate, anything to which we are attached. We could have great financial wealth and be unattached to it, or we might have nothing and be very attached to having nothing. Usually, if we have seen through the nature of attachment, we will tend to have fewer possessions, but not necessarily. Most practice gets caught in this area of fiddling with our environment or our minds. “My mind should be quiet.” Our mind doesn’t matter; what matters is nonattachment to the activities of the mind. And our emotions are harmless unless they dominate us (that is, if we are attached to them)—then they create disharmony for everyone. The first problem in practice is to see that we are attached. As we do consistent, patient zazen we begin to know that we are nothing but attachments: they rule our lives.
But we never lose an attachment by saying it has to go. Only as we gain awareness of its true nature does it quietly and imperceptibly wither away; like a sandcastle with waves rolling over, it just smoothes out and finally—where is it? What was it?
« πλ | 20 Jul 2006 »
![[Jerusalem Cross with Heart]](http://cowpi.com/journal/grafiks/jerusalem-cross-heart.gif "Jerusalem Cross with Heart")