Attachment

March 1, 2007

Hi Russell,

My feeling about non-attachment is that if one is able to channel all

her attachments to God, everything else will fall off naturally.

Spiritualizing everything, seeing everything, understanding everything

as a manifestation of the One, feeling constantly as though one is in

the presence of God and interacting only with God, there is no room

left for attachment to anything else.

This is not an easy thing to attain, and I have certainly not

approached it, but rather than merely focusing the mind on the

breaking of attachments one already has, it provides a very positive

direction for the mind and heart to go, that produces the same result,

and so much more, too.

May Her divine grace grant me (grant us all!) that kind of non-attachment.

Jai Maa!

Chris

, Russell Shields <rshieldslaw

wrote:

>

> Dear Yogis:

>

> I invite any comments you may have on Attachment. In my opinion,

it is good to put effort into non-attachment as it will someday become

more and more prevalent until the attachment " quality " becomes so

crowed out with feelings of non-attachment that it gets sort of

starved out...and eventually will come to you in meditation, bow down

and leave. It is like when a disagreeable employee finally leaves.

>

> This does not mean there will be no more doings with things. We

are in the world. Jesus and all saints gave and received, and we

also shall continue to do so. Yogi Rudy said freedom is not running

away from things, it is having things but not being attached to them.

I like the idea of being comfortably non-attached.

>

> The best thing is that when attachment is not present, one is

really able to love God as the Formless one, since nothing interferes.

One can then embrace the Formless...at first like one might hug a

big tree. From there, other transformations take place. If the

Formless is embraced as a lover, there is love and surrender to the

Formless. If the Formless is merged as Beloved, there is more bliss

and light, and everything is dissolved, becomes the Formless one.

His gifts are many and more than we can fathom, find, or ask for.

Wah Hey Guru! Jai Shiva!

>

> Russell

>

> Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate

> in the Answers Food & Drink Q & A.

>

March 1, 2007

Namaste Seshmet,These are really good questions. This is what we all have to struggle with all the time. Since we live in the realm of attachment, there is great difficulty in being unattached. And, America is even harder, because there's no real support system here for wandering ascetics and monks, etc. Since this is the realm of attachment, we must choose our attachments carefully, i think. That's what i try to do anyway. It's so hard to overcome attachment, that it's a good strategy to choose the good attachments over the bad ones. If we have a family, then financial security is'nt an attachment, but rather it's our dharma - our duty. It's absolutely correct to want financial security because it's how we perform our duty. If we have a family then we can embrace the second ashram of life, the householder ashram. If we fail to perform householder ashram efficiently and perform it well, then we will miss an

important part of the path of life / path of spirituality, and have difficulty moving into the third and fourth ashrams of life, the ones where we live a life more centered on non attachment and seeking God.i pray that my sadhana will make me more and more efficient in performing the duties of householder ashram, so the day will come when, with more and more purity, i can live a life that's got less and less attachment and more and more bliss and love for Divine Mother and Lord Shiva and Maa and Swamiji. I pray that for you too, and for all of us.Thank you very much for you post.Jai Maa !Seshmet <zirafox9 wrote: this one is hard for me attachment to understand how can anyone be living an ordinary life going to work and living averagely not be attached to something either their job, home, wife, kids something. To me living in america not sure anyone here can be unattached to something somehow. Not like we can go off in the woods like a ascetic and live as a poor person on the streets. This has bothered me for a long time that I had a pull to be an ascetic oor mystic what we use to call them but to be completely unattached was something that was hard to do here. How does one become non attached and still live a normal life in American is my question. I do put my spiritual life over anything even work. so everyday i meditate, pray do chanting etc and reading spiritual books of some sort but do my daily everyday grind of work and daily chores. Am i attached?

yes i do feel so especially to my financial security how does one get away from that. I have trusted God to help me when we almost became homeless before and things do work out i always thought i had help there especially but going thru that mess it has made me more financial cautious so pulling myself away is harder now than before. So my main question is how do you become detached from these attachments of just living ordinary life? Seshmet Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check.Try the Mail Beta.

Want to start your own business? Learn how on Small Business.

March 1, 2007

Feeling love and compassion cannot form attachments really. Feeling possessive or wanting to control creates the attachment and takes away the love we feel for our family, friends and others. Similarly work is worship. Attachment to work gives rise to ambition and other desires. But working for the sake of work, doing it sincerely and to the best of our abilities without expecting results can only give us energy and determination, not ambition. In other words feeling close to God can only give rise to virtues. Not negative feelings. The higher we go, the closer we feel to God and farther we move away from the material world. Does it mean we stop performing our duties? We continue to live in this world and yet feel free from it. Everything continues in the same way only something inside has changed. Our perception of the world has changed. It keeps our mind steadfast, committed to our goals, we are happy and want others to be happy. We

don't feel judgmental or righteous or think we are better than others. Just that we have centered our emotions and feel no attachment to the world around. We have a deeper understanding of human frailities and feel compassion for all around. And that makes everything we do so much more beautiful as we are no longer prisoners of our ego. We realize we don't wish to control our lives. We'd rather allow the higher powers to guide us to make the choices. Its so much easier to take decisions as nothing we do belongs to us anyway or lets say we have already given everything away. There is no confusion, no conflict, the mind is tranquil and our complete faith in God gives us a freedom that makes everything perfect and wonderful. We can remain untouched by conditions as we know this is not the real world. Just an illusion. Love MimiSeshmet <zirafox9 wrote: this one is hard for me attachment to understand how can anyone be living an ordinary life going to work and living averagely not be attached to something either their job, home, wife, kids something. To me living in america not sure anyone here can be unattached to something somehow. Not like we can go off in the woods like a ascetic and live as a poor person on the streets. This has bothered me for a long time that I had a pull to be an ascetic oor mystic

what we use to call them but to be completely unattached was something that was hard to do here. How does one become non attached and still live a normal life in American is my question. I do put my spiritual life over anything even work. so everyday i meditate, pray do chanting etc and reading spiritual books of some sort but do my daily everyday grind of work and daily chores. Am i attached? yes i do feel so especially to my financial security how does one get away from that. I have trusted God to help me when we almost became homeless before and things do work out i always thought i had help there especially but going thru that mess it has made me more financial cautious so pulling myself away is harder now than before. So my main question is how do you become detached from these attachments of just living ordinary life? Seshmet Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check.Try the Mail Beta.

Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Autos' Green Center.

March 2, 2007

Namaste,

I am not sure if anyone has posted this yet, but there have been

stories posted in the past, from Shree Maa and others, that address

this. Even an acetic can be attached, to their begging bowl to the

attention they get, etc. It seems to be a pretty high road to strive

and attain loving detachment while preforming one's worldly

duties...karma yoga. To maintain even the simpliest consistent

sadhana, and more importantly constant rememberance of God, while

completing karmic duites in the world is a great tapasya.

Blessings to you on your path with work and family.

Jai Maa

, Nirmalananda Saraswati

<nirmalananda1008 wrote:

>

> Namaste Seshmet,

>

> These are really good questions. This is what we all have to

struggle with all the time. Since we live in the realm of attachment,

there is great difficulty in being unattached. And, America is even

harder, because there's no real support system here for wandering

ascetics and monks, etc.

>

> Since this is the realm of attachment, we must choose our

attachments carefully, i think. That's what i try to do anyway. It's

so hard to overcome attachment, that it's a good strategy to choose

the good attachments over the bad ones. If we have a family, then

financial security is'nt an attachment, but rather it's our dharma -

our duty. It's absolutely correct to want financial security because

it's how we perform our duty. If we have a family then we can embrace

the second ashram of life, the householder ashram. If we fail to

perform householder ashram efficiently and perform it well, then we

will miss an important part of the path of life / path of

spirituality, and have difficulty moving into the third and fourth

ashrams of life, the ones where we live a life more centered on non

attachment and seeking God.

>

> i pray that my sadhana will make me more and more efficient in

performing the duties of householder ashram, so the day will come

when, with more and more purity, i can live a life that's got less and

less attachment and more and more bliss and love for Divine Mother and

Lord Shiva and Maa and Swamiji. I pray that for you too, and for all

of us.

>

> Thank you very much for you post.

>

> Jai Maa !

>

> Seshmet <zirafox9 wrote:

> this one is hard for me attachment to understand how can anyone be

living an ordinary life going to work and living averagely not be

attached to something either their job, home, wife, kids something. To

me living in america not sure anyone here can be unattached to

something somehow. Not like we can go off in the woods like a ascetic

and live as a poor person on the streets. This has bothered me for a

long time that I had a pull to be an ascetic oor mystic what we use to

call them but to be completely unattached was something that was hard

to do here. How does one become non attached and still live a normal

life in American is my question. I do put my spiritual life over

anything even work. so everyday i meditate, pray do chanting etc and

reading spiritual books of some sort but do my daily everyday grind of

work and daily chores. Am i attached? yes i do feel so especially to

my financial security how does one get away from that. I have trusted

God to help me when we

> almost became homeless before and things do work out i always

thought i had help there especially but going thru that mess it has

made me more financial cautious so pulling myself away is harder now

than before. So my main question is how do you become detached from

these attachments of just living ordinary life?

>

> Seshmet

>

> Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check.

> Try the Mail Beta.

>

> Want to start your own business? Learn how on Small Business.

>

March 2, 2007

Namaste,

To understand attachment we must understand ignorance.

1) Anavamala

Anavamala is the rise of the I. This I feels that it is a

Independent Self Existent entity.

2) Mayayimala

Mayayimala is when an I looks out and sees another I. From this a

relationship is formed. This is the basis of all Knowledge. From this

relationship attachment and aversion arise based upon pleasure and

pain. From attachment and aversion arise desire, from desire;

3) Karmamala

Karmamala is action which arises from desire. Now since all of

these actions are based upon ignorance they all lead to suffering and

bondage.

The root cause of attachment is Anavamala, attachment is but a flower

of that root. To cut the root of the ego we must offer it to the fire

of consciousness. If we live our lives towards simplicity and make

every moment an oblation to the sacred fire, our very life becomes a

Yajna. Then we do not have to try and renounce the world, or call it

an illusion to try and be free from attachment. Instead we awaken to

the world as the living body of God.

Sivoham Sivoham,

Siva Kevaloham,

satcitanandarupah,

Sivoham Sivoham.

Shanti

Nick

March 2, 2007

hi russel

it is not so easy a question, because, it is not easy to resolve

anything absolutely.

if i am 100% non-attached, i might die, with no connection to food or

air or anything.

but what if i keep enough going to appear here each day and play the

game as service to the divine? a very nice game indeed.

this life is a paradox. there is no one answer, no one thing we can

" always do " with a 100% guarantee that thing will always be right.

mind is magical in its power to transform the ground rules.

be loving, be respectful, keep going with sadhana, know you will fail,

and you will also succeed ... what more can a yogi do?

LOVE AND PEACE shanti shanti shanti

steve