What is detachment?
In rising above our intelligence – i.e. our physicality, emotions, psychology and memory (physical, karmic, genetic, and hereditary) – we become detached. Conscious and in control, we become like the Buddha, present, and unaffected by the travails of life.
Such a detachment is a state of inner calmness and poise, and the ability not to let what people say or do agitate you emotionally and disturb you inwardly.
This skill – and it is a skill – helps you keep your poise in difficult situations, and enables you to avoid dwelling in the past and occupying your mind with negative thoughts.
It is a skill which can help you keep your mental and emotional poise and balance, and avoid taking things too personally.
Positive emotional detachment is not a state of indifference or passiveness, and does not mean a lack of interest or a lack of feelings; it is something else. It is an attitude of open-mindedness and of being all together practical.
You can be loving, caring, interested in people, and yet keep a certain measure of detachment. This would protect you from becoming too attached for your own good, or being emotionally drained by negative people.
People, who possess detachment, keep their poise when they run into problems. They accept the good and the bad equally, because their minds are in a state of inner balance and peace. They do not get upset if their plans do not turn out as expected. They try again, or look for a new approach.
If they succeed, they are happy, and if they do not, they either try again or forget the matter and move on to something else.
Saints does this sound familiar?
We usually hear that these attributes come from the advent of Gyan, and they do. One of the many gifts that Gyan gives us is the initiative of being emotionally detached, but forever positive, never negative.
Sometimes, in our day to day lives, we do come across challenging situations, which agitate and upset us. However, this gift of being emotionally detached allows us to look beyond these petty problems.
We are blessed to have this Gyan which not only gives us this one gift, but many more. In the face of challenging situations may I also be detached and positive, and without upsetting anyone, look beyond the situation.
May I not only achieve, but forever live this life of detached balance.
– Simran Nahar
