Living Without Attachment

What does it mean to be attached? Is it at all possible to live "unattachment" in a society that is acquisitive? Perhaps the greatest human fear is a lack of identity, which is essentially what happens upon death. For the vast majority of us life is spent searching for and achieving an individuality that conforms to an ideal. To be a defined "somebody" that has a purpose in life and a reason for living. Normally we look outside ourselves to find a "niche" that we fit into. We surround ourselves with those things that we identify with. We become attached to that which defines us. Our attachments become our identity. But they also are our limitation and our prejudice. The mind that is attached to things that define is a petty mind that is self absorbed and caught up in its own desires. Such a mind desires conformity to its beliefs and its prejudicial actions which are the result of its attachments. Psychological attachment to things, ideas and beliefs result in the conflict and violence of the conforming requirements of a mind that is seeking the image of self in what is. The mind demands conformity to its own attachments in order to maintain a continuity of self image. All that is not a conformity both as idea and reality is viewed as "foreign" and potentially hostile.

There is a interesting phenomena that occurs if one can live without attachment. A person begins to realize that when there is no attachment there is no conflict. It is the dissipation of a mind that dwells in position and therefore opposition. To live without attachment is to negate the duality of thought as the self that clings to the ideal. This is a very important realization. If one can observe directly the mind that is caught in its own self created image, then it is possible to negate all attachment. If ones consciousness is aware and in a state that allows the unconditioned to flower then it is possible to realize an intelligence that transcends the self. In the absolute moment of full and complete realization, attachment is seen directly for what it is. There is no interpretation or conclusion about its status, it simply falls away as the outcome of freedom. This is important, it is NOT an action or activity of the self that is seeking some sort of higher consciousness. Seeking is a form of desire, which can only lead to illusion. It is in the simplicity of the absolute moment in which the self dissipates. One is an awareness that is absent all save an unconditioned intelligence that sees through the dual nature of thought.

The person that lives without attachment is incredibly free. One sees directly the true nature of all conflict and the origin of the self that is identified, attached and projected. Such a person cannot be touched psychologically by any activity of those that live in the illusion of self. It is the illumination of a life lived without attachment.