Attachment

MON., SEPT. 29, 1986, 6:39 AM
CIRCUS, CIRCUS, LAS VEGAS

Your mind skips, wanders, and is busy, as it was during a dream-filled night. This is its inappropriate response to the stimulation of little sleep over three days and nights. If I can overcome this chatter and demand for attention I shall talk about attachment, for this that your mind does is an interesting analogue. Because you forced your brain and mind to remain awake, alert, and functioning, they developed an attachment to this conscious state, and they are now loathe to give it up. Be aware of and appreciate this struggle.

You know about attachment, and you even have some spiritual understanding of it. After Peter’s death you gave up attachment to him… and then to each of your other sons and to Lenore. I tell you that this was an important spiritual venture. Yet fairly soon you succumbed to the non-spiritual attachment that is the practice of your culture, and questions began to form. If I really love them can I give them up? Is this loss of attachment really just a lack of capacity to love?

The culture of which you are a part almost honors those who maintain an attachment to people, things, and ideas. The one who continues to mourn and whose life is disrupted, even impoverished, because of the death of a loved one is given much special attention and, even, honor. Though I love such persons my judgment on their state of spiritual development is harsh. There is so much to do with and for the living and those that remain that I call it foolish to spend time and energy mourning for what or who was. Focus on the now.

You are attached to your physical health. Oh, you eventually did well with the disability in your back and leg, but how would you have done if the pain and the weakness remained today? You have done reasonably well with your shoulder. Again… accept what you can’t do, in your spirit, but do not feel limited in what you can attempt. Often there is a delicate balance in situations, and you shall have to determine, primarily with your spirit, what you can do. Be attached neither to the health and full use of your shoulder nor to the pain and limited ability.

You are attached to your professorial position. If you suddenly lost it you would have great difficulty saying, “Ah… so…” Still, your professional life is one that encourages detachment. You can be excited and thrilled by certain students, and then the class is over and attachment should fade… because new classes begin and new excitements await. But what if there were no more classes? Could you give your attention to matters other than your classes and your university. I would judge that you could. In your fantasies you often pose that some more concentration on these Teachings and your other letter writings could replace that to which you are attached professionally.

Oh, that raises the ultimate question. Am I, as the Holy Spirit, Jesus the Christ, and Almighty God, exempt from this “ban” on attachment? (You hesitate to write down an answer to this. It is “heavy”!) You are not to be attached to any one perception of Me, including the whole matter of these Teachings. If these should stop, say “Ah… so…” and look for My next manifestation, which might be in some ordinary earthly service. Finally, you shall return to Me, and cease to be, when you achieve that perfect balance between wanting to and not wanting to.