Attachment, III

SUN., NOV. 9, 1986, 6:21 AM
FARM, STUDY

Another bright morning, and in this familiar cluttered setting I shall continue to increase your enlightenment concerning attachment. The first two lessons were in different and diverse settings. Hear, o son, more about this earthly tendency.

You state it accurately when you characterize the humanist position as… “human relationships are the highest form of relationship, and death is the end of such relationships. Therefore life should be prolonged to maintain such relationships.” And hence attachment is valued. The objects in the world are seen as real, and hence attachment is valued. An essential aspect of the challenge of earth life is the giving up of attachments that hinder spiritual growth.

When you are born into an American middle-class family, even one that is Christian, you learn to create attachments. It is almost impossible to live life honestly in such a culture without such attachments. Now you could have been born into some tribe where there was little or no value placed on attachment to things, people, and situations. The challenge would have been much less. So, from your birth circumstances (which are not just by chance) you can gauge your need.

Your son, John Patrick, had an experience with attachment that was an important and powerful lesson. He had little in the way of possessions, but he was attached to what he had. These were taken, and he realized his need to give these up. Now, years later, he has many attachments, but that spiritual experience remains, and he holds his attachments not quite so naively as he would without it.

Dorothy spoke to you of attachment, even as it was not identified as such. She is attached to relative independence and to her accurate hearing and other developed senses that make this independence possible. The thought of losing this is painful, and the very thought is a spiritual test. How would she experience Me, if her circumstances were different? Is an attachment to Me permissible, even desirable? I’ll answer that again next. She needs to know that she is doing rather well with this challenge so far.

I’ll repeat and embellish the response to that ultimate question of attachment. You can be attached to Me (which means any aspect of Me, including Jesus the Christ or Loving Father God) only in symbol form. This can mean experiences with Me, certain Scriptures, ideas of Me, which are always frightfully partial. Attachment to one concept can prevent you from developing or recognizing the next one. So I urge you to be willing to give up the relationship you have with Me, however valuable it may seem, in order to move on to the next.

Finally, when you no longer have the need for attachment to your self, even your spiritual essence, you easily and joyfully merge back into Me. But that’s like reading the ending without the benefit of reading the whole story. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Are commitment and attachment the same? As I use the words, they are not. I want you to be committed, but not attached. I want you to be committed to serving Me through this earth life of yours, but not attached to any one form of service. Much as you enjoy your professorial role you must not be attached to it. Much as your family is important to you, seek to lessen attachment to it. Continue your commitment to receive and share these Teachings of Mine, but resist attachment to the process or the results. (This doesn’t give you the freedom to be careless, however.)