Non-Attachment, Yet Again
TUES., MAR. 14, 1995, 8:10 AM
DINING TABLE, MICHAEL’S… FELTON
The age you are and the spiritual maturity you have achieved should be leading you to give more “attention” to non-attachment. Remember, of course, that this doesn’t mean lack of commitment and concern for others or for important causes. It does infer that you are not attached in ways that hinder your relationship with Me and that impede the growth of your spirit. The capacities of your body and mind are receding, and you are aware of such losses and “never-will-be’s.” I want such losses to be filled with a growing, ever-more-evident spirit, for spirit should be increasing more, as this incarnated life winds down. That’s earth life as it should be… My creation.
You are doing well in losing attachment to your job… your professional position. Again, this doesn’t mean that you put in less time or lessen your commitment to your classes, to advisees, and to colleagues. You may… but the point is that these become opportunities for expression and growth of spirit rather than “necessities” for your good life. As you just have expressed, you should now spend time crafting each class as a potential spiritual experience rather than having concern for the content. Ideally, when it is time for you to retire you will move away easily, with many positive memories of these latter-day interactions with students.
The body you “inhabit” is important, but less and less so. The great spiritual challenge for the rest of this earth life is to focus less and less on your body, its structure and its functioning. You are part of a culture with excessive concern for bodily health, with a great, wasteful establishment of medicine, with the apparently noble goal of postponing death. You needn’t be rash, but now increasingly your focus should be on your spirit, and this, in its strength, shall maintain your body as long as I want it to be.
I assure you that there is much fullness of life beyond this mortal plane. Be not attached to this bodily existence. BUT do enjoy it and profit from it as long as it abides. Consider more and more that what appears to be death is really a glorious rebirth. Now don’t attach to that either, but anticipate the dropping of one “sort” of living and joining into another.
I approve of your non-attachment to the full functioning of your mumu foot. Do what you can. Be as active as you can. Go for running up the steps. But accept, with a thankful sprit, that it will probably never function fully again. Such acceptance enhances spirit, in one your age.
It is hard not to be attached to family members. Wouldn’t it be fine to be the fully loved, fully respected father, grandfather, whatever rather than struggling to maintain and reestablish relationships? Lifestyles are different, and there can be conflicts over values, perceptions, and ways of living (including relating with Me, the Triune God). Enjoy the times of good interaction, and be as little troubled as possible when your way is not favored. Be as willing to forgive as I am. Yet be not attached, in this way I am “putting down,” to blood family, church family, professional family. As some fade, others will appear or return. Be ever ready to love and accept.
But, finally, is non-attachment an absolute good? What about attachment to Me? Here I’ll repeat a lesson from the past. Be not attached to perceptions of and experiences with Me. Be not attached to dogma and traditions of your tradition. (Remember this doesn’t mean disregarding or not being committed to such… just don’t be completely attached.) No human, no mater how spiritually advanced, can perceive Me fully and completely accurately. Traditions are wonderful, and I love many of these old ones, but they can… and do… fossilize a good perception and hold to it beyond its time of value.
So, yes, you should be attached to Me, the Holy Spirit of the One and Only God. For, ultimately you shall know, with a fullness now unimagined, that your spirit, the really final You, and Mine, are One. To be unattached to Me is the ultimate absurdity… but I am patient with such folk. See more clearly how attachment can be life-enhancing and how it can be a drag on your spirit’s progress.
I Have Said It.
9:02 AM