Lotus Flower
Engaged Non-attachment—to live more creatively, we must be simultaneously engaged with life and free from attachments. Juan’s last post described one man’s “engaged non-attachment” as a way to begin the spiritual journey that transformed him into St. Ignatius of Loyola. Buddhism and other spiritual wisdom traditions point to engaged non-attachment as the foundation for a practice that moves us away from our fears to a more refined capacity to stay present to what IS. Our daily lives present us with less dramatic challenges, but plenty of small opportunities for freedom that can gradually transform our lives.
Opportunities for transformation are all around us. Each day my university e-mail screens out junk mail messages with a spam filter. On another level, each day we receive countless messages—from friends, relatives, co-workers, television, radio, social media, advertisers, newscasters, and our own prior conditioning—too much information for one person’s life. We all need a spiritual spam filter. A wise Buddhist friend once told me that practicing Right Speech meant asking ourselves three questions—“Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” These questions could also serve as a spiritual spam filter.
This Fall I am on sabbatical. As I check my e-mail, my old reactive pattern asks “How can I stay home to read and reflect when the XYZ report is due and there’s another faculty meeting?” Yet my spiritual spam filter reminds me that right now I have a different responsibility—to focus on my writing, to clear my mind of draining distractions in order to read, reflect, and create.
Buddha Head in Thailand
As a child, I had to meet my mother’s daily demands and complete the household chores before I could do my homework, read, and relax into the stillness of my own mind. As a college student I moved out, supporting myself with a part-time job so I could read, write, and set my own priorities. But it wasn’t easy. I changed the external setting, but the inner pattern remained, tugging away at my heart, catching me up in the either/or trap of rushing to meet someone else’s needs to the exclusion of my own. As the wisdom of the East reminds us, true compassion expands our hearts to include all beings, including ourselves–It’s a “both and,” not an “either/or”—and our deepest responsibility is always to our dharma, our spiritual path, our own creative contribution to life.
To take that path, we must separate the spiritual essentials from the spam in the messages we receive. It’s a process of discernment, not judgment. Each person’s journey is unique: one person’s entertainment can be another’s spam. When you listen to your heart, you will know which choices are right for you.
Take a moment now to discern for yourself.
- Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and feel your mind slow down.
- Think of one proposed activity and ask: “Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?”
- If you answer, “yes,” embrace it; if “no,” consider releasing it.
- Slowly open your eyes and smile with compassion for yourself and all beings.
Namaste,
Diane