Quotes about Detachment

Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light!

If you want to know something, go elsewhere. If you want to un-know everything, then sit and listen.

"Happiness or sorrow- whatever befalls you, walk on untouched, unattached."

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved. The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.
St. John of the Cross

Just think of the trees: They let the birds perch and fly, with no intention to call them when they come and no longing for their return when they fly away. If people's hearts can be like the trees, they will not be off the Way.

“... But at a certain point the memory of her stopped accompanying me everywhere I went.  She stayed behind, the way a city stays behind as a train pulls out of the station.  It’s there, somewhere behind you, and you could go back and make sure of it.  But why should you?”

            The word “discernment” will be used here to signify the power to discriminate between a perceived reality and the possibility that the perception may be illusory.  Discernment is not the same as faith, for faith may be a personal creation, either mental or emotional, but discernment is a quite certain recognition of the reality or truth of something, and is acquired by the higher consciousness.

            Every certainty is the result of an experience.  If the experience has come through the senses, the emotions, or the intellect, then the certainty is no more than relative; it is beyond doubt only when it is the fruit of a genuine spiritual experience of identification.

            Identification is the union of a art of one’s being with the object contemplated, whether or not this object is in the field of sensory perception.

            True identification is communion between the perceiver and the perceived, and this communion does not permit the intrusion of any notions foreign to the reality of the object contemplated.  It demands accordingly the exclusion of all notions or impressions arising from the personality of the perceiver, for this might corrupt the integrity of his perception; that is, it requires absolute neutrality, whether this is obtained accidentally for a moment or by perfect control.

            Perfect control of our mental faculties, by holding them steady and reducing them to the role of an absolutely neutral observer, makes identification possible, and conscious identification obtained in these conditions amounts to certain knowledge.

            Identification can also happen accidentally through momentary emptiness of mind; but in that case it is without the conscious control which coordinates spiritual perceptions, and is thus an unconscious identification.  Most intuitive perceptions are of this order and cannot have the value of certainties for lack of the necessary “discernment”; they remain probabilities which must be evaluated more and more closely by a process of verification strictly purified from personal prejudice.

            The possibility of distinguishing without error between the certainty and the mere probability of an experience of identification may be called “the discernment of discernment.”

            The value of a flash of discernment cannot be measured in time; it is a moment of wisdom, of true knowledge.  A sage may enjoy such moments more or less frequently, but they are never continuous so long as he is obliged to undergo the accidents and relativism of life on earth.

            The discernment of a true discernment requires the man who would practice it an experimental knowledge of his own different states of consciousness and of the value of the evidence they offer him.  Only in such a case can our discernment have the value of reality, and thus allow us to find our answers in ourselves.

"Many don't understand the power of love, that it is there for them if they choose to accept it. Of course, just because it's there, doesn't necessarily mean they'll accept it. Like a seed, it will always be there. Because of free will, humans can accept or reject that love. We, who so much wish to have the love we send, be received, have to remain somewhat detached."

The saying goes, 'The sage rests, truly rests and is at ease.' This manifests itself in calmness and detachment, so that worries and distress cannot affect him, nothing unpleasant can disturb him, his Virtue is complete and his spirit is not stirred up.

To my extreme happiness,
My Lord has come to tell me
That from now on
I must stand apart from my actions,
Divine and undivine.
He alone is the Doer;
I am a mere observer.

If aspects of the person remain undigested--cut off, denied, projected, rejected, indulged, or otherwise unassimilated--they become the points around which the core forces of greed, hatred and delusion attach themselves.

My soul reminds me
Again and again
That I am not the doer.
I am only a witness-
God-existence-life

To enjoy anything, we cannot be attached to it.  What we usually try to do is capture any joy that comes our way before it can escape.  We try to cling to pleasure, but all we succeed in doing is making ourselves frustrated because, whatever it promises, pleasure simply cannot last.  But if I am willing to kiss the joy as it flies, I say, 'Yes, this moment is beautiful.  I won't grab it.  I'll let it go.'  And I live with a mind at peace and a heart untroubled.  Pleasure comes and goes.  When it goes, we don't need to cling to memories of the past happiness or dwell on when it may come again.  When we turn to the past yearning, we are running away from the present.  When we propel ourselves into the future in anticipation, we are running away from the present.  This is the secret of the world's spiritual tradition called detachment:  If we don't cling to past or future we live entirely here and now, in 'Eternity's sunrise.'

Centering prayer is a training in letting go.