The Spirit Of Spirituality: Detachment as a way to peaceful success

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Detachment as a way to peaceful success

One of the primary tenets of spirituality is detachment.I tried to look up the dictionary meeting of detachment. The best definition I found was, "a state of being objective or aloof". Though not good enough a meaning, let us use it as a base to understand the concept.

Why should one be detached? The only reason is that, attachment to anything though seemingly giving pleasure, ends up in pain only. I can already sense disagreement, telling what is life without attachment. Let me build the concept and then readers can make their own judgment.

Starting off with obvious attachments which are bad, I can talk of smoking, gambling, drinking etc, which when they start do not look like taking over a person, but over a period of time, attachment or more aptly addiction to these destroys a person. Let's take attachment to wealth. In the quest to acquire more and more wealth, which by itself is useless, we have seen of several instances, where people make one small mistake and then it is a downhill path all the way to total destruction. Similar is attachment to power and there are enough instances of dictators doing heinous activities just to stay in power and finally meeting their nemesis.

But then we may argue, we do not fall into those categories. We are not addicts, nor do we chase money and we surely are not dictators. We as normal people are attached to our homes, vehicles, job etc. If a small dent happens to our car, we feel the dent in our hearts. Any unpleasantness on the job, owing to our attachment spills over into our other activities. When we are deeply attached to people and they move on, there is sadness. I think I have given enough instances where readers can begin mulling about the futility of attachment. This is the main reason that spiritual leaders from across the globe have spoken of detachment.

The Bahai faith says, "The essence of detachment is for man to turn his face towards the courts of the Lord, to enter His Presence, behold His Countenance, and stand as witness before Him. The Indian faith says, One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus is untouched by water. In Buddhist discussion of detachment, there is a mention of nekkhamma, a word generally translated as "renunciation". This word also conveys more specifically the meaning of "giving up the world and leading a holy life" or "freedom from lust, craving and desires.".

Before we renounce everything and go to a mountain or forest since the major faiths talk of detachment, let us now try to understand what detachment truly means. There are different types of detachment. I will explain each and readers can then decide where they stand.

Level 1 detachment

Here an individual out of laziness is totally detached. He does not do his obligatory duties. He is a couch potato who has totally distanced himself from all worldly activities and stays in a illusory state. This could be a person who has attended a session on detachment and used that as a pretext to give up all activities, except those required to support his body. It could also occur due to a sudden trauma, like a death of a loved one or total financial ruin. In some cases, the detachment could be temporary due to such a trauma or it could be a long lasting detachment owing to laziness and/or ignorance. This is the lowest level of detachment and is called as Tamasic detachment.

Level 2 detachment

Here the individual does most of his regular activities with a caveat. The activities should be easy or at a very minimum least burdensome. If an obligatory duty comes up which is not easy, this person becomes detached and opts not to do the work. One has to file taxes on time. This person finds it cumbersome and is detached and does not file. However it is obligatory and he faces consequences of detachment. One has to exercise regularly to keep fit. This man is detached because it is painful to exercise and faces consequences of not being fit. By their very nature, obligatory duties have to be done, whether one likes or not. In level 2 detachment,a person does not do obligatory duties because of effort involved and faces consequences.This type of detachment is called Rajasic detachment.

Level 3 detachment

So far on a continuum of detachment, we have progressed from a Tamasic detachment which is the worst to a Rajasic detachment which is significantly better. Now, we will come to the other end of the continuum where the detachment is perfect.

Here is a man who does every obligatory duty, but is still peaceful and more than anything else, is highly successful. When such a person is in business, he is at the top. In sports, he is the number one. In studies, he always ranks at the top.

The question is, if he is doing all activities, what has he detached? There are three aspects to any task. They are:

a. The attitude to a task(like/dislike)

b. the actual act itself(gardening, sewing, writing etc)

c. The fruits of the task(promotion, prize etc)

We mentioned in Rajasic detachment of a person not doing some activities because they are tough. Here is the issue of someone "disliking" doing a particular job. Where does dislike flow from? The job perse is not dislikable. again it is posible, that I may dislike sewing, whereas someone else may love it. So, any task by itself is not dislikable. It is only our past experience with a task which makes us dislike a task. Similarly past experience may make us like a task. So for any task, we have an attitude of like/dislike. What we dont like, we don't do, even if obligatory.

The other aspect is the thought of the fruit of the task. As I perform an act , say at work, my thought is on its fruit. Will the task succeed and will I get a sales order or will I get a promotion? So anytime we are doing a task, there is a thought about consequence of the act or a projection into the future and many a times, assuming a bad fruit, we may not start a task, which is nothing but Rajasic detachment to work.

Now that we have understood the pre and post of a task, let us see what the level 3 detachment is. A person practicing this is detached from the pre and the post of an activity. He is not constrained by likes/dislikes and does the task because it ought to be done. Period!. No, ifs and buts for not doing or doing. Similarly, his entire focus is on the task and no thoughts about potential reward or failure. 100% of his mental faculty is focused on doing the task, whereas for most of us, majority of our mental space is taken up by likes/dislikes or the fruits of the task. He is detached form the fruits of a task.

This highest level of detachment from likes/dislikes and fruits of a task with exclusive focus on doing a task, because it ought to be done is called Satvik detachment. For a person doing a task like this, there is no fear of failure and hence no agitation. There is no past of likes/dislikes and hence there is focus. Owing to total focus, such a person does the task spectacularly and is successful and at the same time peaceful.

Conclusion

We covered in brief about detachment, why it is needed and also different types of detachments. I encourage readers to reflect and see where they stand on the detachment continuum.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality