Detachment and attachment, love and enlightenment. How are they related?
By emptychair
@innertalks (23742)
Australia
August 15, 2019 7:28pm CST
“The root of suffering is attachment.” Buddha
What is detachment? How does it relate to love?
Love is not detached from anything, and yet for you to fully love and be fully attached to love, you need to be detached from all else.
If we are totally detached then, are we one with God and love, or are we isolated and alone?
The paradoxical nature of God's love is that it is all things to all people.
Love provides attachment to those who need it and detachment for others as well, and yet its truth is that it attaches you to God, so never detach yourself from God's love, and you will stay in God, and God in you then too.
The root of suffering might be attachment, but we need roots to attach our tree to too.
Detachment, then, is not that you should not suffer, but that suffering should not own you.
Detachment and enlightenment are intimately related. The only way to ever achieve enlightenment is when we have achieved complete detachment, and so are able to be completely detached.
Perhaps the simplest explanation of detachment is to say that we no longer have any wants
Enlightenment is no more that the complete illumination our soul receives, when it allows total love to fill it, and expand it to infinity, and so all is connected to it through and by this love.
But then true enlightenment will only come on top of this initial level of enlightenment that comes to soul, when soul accepts its new infinite position detachedly. If in fact, it still wants to exist for its own wants, and to be loved by all, instead of being part of this great overall love, enlightenment will be then half missed, as it wants it for itself, rather than for the whole.
True enlightenment is never for the individual soul, but always only a connection of this soul to the infinity of love and God and all other souls.
Enlightenment is never about isolation, and will never be obtained on your own. No, start to love and to share who you are, and when you are totally sharing and totally loving, you will feel totally connected to all that is, and so you are being totally your part in all that is.
Enlightenment is being totally yourself by not being totally yourself, but being all in yourself by being yourself in all. And you can only do this and achieve this by being totally detached. And with total detachment comes total enlightenment.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
Do not let detachment fence you off from the flowers of love. Love wants to be itself in all things.
9 people like this
7 responses
@Nakitakona (59987)
• Philippines
16 Aug 19
These two terms, detachment and attachment are vague. But you've delimit their vagueness as you define them and cite their differences in relation to love. Thanks.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
16 Aug 19
Yes, those terms can be vaguely defined at times.
Poetry: Is love either attached or detached in you, or both?
Attachment sits on detachment, both intertwined.
Perhaps, you cannot have one without the other,
and yet God's love is able to do the impossible,
and be love, both in a detached and also an attached way.
This is unconditional love personified in you as you in God.
3 people like this
@Nakitakona (59987)
• Philippines
16 Aug 19
@innertalks This is the unfeign love of God.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
17 Aug 19
@Nakitakona Yes, God's love is the real deal, and the type of love that we must all aspire to living from.
@RasmaSandra (98026)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
16 Aug 19
Well, I went through attachment and detachment during a very tough time, For over 20 years I was attached in love to my soul mate. Suddenly he passed away and the detachment was the most painful and scariest thing I had ever gone through, So I let the Lord guide me through my days now and I am able to go on living alone peacefully,
3 people like this
@RasmaSandra (98026)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
16 Aug 19
@innertalks you know its funny that way, This is the last week of his life on earth and he left me on August 17, 2017 but somehow as the day approaches I have this feeling that I am due a visitor and it just feels like I have to wait even knowing that he is around just in a different sphere, I eagerly await Saturday, I am gifted as my entire family was with that sixth sense and I have heard, seen, and felt many things and they have all been comforting
3 people like this
@RasmaSandra (98026)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
17 Aug 19
@innertalks thank you I am having feelings of anticipation and will also light a candle as welcome
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
18 Aug 19
@RasmaSandra I hope the day went well for you, as much as it could do so.
2 people like this
@Mavic123456 (21891)
• Thailand
16 Aug 19
This is very enlightening... and inspiring. thanks
3 people like this
@Mavic123456 (21891)
• Thailand
16 Aug 19
@innertalks oh yeah looks like you are really into it. if the emoticons with the falling hearts are real, most of our tables are full of hearts already.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
16 Aug 19
@Mavic123456 Yes, not many use the emoticons here either.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
16 Aug 19
Thanks for reading my efforts here. These are the subjects I most like to talk about.
3 people like this
@Tampa_girl7 (54716)
• United States
23 Aug 19
I can't imagine my life without love and to love is definitely to open ourselves up to pain, but for me love is worth it.
2 people like this
@Tampa_girl7 (54716)
• United States
24 Aug 19
@innertalks I've always liked that 
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
24 Aug 19
Yes, love is worth it to me too.
As the great English poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, (1809 to 1892) said:
'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28387)
• Singapore
21 Aug 19
The material world overwhelms the vulnerable but a few realize all that glitters is not gold.
Attachment limits our reach and we get entrapped in a narrow sphere only to ignore the vastness of our potential.
The rich tend to be afraid of even their own shadows fearing that their possessions can be taken away.
The Buddha showed by example when he walked away from his kingdom as he knew he had greater reach to lift his people far from the confines of his palace and minions who get attached to the comforts of a closeted and cloistered life.
We need to prise ourselves away from comfort zones to love without borders. The real world is out there and not within the confines of our homes. By keeping our eyes and ears open, we get enriched by learning what life is really about.
Let us move away from going from point A to B to C to immerse ourselves in this exciting journey. By loving and thereby living without borders, we can lift our consciousness and then our true potential takes a geometric progression rather than playing it safe to go around in circles of misery - siva
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
21 Aug 19
Thanks for that in-depth reply, siva.
It's a good guide to how we should generally live our lives.
Most people are pretty happy to live ordinary lives, in the most part.
But as you say, in your last paragraph, only love can lift us into a higher consciousness.
Living from love for God in his service requires extraordinary powers of living though, which God gives to us, as much as we love him, which connects us to his power.
This is the secret of God and his love.
Love, and we will be like God too.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (28387)
• Singapore
22 Aug 19
@innertalks Thanks Steve,
There should be a power, a creator, behind this show.
When we remember that source, whatever we may call that, then we will not waver from our goals.
We should consciously stay connected to that source through perennial awareness and love.
It is good to seek subconsciously the wise counsel and guidance for all our actions.
There is obviously now a disconnect and that reflects in our present disarray where many try to create their own fiefdoms. This pits the common folks as pawns in their nefarious games of oneupmanship.
When love prevails, we are traveling towards a common destiny.
Either we sink in anarchy or swim in placid waters.
Yes, love is the ultimate panacea - siva
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (28387)
• Singapore
23 Aug 19
@innertalks The world is shrinking in the sense the reach of powerful leaders is overpowering. We can run but cannot hide from them! Their influence is insidious, and even infectious, as they want to win at others' cost and rub it in! They can get carried away like in today's video link:
The wise are keeping away rather than wade into the cesspool of political deceit. That is the sad part. The common folks are aware but are helpless and know not how to bell the cat!
Yes, Steve, we are thirsting for love but it lies beneath the overwhelming pall of gloom. Confrontation holds sway.
It is said we get what we deserve but it is clear that the vast majority have not bargained for this. They cannot extricate themselves from the divide and rule of wily politicians.
From time to time, we have in our midst the enlightened beings who show us by example how to turn the corner. We can as well learn from history rather than look for someone to hold our hands again to lead us the right path. History repeats due to our follies and unwillingness to learn from our mistakes - siva
DONALD Trump’s ego took him to a higher level when he proclaimed himself “the chosen one” after tweeting about “the second coming”. The President appeared to...
1 person likes this
@simplfred (20641)
• Philippines
23 Aug 19
"Detachment, then, is not that you should not suffer, but that suffering should not own you." This line speak to me...
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
23 Aug 19
Yes, anything that owns us, attaches us to it. This is also how an addiction works. We need to detach ourselves from all that overwhelms us, and runs us addictively.
2 people like this
@simplfred (20641)
• Philippines
23 Aug 19
@innertalks Right on cue, my friend... Not only that because I've been overstaying on crossroads regarding my faith... I think I need to choose a path right now...
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
23 Aug 19
@simplfred I walked many paths at one stage.
I began in the Christian faith of my parents, but I strayed away over time, exploring many other paths, but then Christianity somehow came back to me and chose me again, so I am back with it again now, and I think I will never leave it again this time.
As long as we do not give up hope, what we are looking for will find us, as it's looking for us, as much as we are looking for it.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (238330)
• Walnut Creek, California
1 Sep 19
There are some interesting paradoxes here, and I do think about them often. It is "things," and the notion that things are permanent, that I see Buddha as warning us about. Often, it is good to be both "fully present" (savoring the moment) and detached (knowing that the moment will pass) that I see as healthy.
But when it comes to love (as of another human being), attachment is necessary. There is a whole area of psychology called "attachment theory" that deals with the importance of early infant/child attachments to significant adults to later development.
.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
1 Sep 19
Yes, and if we believe in the old credo, "as above, so below, or vice versa, as below, so above", this would explain our "attachment" to God too. We need to be "attached" to God's love too, to fully develop into fully conscious human beings.
