DETACHMENT AND THE SEARCH OF TRUTH
by Gary Rosenberg

“I hold that believers who have to see the same God in others that they see in themselves, must be able to live among all with sufficient detachment.  And the ability to live thus can be cultivated, not by fighting shy of unsought opportunities for such contacts, by hailing them in the spirit of service and withal keeping oneself unaffected by them.”

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Whether we recognize it or not, we are all on a path towards Truth.  Truth is the essence of Life, sometimes referred to as The Source, The Universal Mind, The One, The Creator and God.  Our path is an eternal one and for those of us on this planet, we find ourselves at the first of a series of evolutionary realms or worlds we pass through as we become more spiritually aware.

Our spiritual awareness depends on our personal intention and desire to seek Truth.  While our sole purpose in Life is our spiritual path towards Truth, it is our awakening to this purpose and our intention to live our lives for this purpose that determines our progress in our spiritual evolution.

At this time our collective Humanity is what some would call spiritually primitive.  This is not a judgment, though it may sound ‘politically incorrect.’  It is simply stating an observation by those teachers, sages, gurus and others who understand these things.  Though any of us individually may be at different levels of spiritual growth – as a whole just looking at the world Humanity has created (or destroyed) can help us see just how spiritually primitive we are. 

However, this does not stop us from our path towards Truth, but should encourage us to be that much more determined in our spiritual search and move us to an intention with the strongest desire to make our spiritual path all important.  For as you will discover in this and my future writings, the Spiritual is really all that matters, the rest is illusion.

If we are to be serious about our spiritual path in this world, then we have to understand the importance of detachment.  The Hindu and Buddhist spiritual systems refer to a practice of renunciation.  Renunciation is giving up our attachment towards worldly pleasures.  This does not mean we live like paupers, ignore our responsibilities towards our family, friends, fellow workers and communities.  What renunciation or detachment does mean is that we place into perspective the importance of the material relative to the Spiritual. 

To detach ourselves from the world of material form and things requires that we play the role of objective observer as we participate in worldly events and things.  It requires that we do not become attached to the acquisition of material things or ideas; that we understand things have their place in our material existence and not much more.  While material things may give us some comfort and pleasure, detachment will not allow them to become the most important part of our existence as has been the case of most of Humanity. 

What causes us to be so attached to the material world of things is our ego, for our ego was designed to seek and receive personal pleasure and benefit in all things material.  It is our ego which allows us to believe in illusions of pleasure even when these illusions will ultimately cause us harm.  It is the ego which drives us to exploit other people, animals and Nature for our own personal self-benefit.  It is the ego which will delude us into thinking lies are truths and truths are lies.  It is the ego which sees us as separate from each other, envious and fearful of each other.  It is the ego which has worked to stifle our soul and reign supreme over the world of material things.  And it is the ego which is ultimately destroying the world as we know it.

Without detachment from our world of material things and our egos, our search for Truth and truth becomes distorted through continual distractions.  Our desire for knowing becomes a desire for more and more pleasures and material possessions.  Without detachment, our connection with our soul and our path towards Truth is prolong.  As long as we allow our ego to lead us, we will continue to experience struggle, challenge and pain in our lives and what has been manifested as a world on the edge of extinction will truly be our demise.

And yet, we must not pass judgment on any situation.  Detachment forces us to accept what is with the intention of correction.  Because we do not judge anyone or any situation does not mean we accept those things which cause harm to us or others.  Detachment simply means we recognize when the ego has manifested our world and dig deep inside ourselves with the greatest of desires for the goodness of our soul to take us on a different path.

The ego has been very active in our world for far too long.  It has distracted us from facing our most pressing problems.  It has deluded us with lies and made us incapable of logic, inquisitiveness and reasoning.  It has given us leaders who lead only for their own self-benefit to the ever- likely destruction of all of us.  It has dissociated and alienated us by political parties, religion, philosophies, gender, race, ethnicity, geography and age.  We have allowed the ego to reign supreme.

We have to awaken to cut through the curtain of illusion and delusion the ego keeps around us.  We must detach ourselves from our ego and its insatiable material desires if we are to allow the goodness of our soul to manifest and create a world of true beauty and love. 

Detachment does not come without the strongest intention and desire and it requires us being honest with ourselves about what is truly important to us on our current spiritual path and our search for both truth and Truth.   A strong desire for detachment means we recognize that our time in this world of material things is limited and that there is something much grandeur in Life which we seek, are part of, desirous of and raise above all else. 

Once we start practicing detachment and understand our true purpose is spiritual evolution we begin to lose fear, understand and love more people, appreciate the beauty and interconnection of Nature, know truth, feel joy and bestow love.

For the way to spiritual growth is detachment from what impedes us along our path, the knowledge that our true essence is love and that anything but Truth is an illusion.