Non-Attachment and Creative Expression
Non-attachment – as described in the Hindu scriptures to be one of the key ingredients for Liberation – is commonly understood as being not attached to material objects, positions, events, people, relationships, etc. However I feel these are only the external crutches on to which we are discouraged from being attached. It is important to be unattached to these. However I feel real non-attachment, should be to our own inner experiences – emotional, physical and mental.
Almost at any point in time, what characterizes our existence is the experience we undergo at that point in time – the bliss of watching the horizon from the vantage point of a lush green mountain spot, the heat of the sun’s rays beating down on our skin while we travel through a humid city road, the rage we feel at the uncaring attitude of someone, etc. These experiences, which are reactions to external or internal stimuli, almost “take us away”. In the sense – we identify ourselves with the experience at an inner level and become It. We are that. True non-attachment however, I feel is feeling the separation of US from these experiences – not identifying ourselves with our thoughts or feelings or physical sensations. Mind you, I am not saying we should resist these. Instead, I only say that we should disentangle ourselves from it, for these are not US. We stand in the middle, unchanged and unruffled. We need to be always in that middle. There is a field around us in which our experiences play out. It is important to segregate this field with its experiences, from our SELVES. Once we are able to do this, I feel we can realize that the I in US does not change. Only the circumstances around it do.
Attaining this stage, I feel will lead one to not get disturbed by what goes on around oneself. One sees the play of the world, becomes a detached part of it, still does not get identified with or “taken away” by it. It is like the center of a grinding wheel which does not move; only its surroundings do. The farther and farther ones goes away from the center, the greater the turbulence that occurs.
This “centerdness”,I believe, is what one should seek. Once there, I feel one’s response to any situation would not be conditioned by accumulated reflexes of the past or anxieties about the future. Rather, they would be a spontaneous “arising” from one’s inmost self. This I feel, is true creative expression – a process in which something deep within us finds its manifestation.
posted by Sankara Narayanan @ 8:08 AM
5 Comments:
hey sankar. nice to read your blog. i have, in many books, esp those of Krishnamurthi's come across this concept of non attachment. however i feel that attachment is something -whether internal or external - what makes u what you are. it makes you feel alive, involved, passionate and emotional....shades of which tell you what kind of a person you are...so if we all truly achive 'non attachment', will it not make us very much like each other...
Vijay aka Shankar,
Surprised to see you have written such a blog, deep thoughts.
when the center expands itself by increasing its circumfrence, it manifests itself in many ways. when the realization takes place, it comes back into the centerpoint. without expansion, there is no purpose of the center existing. without coming back to the point of origin being the center point, the circumferance doesnt achieve its purpose. this is the very concept at the core of bigbang theory, and thats why Sun is denoted by a circle and a point at center in the mythical and astrological symbols.
To answer your friend Sonal's comment, physically, materially, in our mind, we are all difference as you rightly said and thats the purpose. but as a soul, we are all one and there is no difference, just exactly as you warned.
Thats why Shankar said its not the external process he is referring to but the internal process. A process described as Jihad in Islam which is misinterpreted as a religious war by some.
Hi Ram and Sonal: Thanks for your comments.
I think Ram has written what I would have exactly thought. Shri Aurobindo provides an excellent "framework" of the Human Personality. He says, there are four planes or layers - physical, vital (emotional), mental and spiritual - of our personality. Each of us reside in various planes at different points in time, mostly in the vital and mental. While this is unavoidable (and also not proscribed) it is important to understand that there is a deeper spritual layer in us, wherein all sages and scriptures say, we are the same. Yes, we may be different at the outer level. And the attempt is not to abolish the diversities. Rather to understand the common core, from where we can perhaps appreciate the diversities better.
The other important point to note in Sonal's comment is the crux of the issue of "identity"- Who am I? You may refer to my other post where I have touched upon it. In summary, we are not the outer surface, but the inner core, so says Hindu Philosohpy. We try to find ourselves in the surface but never do. And that is the reason for the various conflicts that we see happen around us ( I should add to lend a semblance of balance, that it is also the reason why we see so many "achievements" also). Swami Vivekananda put it succinctly when he said, " we are the spirit, residing in a body", where as in the West, "we are considered to be the body carrying a spirit".
The concept of "maya" ( based on the little I know) is also about this wrongful identification of ourselves with what is around us, instead of with what we truly are.
The other common mistake people make is to beleive that if we are non-attached, we would become inert. On the contrary, the Gita says it is this very non-attachment that will lead us to rightful and skillfull action, a state from where we can do no wrong and also fulfill the purpose of why we are here.
Non attachment is equanimity, a freedom from not being 'repulsed' or 'attracted' to something or someone, a non-identification. It is not about being attached to something, it is even more of what is being attached - who is it that is being attached to what? When the 'I' itself is non-existent, there is non attachment. The 'I' itself is an illusion - it does not exist. Like a wave identifies itself with the ocean, thinking it is separate from the ocean, but it is all part of ONE. Whe one realises this itself, the distinction blurs, drops. The Ocean falls into the drop, as Kabir says.
Thanks Steve for dropping by and writing in your comments. Your laying the focus on the one to which attachments happen instead of attachment itself is excellent. I think it all boils down to finding an answer to the question-Who Am I?
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