Monday, 4 March 2019

SHACK 571 ATTACHMENT VERSUS DETACHMENT



Zen thinking
In Eastern philosophies and especially in some Buddhist writings there is a great deal written and spoken about detachment.

If one forcibly endeavours to be detached then one is attached to the mind set discipline of detachment and then one is more attached than ever. Then again what is the motive for wishing to be detached? There can be dissatisfaction with one’s life in numerous ways, maybe the lure of inner peace and a guaranteed after life.

Then again one may wish to be on a so called spiritual path for many reasons and there could be a karmic reason. Whether one believes or feels that they have lived many lives in various incarnations which I feel is so and then one feels that this life is the life to free oneself from the ‘hamster cage wheel’ and not return, not really knowing if there is an after life of hell or heaven and or oblivion, yet there is this urge far more than being unhappy with just this life’s injustice and unhappiness. So one examines ones motives and observes this self in action and begins to cull the extraneous thoughts and long held beliefs and so begins to detach not through will power and forcing oneself to be aware which are the first steps to releasing some of the outworn and destructive and non serving behaviours.

Then fantasies and old mind movies begin to surface, the internal mind dialogue and chatter which in quiet moments of reflection, rumination, prayer and meditation begin to intrude like buzzing gnats, mosquitoes, flies and wasps and swatting them with suppression and wilfulness seems to give them delight and fuel them up as if they are feeding on one’s forceful attempt at eradicating them.  After all they have been hitherto ones life and foundation with many unfulfilled wishes, dreams and ambitions and perhaps this failure to fulfil these long held and often cherished ancestry, cultural and social facets are those one may have chosen to clear the slate so to speak as unfinished business from yester yore and that was reason one has chosen this life in order to clean the slate.

It can be that attachments lead to addictions and addictions maybe said to be that which chain one to a post, a prison of behaviours which imprison happiness although some addictions take one away by distraction and narcotics from the unhappiness which has an underlying cause somewhere in the far distant accumulation of unfinished karma and its present resurgence in this incarnation or if not a incarnation enthusiast distant childhood unremembered buried trauma and so on.

Be that as it may when realises that these fantasies, mind thorns, deep shadow feelings that make one shudder and even go cold as if a ninja like creepy silent shadow makes one at times irrepressibly shudder and go cold as if a monster is arising like a slow black shadow from the cold deep vaults of hell and deep fissures in the cold inhospitable sea and then the hot pounding heat as the release frees kundulini, chi, natural circulation and restores relief when it subsides.

I feel these monsters are being released now in the world by wars, atrocities beyond imagination and one feels there is a world wide plague acerbated by digital news by electronic devices and the Chinese Whisper Syndrome blown up tenfold or more. These malignancies were always there at many times in past wars and uprisings however they were local and took many weeks to reach other shores, now it is instant news, instant karma, instant food and instant triggering and copy cat as it pushes the dormant hitherto buried similarities and pushes the release button in the trap door and comes to some unstoppable urge to act this out in some manner and so joining the world collective unconscious in that particular mode of expression and out working.

For those who can handle the uprising material by some sort of mindfulness and therapy if needed, then they can experience with awareness usually with the deep breaths and allow these vicissitudes to surface and without repressing or the need act them out physically or torture oneself with guilt and feel I am a monster this is in me and begin a path of self recrimination and beating oneself up and even self harm and then feeling unworthy, a mortal sinner and even suicide and what happened to me when I was abused as a younger person and now is correct for I must be a bad and horrible person for them to have done that to me, I deserved the abuse.

When one can watch this come out with awareness and like a black smelly sticky foul clouds that obscure the light of the clear mind or hedonistic sexual lusty arousal that takes over with vivid imagination and fantasies or orgies, pornographic and even sadomasochism which contain acts of sadism and masochism.  Sadism being inflicting pain on another many times through sexual means and masochism self infliction and in my forensic and therapist days there were plenty to witness and I had through work through these as well as every patient and forensic case brought up these feelings in me thankfully I was meditating and worked through a lot and am still working through them and that is why I am thankful I live alone in a relatively lovely area with reasonable neighbours, I do not have close ties with my family and have only telephone friends and for me the bonding in like minded groups, social interplay is not at this time for me, I am not lonely being alone, I prefer it as I can deal with what arises and not bury it or run for help and share it with others, I can do just as well on the phone with a few friends on the ‘path’ who in synchronistic mode  go through the same.

Then a breakthrough of a sort; I often wondered why these old mind movies pleasurable or not so kept arising, I reasoned yes it was a habit, long standing deep rooted and seated programme that afforded a sort of back handed resource and of course the jolly old ego which was a self or other loaded programme through brain washing and the like and was an assumption and convincing con job of this is my life and is real and solid without too many interruptions until I die, after all I meditate, am a reasonable fellow and all the other mind crap I dream up to justify my rut and groove I call living and one day the break through will arrive and I will be free and then hallelujah and front seat in Nirvana.

Then I began to see bit by bit that all these mind machinations were not me, first of all I fought the arising disturbances by saying ‘this is not me’, then I would watch them and be irritated when they persisted and felt guilty and sad at times, then I realised that in watching them it was not awareness the witness, yes it was the ego watching itself to make sure I did not get too close to its frailty and fragility, although it would never admit it that it was just a bunch of programmes. Then with the episodes of grace which came at unspecified and spontaneous moments, the ego began to realise that its efforts and maintenances of containing and proliferation were exhausting and perhaps it would just let go. Uh yes let go that was the next trap, I’ll just be wild, uncaring, go to eat rubbish and not a healthy diet, after all I am going to die and hell and heaven are all mind stuff, who cares, fuck them all I don’t care a shit’.

So the ego gave a clue to relative emancipation, the more I tried to let go, justify and tried to deny the more the tightening of the screw. My body played up with lower back pain and leg and hip stiffness of course the old stubborn stiff neck, ‘I will not bend my knees, let go of stubborn stiff neck stuff, never mind my floundering foundation of hip and joint, a stiff spine its all hanging onto thoughts that are as nebulous as the clouds, they are not solid they are droplets of water, hazy and not defined or solid, so was this mind stuff, they have the appearances or being real and solid, no more than more thoughts, I make them real and solid so I can have an identity and somewhere to hang my hat and coat. 


Then it occurred to me as these were not real, temporary illusion like objects, things, an apparition and I really could see with intuition, I really knew these were not me I could let them float by without having to remind myself not to judge them, breathe let them disperse naturally, I did not have to be aware by being intentionally aware, they just lost their grip, somewhere in my mind their importance lost their importance, they were not me, I had known this intellectually, then it made logical sense, now I could actually enjoy them without being irritated or they were invading my space, they could come and go like clouds, enjoy them without emotion and it was the emotional buzz that kept the ego alive, it feeds on arousal and action, I am alive I feel my programmes and beliefs, they keep me alive, I don’t care if I am brain washed this will do nicely thank you, piss off and mind your own business.

Then I began to feel not ashamed or guilty at some of the horrors in me, and in fact they are not me, I own that I feel them and the pleasurable ones, but I know they were installed in me by conditioning and brain washing, I cannot be in denial that they are not the elite, the greedy media mogul, unfortunate life styles due to early parenting and so on and blame them, nay I know this appears to be me, but I am none of these foisted and educated me.

So on saying these were and are in me and not me is this denial? I try to detach and say they are not me and shy away then I realise I am attached by saying I am detached and in that way like yin and yang they are polar opposites and instead of realising in a world of duality, hot-cold, night-day, female - male, black-white and so on what if yinyang are flowing as a sine wave like night flows into day and vice versa, yin deep emotions and caring flowing into yang action and strength in outward life, then the not me can just float by it has no substance it can be just a cloud, a passing thought and then like my old Sensei said when I was faced in a championship Judo Shia(contest) against a formidable opponent and I was terrified ‘ If you go into shia with fear  then you have no energy, if you go with I will do my best, just a little more energy and an excuse for loosing, if you go for hiki waki (draw) then a compromise, one cannot always lose, draw, do ones best it is only necessary to participate and ENJOY’ what the hell and so what, just at that moment like a grace arising I felt energy and won.

So if clouds are inevitable and the trap door is open for these buried whatever’s to arise and I feel deeply they are not me not by denial, reason, detachment, attachment, some clever psychological ruse which denial can adopt, these pressures to suppress and feel guilt and shame, thinking and what’s more believing this is me have gone, it leaves a mind unhinged from these whatever’s still aware of their comings and goings but free of the seduction and lure because I have given up trying to be detached and given up the attachment to being detached and so the trap door is open and it can all vent out.

                                          SHACK          


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