Attachment vs. Non-Attachment – Part 1

I think there is a need to veer away from attachment, to rules, rituals, principles, formulas and expectations. There is a need to adopt a lifestyle of non-attachment, in which you don’t hold onto specific expectations and you don’t try to use principles and formulas.

Non-attachment is an alien concept for many people, particularly self-help advocates and religious adherents. I think the Buddhist community have got the concept of non-attachment down to a “T”. I’ll admit that I don’t know much about Buddhism, but what I do know about it really impresses me.  Buddhism seems to be oriented towards allowing things to be as they are, accepting others unconditionally and making space in your life and welcoming peace.

The releasing and inquiry communities tend to adopt Buddhist concepts, some of them are Buddhist, but most of them are not, I find. A lot of people in the releasing community seem to be advocates of Nodualism.

In my experience people who have come into releasing or inquiry, have tried popular self-help methods, particularly affirmations based methods such as The Law of Attraction, and found them wanting. When a person adopts releasing or inquiry as a way of life, there is a shifting away from claiming or attracting things, towards letting go of those wants and desires and beginning to question whether you really need them at all.

Christianity on the other hand has been all about do, do, do: it’s been obsessed with doing things, with the belief that you are lazy or sinful if you stop doing something religious and church-related for just a moment. There is also the awful threat of hellfire and damnation should you do something that is considered “sinful” or if you lapse in your religious obligations.

I find that there are hardly any Christians who use releasing or inquiry. I’m not at all surprise, to be honest; because there is no way that a person who follows a set of rules could incorporate releasing or inquiry concepts into their life and belief system.

Thankfully, the emerging “grace movement” in Christianity is shifting people’s perspective towards accepting yourself, your life and other people – just the way they are. Nevertheless, I still find that there is tendency even amongst some “grace Christians”, to continue pursuing miracles, fantasies, power and wealth. Amongst Christians, there is always the lure of reverting back to rule keeping in its more subtle form of following principles.

It is all a question of focus: with Christianity either the focus is on not sinning and doing something for God, or the focus is simply on knowing that you are loved and accepted by God – just the way you are. With releasing the focus is on understanding that the negative aspects of your life arise from the three wants and that you can let them go. With inquiry the focus is on understanding that all suffering in life arises from attachment to a thought and that through inquiry you can find freedom from those thoughts and the pain that comes when we attach to them.

For me, I believe that there is no reason as to why a person should not allow themselves to hold onto the non-stressful, core aspects of the Gospel which bring peace and hope – whilst releasing on or inquiring into, those wants or beliefs which bring stress.