nonattachment, again
the definition that works best for me, at present, is as follows: i know i am attached when a subject of joy, when taken away, causes me pain. conversely, i know i am not attached when i am happy about an aspect of my life, but were i to lose it all of a sudden, i would not be miserable on account of it.
(definitions are for you, a!)
(definitions are for you, a!)
10 comments:
thanks, n :) if not miserable, can one be temporarily sad, or at the least a little less happy in your definition? else what does it mean to be happy about something anyway?
nb: this is a question about your defn, not a fundamental philosophical question that i have...so i'm not breaking my previously promised hiatus :)
i believe your nb :P
happiness: gratitude for the way that certain things are. one can and will be temporarily sad as long as one doesn't achieve complete detachment - a tough goal. but as long as one realizes the meaninglessness of that sadness, one can overcome it too. that gradual realization of detachment is valuable enough, in my opinion.
my question pertained to the notion of "complete detachment" that you mention. in ur definition of complete detachment is there room for temporary sadness, or a little less happiness.
no.
of course that is an ideal we strive to attain, but probably never get to. progress towards such ideals can at best be asymptotic.
hmm...in that case happiness *because* of the presence of something in your life does not make sense, since the absence does not cause a change in said happiness.
no?
as in there is no causal link between sources of happiness and happiness
well not exactly - i see your point, but i think the notion of detachment is slightly different. Its not that things don't cause you any happiness or joy - it's that if they're taken away, it doesn't cause you sadness. And more specifically, when anything is taken away - a person, an object, an activity - it doesn't cause you so much sadness that you are deterred from the spiritual path.
the other aspect of detachment is understanding where things come from. From the spiritual perspective, I believe this means looking to God as the source of all the bounties in our life, and not ourselves. Additionally, we don't really "own" anything on this material earth, and we're not going to take any of this with us when we die.
So for example, detachment from people does not imply you don't love them and care for them, and are joyful in their presence. You do - in fact, as much as you can. But if that person is taken away from you, you don't feel so sad that it deters you from exerting the utmost to progress spiritually. In addition, even while experiencing the joy, you always include God as part of that experience, acknowledging the greater spiritual source of that happiness.
And so though you can be happy about the presence of something in your life, because you recognize the above and appreciate that the source is really something greater, its absence does not bring you as much sadness (and in the ideal case, any sadness).
hmm...i don't fully understand...but perhaps lets leave this to a 1:1.
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