tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10032287.post115808591034463241..comments2023-09-08T00:47:50.511-07:00Comments on Naked Reflections: Relaxing Our GripStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02549770321948541384noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10032287.post-1158160734197754992006-09-13T08:18:00.000-07:002006-09-13T08:18:00.000-07:00"try seizing life by the balls and participating j..."try seizing life by the balls and participating joyfully in the sorrows of the world, instead of trying to detach yourself in illusion and safety."<BR/><BR/>What is the "illusion" from which I'm trying to "detach" myself?<BR/><BR/>"It takes a much more integral spirituality to accept life on its own terms than to try to detach from its pain, for if you cannot suffer pain, neither will you suffer pleasure.<BR/><BR/>Two points. First, as I understand it, integral spirituality, as Ken Wilber and various other sages describe it, is an approach in which "non-attachment" to rather than "detachment" from the phenomena of consciousness or life is precisely what empowers us to become most fully engaged with life. Thus, it is the anxiety and fear that most of us experience from clinging to life and its phenonema that stifles our full and exuberant engagement with life.<BR/><BR/>But the question that keeps coming to mind is: How does one become "non-attached" without becoming attached to non-attachment? What this would often seem to boil down to, in worldly practice, is the effort to continue clinging to life and the things we value in life without suffering the pitfalls of clinging.<BR/><BR/>Second, Buddhists, psychotherapists, and many others would suggest that there is appropriate and necessary pain and suffering from which we shouldn't try to escape, and inappropriate and unnecessary pain and suffering generated by "irrational" or misguided thoughts and other wayward internal conditions that we can control to varying degrees and thereby empower ourselves to experience life--its pleasures and necessary displeasures--without throwing needless displeasure into the mix.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02549770321948541384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10032287.post-1158091615057300202006-09-12T13:06:00.000-07:002006-09-12T13:06:00.000-07:00Countermag 12:34While I agree with the seizing of ...Countermag 12:34<BR/>While I agree with the seizing of life, sometimes I think it is okay to detach from pain and troubles for small amounts of time. Believe me, it can overwhelm you at times to where you don't think you can go on. The only thing that saves some people is detaching temporarily from that which troubles them. Almost just taking a step back to look in from a comfortable distance to sort things out in your head. I have been there more than once this year for one reason or another and for me personally it makes sense to do that. I totally agree with the thought that if you cannot suffer pain you won't know how to suffer pleasure.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10032287.post-1158089695772752252006-09-12T12:34:00.000-07:002006-09-12T12:34:00.000-07:00Here's a better way. You probably won't like it b...Here's a better way. You probably won't like it because it is the white man's way, but try <I>seizing life by he balls and participating joyfully in the sorrows of the world</I>, instead of trying to detach yourself in illusion and safety. It takes a much more integral spirituality to accept life on its own terms than to try to detach from its pain, for if you cannot suffer pain, neither will you suffer pleasure.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com