This week on Hints of Gladness Rod invites you to practice detachment through mindfulness and letting go. This practice will help free you from obsessive thinking and identifying with your small self; at least temporarily!

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“Detachment, detachment, detachment,” - Meister Eckhart (1260–1328).

there is freedom in healthy detachment from our own thinking

I invite you to practice detachment through mindfulness now! 

(go slowly) 

be still 

still mind 

(say to your mind, be still)

still body

(say to your body, be still) 

relax 

relax your shoulders 

relax your chest 

be here now 

(ask, am I here now?)

be aware of the voice in your head

(ask, who’s doing the talking?)

there are many words for it, but

are you listening and responding to

the voice of the false self or

the true self?

notice your breath

(take at least there conscious breaths) 

accept what is

(what is for you right now? 

let go of time 

let go of the past 

let go of worrying about the future

don’t try to stop your thoughts. 

be with and aware of thoughts, feelings, 

and favourite concepts.

don’t attach to any of these.

don’t allow them to run the show.

don’t identify with them… you are not your thoughts, feelings, and concepts.

accept them and let them go

let go of who you THINK you are 

let go of who you THINK others are 

let go of what you THINK will make you happy 

let go of judgement 

let go of resentment 

let go of self-condemnation 

let go of self-hatred 

stop resisting life

(we can be attached to resistance

and not really living) 

let go of resistance 

naturally be 

go with the flow of life as it

presents itself

allow change to happen 

just do 

just be 

become what you believe you 

are called to be

be empty 

empty, empty, empty 

be open

let go of obsession 

draw something just for the sake of it.

write a whole page of wherever comes to mind simply for the sake if writing it.

stop protecting “the small fragile self” (rohr)… love it and let it go 

be the keeper of the “little point of nothingness” (merton) 

don’t feed the beast! (obsessive thinking)

practice the third way (rohr) consider both sides 

seek to understand 

the third way is both/and

the third way is living with paradox 

listen to the still small voice

(i find that the still small voice is often

a voice of reality and freedom) 

really listen 

listen and respond 

5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - go! (mel robbins) 

don’t try so hard 

don’t try at all 

don’t struggle. it isn’t necessary.

don’t try and manage your addictions… 

surrender 

be open to love 

be open

we willing

in all of this, you are held 

you are always held

Quotes

“At the center of our being is a point of nothingness… This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us... I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is every - where.” - Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander [1] 

“Detachment, detachment, detachment,” - Meister Eckhart (1260–1328). [2]

“The contemplative stance is the Third Way. We stand in the middle, neither taking the world on from another power position nor denying it for fear of the pain it will bring.“ - Richard Rohr [3]

“Detachment is not that you should own nothing. But that nothing should own you.” - Ali ibn abi Talib [4]

“Detachment doesn’t mean I’m trying less hard. It just means that fears and emotions that used to torment and paralyze me no longer have the same power over me.” - Kelly Cultrone [4]

“He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment.” - Meister Eckhart [4]

“The root of suffering is attachment.” - Buddha [4]

“Through healthy detachment love is purified - Rohr

“Take a look at the society we live in. It is rotten to the core, infected with attachments. What is an attachment? An attachment is an emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy.” Anthony De Mello [5]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander 

[2] See Meister Eckhart, Misit Dominus manum suam (Sermon on Jeremiah 1:9–10) for “When I preach, I am accustomed to speak about detachment.”

[3] Richard Rohr, https://cac.org/letting-go-of-our-very-selves-2020-12-16/

[4] https://www.awakenthegreatnesswithin.com/30-inspirational-quotes-on-detachment/

[5] Anthony De Mello “Stop Fixing Yourself: Wake Up All Is Well” page 14