--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Alex Stanley" <j_alexander_stan...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter <drpetersutphen@> wrote: > > > > > > Let me jump into this attachment discussion. > > > > > > I'd like to argue that you don't know what attachment is until > > > you experience pure consciousness while the mind functions. Any > > > attempt to become unattached through the mind is pure > > > mood-making/manipulation which is worthless. > > > > I don't know that I agree. I think that detachment can occur > > through maturity and experience, through living in accordance > > with your values. Even if this had nothing to do with pure > > consciousness, I disagree that it is irrelevant mood making or > > is worthless. It is functioning in a self actualized way, with > > empathy and at your best. This is worthwhile, whatever the label. > > I suppose an affectation of non-attachment may have some relative > value, but it reminds me of the people I saw on the Oprah message > boards, trying to imitate Eckhart Tolle being present to what is and > thinking that is what it is to be awakened. For all its relative > value, it's still not freedom. > I am not talking about an affectation. I am not talking about imitating. I am talking about who you are and who you can be. You can cultivate detachment without meditating, it has value and it is not mere moodmaking. It is you. It is about acting in accord with your values. Self actualized. Mediation not necessarily required.
So, you can have empathetic detachment without an experience of pure consciousness. Peter maintains that you can't "know" attachment until you experience pure consciousness and I am saying that I don't know that I agree. I do agree that you can have what I term mystical experiences that give you an "aha" experience of what may be described as pure consciousness. However, we do not know that it is pure consciousness or any less mood making than any other state or any more worthwhile than any other state.
