Upgrade My Attachments to Preferences
12 January 2004, 1 am | Faith, Quote
From a Zen Buddhism point of view, Jennifer posted a comment at Abyssal Mind that accurately describes what Christian mystics call detachment. Her favorite saying from Buddha is:
Suffering is wishing things were other than they are.
Very good point! She goes on to say,
Remembering this phrase during tough times has definitely helped me to let go of the need to control situations and to upgrade my ‘attachments’ to ‘preferences.’
I would add that one needs to keep this in mind also when times are going well.
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Comments
What timing! I’ve been doing some reading on Zen/Buddhist detachment in an effort to get a better understanding of its application in Christian meditation. There are a few different types of detachment in Buddhism, and detachment from suffering is one of them. I’ll write about the others soon.
∼ πλ · 12 January 2004, 5 am · by Steve Bogner ¬
I recommend following the link to the ‘Abyssal Mind’ post. BJ does a good job describing from a psychological point of view what the difference is between “I” and “Me” (although he does not mention the term “Me”).
In his book, “Awareness,” Anthony de Mello goes into much more depth from a spiritual point of view.
∼ πλ · 12 January 2004, 7 am · by Mark ¬
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