Once you decide to open your mind to everything, the next step is to let go of all your attachments. We are going to look at this topic today.
A good place to start is to let go of your attachments to what you’ve been trained to believe. Open your mind to all possibilities, because whether you believe something is possible or impossible, either way you’ll be right. How can that be true? Your agreement with reality and all that’s possible determines what you’ll become. If you’re convinced that you can’t become wealthy, famous, artistic, a professional athlete, a great singer, or whatever, you will act upon that inner conviction that prevents you from manifesting what you’d really like. All that you’ll get from your effort is being right. When you need to be right, you’re attached to your conditioned reflex of the way things are and always have been; and you assume they will always be.
Your attachments are the source of all your problems. The need to be right, to possess someone or something, to win at all costs, to be viewed by others as superior—these are all attachments. The open mind resists these attachments and consequently experiences inner peace and success.
If you think peaceful thoughts, you’ll feel peaceful emotions, and that’s what you’ll bring to every life situation. If you’re attached to being right or absolutely need something in order to be at peace or to be successful, you’ll live a life of striving yet never arriving.
To release attachments, you have to make a shift in how you view yourself. If your primary identification is with your body and your possessions, your ego is the dominant force in your life. If you can tame your ego sufficiently, you’ll call upon your spirit to be the guiding force in your life. As a spiritual being, you can observe your body and be a compassionate witness to your existence. Your spiritual aspect sees the folly of attachments because your spiritual self is an infinite soul. Nothing can make you happy or successful. These are inner constructs that you bring to your world, rather than what you receive from it.
However, releasing your attachment, especially to possessions, is not easy in this consumer-oriented world in which you are bombarded by advertising that continually exhorts you to buy bigger, better, more. The first step in transcending such messages is to become aware of what’s going on and realize that you don’t really need anything else in order to be happy. You may need to say this to yourself over and over until it sinks in: “Nothing can make me happy. Happiness is what I bring to life, not what I purchase.” This awareness diminishes the annoyance of all those commercial messages, and at the same time allows you to enjoy their creativity, because you’ve detached from the ego messages and connected to Spirit.
What I’m suggesting is that you can be free from the push to convince yourself that you need more, while still being able to enjoy the material aspects of the world. In other words, you know that you don’t need more, and at the same time, you’re free to live happily and enjoy the world the way it is. I want this distinction to be clear because it’s fun enjoying a new automobile, well-made clothes, dinner in a nice restaurant, an expensive piece of jewelry, or anything else (including this book). What you want to avoid is the inner belief that somehow your true essence is lacking if you don’t get more possessions. You must also guard against allowing this “stuff” to define your worthiness, which is what advertisers frequently attempt to convey.
When I allowed my awareness to purchase only what I desired, I found myself less and less attached to stuff. You see, the more I have, the more it becomes almost burdensome to store it, insure it, dust it, decide if it’s tax deductible, and ultimately dispose of it. These days I’m almost amused by the advertising I’m subjected to, and when it appears, I press my “spiritual mute button” and feel even happier that I’m immune to the message that certain brands can add status to my life.
It’s possible to have a burning desire yet not have attachments. You can have an inner vision of what you intend to manifest and still detach yourself from the outcome. How? Consider this observation in A Course in Miracles: “Infinite patience produces immediate results.” It sounds like a paradox, doesn’t it? Infinite patience implies an absolute certainty that what you’d like to manifest will indeed show up, in perfect order, and exactly on time. The immediate result you receive from this inner knowing is a sense of peace. When you detach from the outcome, you’re at peace, and you’ll ultimately see the fruits of your convictions.
Suppose you had a choice between two magic wands. With Wand A, you can have any physical thing you desire by simply waving it. With Wand B, you can have a sense of peace for the rest of your life regardless of what circumstances arise. Which would you pick? A guarantee of stuff, or inner peace for the remainder of your life? If you opt for peace, then you already have Wand B. Simply have a mind that is open to everything but attached to nothing. Let it all come and go as it will. Enjoy it all, but never make your happiness or success dependent on an attachment to any thing, any place, and particularly, any person.
In all of your relationships, if you can love someone enough to allow them to be exactly what they choose to be—without any expectations or attachments from you—you’ll know true peace in your lifetime. True love means you love a person for what they are, not for what you think they should be. This is an open mind—and an absence of attachment.