In case you missed it, this is a seven part series of summaries of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, by Deepak Chopra. Take a look at the previous entries if you need to get caught up.
#6: The Law of Detachment
The Law of Detachment takes aspects of the 5th law and expands upon it with more detail.
Becoming attached to things is such a basic human inclination and it is culturally accepted to practice this without question. My car / house / spouse / children, etc our mine. This isn’t so true. First of all, you are on borrowed time in your body. So your material possessions are fleeting. Your spouse and children aren’t really yours since they are with you for such a short time before they move on or pass away.
Essentially, attachment to something is born out a place of fear. Deepak uses an amazing example of attachment when it comes to security. He says, “the search for security and certainty is an attachment to the known (p86).” Really good stuff, but difficult to practice without some work. Security is where I struggle. I am a numbers person, so I think about how much money I would need in the bank to feel secure (which is conditional happiness). One of my daily practices is to be okay with where I am at financially, but take steps to get even more comfortable by making more money.
The practice of this law is in the works for me, but may take a while to get some good results.
As far as practicing this law, here are Deepak’s suggestions:
- Today I will commit myself to detachment
This quote sums this up really well: “I will not rigidly impose my idea of how things should be. I will not force solutions on problems, thereby creating new problems.” - Today I will factor in uncertainty as an essential ingredient of my experience.
This is the adventurous part of life. Maybe this was you as a teen or in your early 20s. I remember being more care free and didn’t take things so seriously. If bad things happened, I would bounce back more quickly and have fun with odd situations. As an older adult, it takes work to release my hold on making things more stable. - I will step into the field of all possibilities and anticipate the excitement that can occur…
Here is a great practice for this: visualization during your mediation and attaching emotions to how you will feel when your future self achieves your desires.
The last two chapters have focused heavily on things that come much more easily with a regular mediation practice. This puts your mind in a place of receptivity to the universe.
Tomorrow will be the last installment of this series and I will move onto other topics. Thanks for reading.
Link to the book -> The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success