Involvement without Entanglement

 

Photo Credit: Twitter

Involvement without Entanglement

When we talk of detachment as a major spiritual objective, there is another side to it – can there be life without involvement? If we observe closely – life is not possible without involvement.

Where there is no involvement, there is no possibility of life. When we are alive, why do we try to stay away from life? If this is so, then if we drop dead our objective will be fulfilled. This whole nonsense about detachment came up because people are afraid of entanglement. There is a possibility of entanglement only because we are identified with something that is not the self. Once we are identified with something that is not the self, anything we put our hand on gets stuck to us. Because of this experience, there is fear of involvement, and because of this, people are talking “detachment.” But if we avoid involvement, we will avoid life itself.

It is not about not wanting to get hurt. We try to stay away and detach ourselves from the world, and even from our siblings, spouse, children, because when we get attached there are expectations, then with this there is bound to be hurt.

That is also the fear of involvement. We think that if we are involved, we could get hurt. But in reality, we will not get hurt because we are involved – we will get hurt because we are entangled. It is the entanglement that causes pain and suffering, not the involvement. Because people cannot distinguish between involvement and entanglement, because they do not know how to draw a line between the two, a simple, basic solution seems to be detachment. But detachment is not a solution in life. It is a way of avoiding life.

If, in our experience, we clearly know our body sits here, our mind is there, and we are at a distance from both of them, if there is a distinct separation between us and our body, between us and our mind, would we get entangled with anything in life? Only because we are attached and entangled with our body, we get entangled with everybody. If we are not attached and entangled with our body, we will not get entangled with anybody. We can throw ourselves into anything. We can get totally involved with anyone without the fear of entanglement.

The way to do that will be to practice detached attachment – be involved in life but don’t get emotionally involved. Watch life, and respond appropriately, with love and kindness to whatever situation crops up.