Love Without Attachment

The Teacher entered a trance and said,

"You are concerned that giving up attachments will require you to renounce your life as you have lived it until now -- your possessions, your family and friends. It is true that renunciation of this sort is one approach to spiritual living, and frankly it is the easiest. This is why it has been taught by prophets in the past. Removing oneself altogether from the temptation to form attachments reduces the risk of backsliding and makes the transition to an enlightened state much easier. However, it is not absolutely necessary."

"You can enjoy a material object without succumbing to the need to possess it completely. If you renounce the belief that you can possess a person or thing then it is not necessary to renounce the actual person or thing. It is really the mental image ot the thing, not the thing itself, to which you form attachments. Renunciation really means the refusal to form these mental images."

"You can cherish the people and things that come into your life without coveting them, clinging to them, or becoming obsessed with the fear of losing them. Love is at the core of my teaching and you exhibit it when you cherish without attachment. I provide what you need at every moment without your asking for it. If a person or thing is physically unavailable to you at any time, it is because you do not have need of it at that time."

"The focus of your awareness must be Oneness with All That Is, including other souls that are manifestations of my intelligence and Self awareness equally to you. As you love them and yourself, you also love me. As you love me, you love every manifestation of me. Learning to discern my presence in All That Is is a part of your training."

"As physical beings you are necessarily imperfect. This imperfection endures as long as you exist on a physical plane. To a great extent this is due to the influence of egoic mind, which is only an aspect of your physical form."

"Because you are imperfect and incomplete, you do not perceive the vibrational connections between you and other beings and objects. You may sense these connections on a soul level. Another part of your training is to bring that awareness into consciousness. To the extent you retain the illusion of separation, you cannot truly feel bound by Love to others."

"Physical or emotional attachment is the desire for pleasure or the fear of its loss. It is a weak imitation of the loving connection that arises from Oneness. Mind can perceive only such attachments, while Spirit can experience only Love. Renunciants discard the former in order to bring the latter into sharper focus. If you wish to become fully alive in Spiritual consciousness without renouncing material things, you must remain constantly and vibrantly aware of the difference between Mind and its attachments on the one hand, and Spirit and Love on the other. If you are capable of this then you can experience vibrational harmony between yourself and other individual manifestations of my consciousness as true Oneness."

"It is possible -- indeed it is your goal -- to experience Oneness of this kind with all souls. However, on the material plane a connection with one other soul is optimal. Any attempt to maintain a material connection with more than one other is far more likely to distract you and dilute the purity of your spiritual connection with the One, than it is to enhance it. Therefore I teach you to maintain a loving physical relationship with only one other. You in your material form are simply incapable of maintaining focus on Oneness with Spirit in the distracting presence of multiple material attachments."

"Renunciants avoid the difficulty of balancing Spiritual Oneness and physical union by abstaining from the latter. You may think of vows of fidelity as renunciation as well. Renunciants of all types should enter into their commitments joyfully. If they cannot do so, then they should seek another path."

"Just as renunciants must beware of forming attachments to asceticism, you must maintain focus on the spiritual basis of your relationship in order to avoid morbid attachments and their manifestations -- craving, clinging, jealousy, and regret. Awareness of Oneness at the level of genuine Love is the surest way to attain this, and makes all forms of attachment unnecessary. Your loving relationship becomes a part of your spiritual practice, the true test of which is whether it brings you and your partner into closer harmony with me. If it brings peace and joy to your consciousness, then the relationship exists at the soul level. If it brings pain, fear, or disharmony, it is a mere attachment of body or Mind."