Karen Casey - Let Go Now: Embrace Detachment as a Path to Freedom

HOW DO WE EMBRACE DETACHMENT? WHY SHOULD WE even want to? Those are questions that prompted my desire to write this book. Detachment, according to the dictionary, means separation. Embrace means to come together. How can we do both in the same moment?

Its my intention to make this conundrum clear as you move through this book. In the meditations you will come to understand not only the necessity for loving detachment within our many relationshipsthose that are dear to us as well as those that cause us concernbut also the importance of embracing this concept if you want a peaceful journey through life.

To begin with, I think we have to cultivate our willingness to let go, that is, to detach from the trials and tribulations of our contemporaries if we want to find the quiet peace we long for, a peace that will allow us to truly love, to truly embrace, and to appreciate those who journey with us. In this process, we also give those companions the freedom to grow and to find their own way, thus their own eventual peace too. I dont think we can come together as loving equals without embracing the willingness to detach.

We live very codependent lives, from my perspective. By this I mean that too many of us let even the whims of othersin our families, our communities, our workplaces, even in other parts of the worlddefine us, determine how we feel, and then decide what we will do next in many instances. Learning to detach allows us to live the life we were meant to live. By allowing other peoples behavior, good, bad, or disinterested, control us, we miss many opportunities for movement and expression in new directions. The converse is also true: if we attempt to control the other persons on our path, wherever they may reside, keeping them attached to us through any means (and most of us are very practiced at this), we immobilize them, thus preventing the growth they deserve and have been prepared for already.

Detachment isnt easy. If it were, there would be no need for a book offering to help you develop the skills to do it. And it may not have appeared on your radar screen as something you wanted to cultivate prior to picking up this book. As was already noted, we are accustomed to being enmeshed with others, letting our lives be constantly influenced by their behavior. I am not suggesting that this influence is always bad; there are good influences too, probably everyday. We can and do observe healthy detached behavior in some of our friends, and perhaps they showed up on our path to serve as our teachers. Its not always easy to discern the good from the bad, however. Its my intent for the meditations here to illustrate those behaviors we want to mimic and those we dont.

It is my hope that this book, Let Go Now: Embrace Detachment as a Path to Freedom, will clarify many of your questions about detachment: what it is, how to do it, and how to practice it with others. Its also my hope that you will give yourself all the time you need to fully absorb the concepts and to develop the skills as outlined. I didnt come to appreciate the value of detachment easily, and the idea of embracing it came even later. But the peaceful tenor of my journey today is surely the result of my commitment to practicing and embracing detachment at every opportunity.