Spirituality has been quite the buzzword the past couple years, and everywhere on Earth people are looking to be more ‘holisitc’ and in sync with their energies. But the first visuals to come to their mind when they think of spirituality is meditation, yoga, deep breathing, or maybe even religious rituals. And for them, spirituality is all about sitting in silence for hours or chanting mantras.
But in reality, spirituality is also about self-awareness, about gratitude, about connection, about inner clarity., and much more.
To every spiritual person, there are certain ethos in mind. And even for people who are treading towards spirituality, there are some things they feel they need to do. And one of the biggest of them is the need to meditate to ground oneself. People think that meditation, breathwork, freedom from unwanted thoughts, and compassion is real spirituality, and once they excel these, nothing more needs to be accomplished.
Spirituality for the believers (most of them) and skeptics is about chanting, fasting, lighting incense, and wearing spiritual clothing, but there is one thing that people forget on their path.
In between the chants, the flowers, and the scented candles, there are some lone voices who feel that the real and most powerful form of spirituality is Detachment. There are people who believe that no matter how much you try to meditate and go to retreats, if you do not detach from the worldly and the material, you are not spiritual in the truest form. And so this detachment becomes the most powerful form of spirituality.
Overtime, people can master being mindful, but they cannot master detachment.
Detachment does not mean retreating completely from family life or going cold to people you are close to. It means you enjoy a beautiful moment without fearing its end, you live life without the fear of death, and you start everyday without a form of greed in your heart and mind. Detachment comes when people can stay centered no matter what is happening outside, and it does not mean that you turn apathetic, but just that you don’t cling to things. You experience them, feel them, and treat them as fleeting moments, with no real sadness when they meet their eventual end.
This question is extremely subjective. Some people need to detach from their overconsumption, some need to detach from their wish to freeze time, some need to detach from their emotions, and the likes.
But for a start, this detachment can begin with thoughts. On the road to spirituality, people need to realise that they are not slaves to their thoughts, and just because their mind says something doesn’t make it true. Then there should be a detachment from people. And detachment here does not mean stop talking to them or ignore them, it just means that be with them, but dont obsess over them.
Detachment also needs to come for success and failure. If success makes you egoistic and failure ruins your mental health, it is time you detach from these intense feelings.
Although detachment is powerful on the spiritual path, it does not mean you need to abandon the other parts (devotion, meditation, grounding, etc). And your spirituality should be a balanced road between detachment, devotion, and meditation. The detachment will prevent your emotions from blurring your reality, the devotion will lead to a love and attraction to a higher power, and the meditation will keep you in calm, peace, and centered.