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Detachment from things does not mean setting up a contradiction between "things" and "God" as if God were another "thing" and as if His creatures were His rivals. We do not detach ourselves from things in order to attach ourselves to God, but rather we become detached from ourselves in order to see and use all things in and for God. This is an entirely new perspective which many sincerely moral and ascetic minds fail utterly to see.Detachment does not mean abandonment of the world in search of a spirituality that is separate from the world. It means perspective, and with perspective, humility. As one of my favorite AA slogans says, if it's not practical, it's not spiritual.
-New Seeds of Contemplation. (New York: New Directions Books), p 21
I have spoken in this blog about the 'get sane quick schemes' I engaged in when I was drinking. The various things I tried, such as meditation and yoga, were good in themselves but they became 'get sane quick schemes' for me because I was using them in pursuit of a disembodied spirituality. I thought there was some healthy pink cloud I could enter that would make me feel good about the world and (especially) myself without changing anything in the world or in myself. I was seeing 'spiritual' detachment precisely as a separation from reality, rather than a principled, spiritual engagement with it, contributing to changing it and myself. Unless I'm seriously misreading Merton, that is what he means when he talks about seeing and using things in and for God.
I am going to have to go back and reread "New Seeds" again, I always get so much out of it.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of the phrase "Contemptus mundi", loosely translated as "Contempt of the world" which I believe can be misunderstood in much the same way.
Many of us come in to AA and hope to learn how to become something akin to a priest in the Marines. That way we can still help people, but if we feel they are not going to stay sober or listen to us, we can snap their necks and step over their cold, dead body. But heaven forbid we get hurt!
We want to be in the world, but are afraid to be affected by it. The struggle of a growing spiritual being is to grow in all dimensions. But we (because of our emotional immaturity) prefer to grow only in the dimension that allows to to learn how to love, but not be vulnerable. That way we can feel the good, without the let-down that comes with the bad. And so, we seek what we think "detachment" is.
But in reality what detachment and Contemptus mundi really address is what Merton so eloquently says (I will paraphrase for the AA members) - Detachment from the self, in order to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us.
For us, resentment is the number one offender. We drink to seek relief. But if the "Self" has been reduced in size, there is less of "me" to be hurt, and ultimately less reason to drink.
Detachment makes me more effective in acting re: any problem. Attachment (identifying ME with the thing, person etc) makes me less effective because I am reacting, thus adding two problems whe there was initially one. Detachment allows me to see the "true" problem, and thus address the problem with the most appropriate solution, whereas attachment leads me to sometimes address the "perceived" problem quickly, but often not affectively, sometimes addressing a symptom instead of a root. If I do not grieve, does this make me inhuman? Or can I be of more use to those around me, unclouded by self-pity? "The food stinks," says a diner. The chef overhears and becomes irate. Why? Because the chef identifies himself with the food. But he is not the food. He is. Detached, he is more effective in "hearing" the diner's complaint, and thus better able to satisfy the guest by addressing the al problem instead of the perceived/projected one. I feared detachment would lead to lack of compassion, and have found it to be the birth of compassion. As "you" cease to be a threat, I can better serve "you."
ReplyDeleteI am just beginning my blog (2 days old, in fact) and I already mentioned Thomas Merton's readings and how they were involved in my recovery! I call it How I Got Plugged In. I also tried various pink cloud methods of relieving my problems. Unlike most people in their 50's I knew zip about alcoholism. I had to Google it! That got me to AA. Thanks for the blog. I will be back.
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