Desire With Detachment

I read 2 books, and I recommend both: Ask And It Is Given by Ester and Jerry Hicks and Be Here Now by Baba Ram Das (formerly Dr. Richard Alpert).

Each book is spiritual. However, each have different takes on happiness, inner peace, and attracting desires into your life.

Ask and It Is Given focuses on desires. How to attract the desires into your life, and just as importantly, how to not attract the things you don’t want. It goes through a very systematic, yet simple step-by-step approach.

Contrarily, Be Here Now emphasizes non-desire, and non-attachment. It is much more “zen,” than it is “law of attractions.” Non-desire and non-attachment is the way to ultimate liberation and inner peace. This is the message of Be Here Now.

Ram Das states, “To become free of attachment means to break the link identifying you with your desires. The desires continue; they are part of the dance of nature. But someone who relinquishes, no longer thinks that he is his desire.” There is an awareness of the desires that differentiates the person from the person’s desire.

In Ask and It Is Given, Ester Hicks explains the 3 simple steps, which is the process of the Law of Attraction works:

1. Ask.
2. The Universe, which provides and infinite stream of wellbeing, will ALWAYS provide what you ask of the Universe.
3. Allow the infinite stream of wellbeing for your desires to flow in. Your state of allowing versus resisting is the key.

Ok, so you have the one paragraph synopsis of each book. Disclaimer: For a better understanding of this blog post, read each book. 😉

So what is the correlation between desire and non-desire?
Can you only have one and not the other?
Can you have inner peace while still pursuing desires?
Can you obtain desires, when you are in a state on non-desire or non-attachment?

Through my very rudimentary studies, I believe non-desire and obtaining your desires go hand-in-hand. It’s counter-intuitive. A state of non-desire, and non-attachment, help the “art of allowing,” (as Ester Hicks puts it) into our lives.

Resistance comes our analytical mind about the regrets or disappointments of the past or fear and anxieties of the future. It may also come from a continuous state of wanting, or not wanting something to happen. Wanting, leads to more wanting.

Maybe this quote by Lao Tzu from the Tao Te Ching will help:

“By letting it go, it all gets done
The World is won by those who let it go
But when you try and try
The world is then beyond the winning.”

So there is it. If you want to achieve or acquire something, stop trying.

I can’t help but smirk as I type this. I know, it makes me scratch my head too.

So how do we let go?
How do we remove resistance in order to allow life energy to flow in?
Then, subsequently, how do we allow desires come to us?

On possible answer: ACCEPTANCE.

Our resistance arises from problems or circumstances we have. Our initial reaction is trying to change the problem, or wishing the problem wasn’t there.

Try accepting the circumstances or problem you are facing. Completely, and utterly accept them. Just test it out and see what happens. Many have experienced the problems melting away. I can vouch for this as well in some of my experiences.

At least the dwelling, and mind games dissolve, and then you can deal with the facts of your circumstances much better, or completely let go and move on.

Acceptance removes the blocks.

Next, how do you let go of the wanting, the yearning of something you don’t have?
Then, subsequently, how do we allow desires to come to us?

One possible answer: GRATITUDE.

Be grateful for what you have right now. By doing so you release the imaginary blocks of dissatisfaction. When these “make-believe” blocks are removed, wellbeing can now flow to you. As result your desires come to you effortlessly.

Eckhart Tolle states, “You cannot manifest what you want. You can only manifest what you already have.”

Gratitude for all that you have right now might help you realize this idea of non-desire. If you are fully grateful in this present moment, what else do you need? “What at this current moment is lacking?” Eckhart asks.

To further site the relationship between non-desire and attracting your desires, Ram Das makes a great point: Having a sense non-desire and detachment doesn’t mean uninvolved.

We live in a moving world that is always changing and we are always striving for and achieving more. We don’t have to stop this pursuit, and live in an ashram in India, or cave in Tibet. We can enjoy the game of life, and the fruits along the way.

In this game we can attract anything we want in life–if our mind is focused strongly enough on that desire, and our heart is open to letting it flow in without resistance.

It’s a practice.

Practice gratitude.
Practice asking for what you want.
Practice asking the Universe for what you want.
Practice the abundant feeling of already having what you want.

Practice letting go.
Practice non-attachment of the thing you want.
Practice non-attachment of the fruits/results of your desires.
Practice staying involved in the process, while you are detached.
Practice immersing yourself in the process.

Practice.