The Law of Detachment and the Law of Intention
Question:
I recently read your book “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”. The first part of the fifth law (The Law of Intention and Desire) describes intention as desire without attachment to the outcome, so that when u combine it with detachment your intent is for the future and attention is in the present (present moment awareness).
In the second part there is a mention of one point intention which tells us to focus on the intended outcome. So do we have to detach or focus on the outcome? Are focusing on the outcome and attachment (to the outcome) two different things?
What is the difference between these two? Detachment from the outcome and yet focusing on the intended outcome? Do we have to relate it with The Law of Detachment?
Answer:
Spiritual detachment means that one remains identified with the higher self at all times and is not identified with the objects of perception and desire. It is a matter of remaining established in your Being while you are engaged in any activity without that activity pulling you out of that Being. Too often people think of detachment as an unfocused, unemotional state of awareness and so they see it as contrary to a productive, passionate attention that can be focused with one-pointed intention. But in fact, it is only when we have that spiritual freedom that detachment provides are we able to think, feel and act with the level of clarity and effectiveness that can only come when we are no longer defined by the ego’s delusions.
From the limited perspective of the conditioned self, it seems very difficult to intend a specific outcome and simultaneously be detached from the outcome. That is because it is the ego that is desiring and it is the ego that is trying to be detached. And in the state of ignorance, the very structure of the ego is attachment. So we need to transcend the ego altogether. That is why the first spiritual law of success is the law of pure potentiality. Our true nature is pure potential, pure energy, pure intelligence, pure love—that is our Being. When we know and live that as our reality, then whatever intention we have, we are intending it with our full energy and focus, and we are also not identified with it, so we are detached from the outcome of the intention.
Acting from the level of one’s Being, intention with detachment is a completely natural process, as natural and automatic as breathing.
Love,
Deepak