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“When we see things clearly with an all-accepting mind,
we stand a much better chance of acting wisely.”
Soto Zen priest Kyogen Carlson,
Zen in the American Grain
“How shall I attain eternal life?”
“Eternal life is now. Come into the present.”
“But I am in the present now, am I not?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you haven’t dropped your past.”
“Why should I drop my past? Not all of it is bad.”
“The past is to be dropped not because it is bad but because it is dead.”
(Anthony DeMello)
Letting go of the past allows us to experience afresh this moment. When we truly let go of attachment to the past, we are surprised at how alive and novel is this moment. When we truly let go, we experience this moment as though we have never experienced another moment. We discover how wonderful, how precious this moment is, we know freedom from regret and freedom from anticipation.
British mystical theologian Evelyn Underhill defined healthy detachment as “love without claimfulness.” Detachment arises from a growing love and leads to a growing love. Not only do we grow to love persons more deeply through detachment from claimfulness, we can feel deeply affection for the moment we live fully in without projecting on it mental constructs from the past.
Another way of looking at detachment is to see the process as what Kyogen Carlson calls “all-acceptance.” It is not enough for us to detach or be unattached. We are called to enter each moment gracefully, with all-acceptance, defined by Carlson as “complete willingness to admit that things are exactly as they are.” Here, we do not have to approve or seek to perpetuate what we see; we simply see. If I am happy in this moment, nonjudgmentally I can see happiness. If I am angry this moment, I can nonjudgmentally see anger. If I am impatient this moment, I can nonjudgmentally see impatience. If I am content this moment, I can nonjudgmentally see contentment.
We can apply this detachment, or all-attachment, to God. How often do you experience afresh the Wonderful Presence? Possibly, often. But, immediately—so quickly it seems instantaneous—, we have interpreted that fresh experience of Wonderful Presence with constructs of the past. A whole grid of past experience and ideology and language … is placed on this Wonderful Presence and, then, we have lost the initially pure immediacy with the Sacred.
So, practice dropping everything you think about God, even the words and images that combine to create in your finite mind the “God complex,” or “God construct.” Drop it all, for a brief time. To do this is to experience eternal life now, with naked awareness and open heart.
Questions: What from your past shapes your present perception of God? … your felt-experience of God? What does “love without claimfulness” mean to you? Have you had experiences of God that defied all your past experiences of the Sacred and your images of the Sacred? Explain.
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
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