Losing our attachment to outcomes

Attachment is at the root of so much of our suffering.

Just a thought exercise: Suppose for a minute, that none of this matters. That Earth will be swallowed up by the sun in half a billion years and we didn’t manage to get off it in time. (That is assuming our species can even make it that long.)

If all of it is inevitable then why are we worried about outcomes? Why worry about what might happen next?

Inner peace isn’t coming to those who are attached to the “peace” that comes with dissolving the tension of knowing what happens next. We lose peace when we want outcomes to be a certain way. We lose it when we are trying to put ground underneath our feet. We lose it when we’re working so hard to fill a void that can’t be filled. Instead of spending our time dissolving this tension–that root of suffering–we can learn to dance with it.

Let me be clear: I am not talking about nihilism. Life is precious. It is so rare in the universe. Life should be celebrated and cherished. What I am talking about is freedom. Freedom to be human. The best example I can think of is looking to kids who are just naturally more in touch with what it means to be human before we indoctrinate them into something else. There is a posture that each of us can obtain–one of peace–if we can quit taking ourselves so seriously and quit falling into this trap of consumerism, of wants and greed, a whole new set of possibilities can then open up. When you can make your own rules, will you choose to be your best self?

There is lots of darkness in the vast universe–who else will be there to shed the light if not you?

The bottom line is, there are a lot of different ways of thinking. If you are not feeling peace, it might be the inconsistency we feel when we are attached to thinking a certain way.