Confucius doesn't speak explicitly about detachment, as far as I know, but I think there's something implicit in crafting daily life as a ritual performance that presupposes an analogous frame of mind.
Consider depression, which most of us will have experienced to one degree or another. Pretty much the worst thing about being depressed is that it feels permanent and inevitable when you're in it. The philosopher William James compares it to the weather -- comprehensive, overarching, inescapable. One of the key realizations that helps us to manage depression is that it isn't permanent, despite how it feels while you're in it. That is, once you get some distance from your immediate feelings, a little perspective on them, they're not so oppressive. This is where the metaphor of a Self or Atman representing the real you -- or the you that you aspire to be -- and underlying the feelings of the moment, becomes rather useful.
When your daily interactions with others is a dance, and you really know the moves, its seems likely that this will help you avoid getting sucked into your small-s self and stuck there.
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2 comments:
This idea of detachment is interesting, and helpful. With this view, we seem concerned with end results, i.e., not feeling depressed, which some also consider a reward for perseverance.
Fair enough; it's always possible to interpret a desirable outcome as a reward. But remember that our purpose is to practice detachment from reward or punishment, so seeking it AS a reward is counterproductive.
By analogy, the best way to get a good grade in a college course is to explore the ideas for their own sake; the piddly little grade will look after itself.
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