Non-Attachment Is The Key To Freedom

I neglected to meditate this morning. And yesterday, and the day before that. But the day before that I did meditate. I have yet to establish a consistent meditation practice, or a consistent yoga practice for that matter. But what I’m coming to realize is that it’s not important to attach myself to a certain style of yoga or meditation, or a certain schedule, because ultimately life gets in the way and won’t allow a strict adherence to such things. What’s important is that I stick with something and have compassion with myself, since non-attachment really is the key to freedom.

Even though I didn’t meditate I was still in a very mindful state on the train to work this morning. It could be due to some mushrooms I ate before the Dave Matthews concert on Saturday. Lately it’s been hard for me to have a good trip, although that could be due to the strain of mushrooms I’ve been eating. These ones were from a fresh new batch, and they hit strong and hard. Good mushrooms really clear away the mental cobwebs for me. Used wisely they can be powerful tools for enlightenment. It could have been the mushrooms or the good nights sleep I had just had or the yerba mate I drank when I woke up which always makes me feel calm and energized at the same time.

Whatever it was, what happened on the train was that I noticed my mind creating certain familiar thoughts—being annoyed at a woman putting on makeup, seeing a man wearing a nice shirt and reminding myself that I really want some new clothes—but then I just let them go and returned to my breath and the music that was playing on my ipod. It sort of helped that I was listening to Fela Kuti for the first time ever, and aside from the fact that it was really good music, the fact that it was brand new music to my ears might have helped me turn away from the thoughts more easily. This state of being able to sort of watch your thoughts like clouds passing overhead is the goal or intention of meditation.

What was so amazing on this brief train ride was the sense of freedom that I felt. Normally I would have gotten caught up in my annoyance at the woman. I would have continually looked at her and been more and more annoyed. Or I would have looked at the man’s shirt and thought about the shirt I am currently wearing, about how it’s a great shirt but it’s not perfect because the shape of the collar is awful, and about how it’s such a shame that I have great fashion sense but never enough money to invest in nice new clothes that fit properly since I lost the weight. And around and around it would go. But with one breath I released it all, and it was so freeing. Not only that, but my body settled more into the state of calm and bliss that I had been feeling since waking up. When you have experiences like that it’s easy to see how unneeded stress causes disease in the body, or dis-ease, as it’s often more accurately written in meditation literature.

This experience is no doubt the result of my yoga and meditation, but for now it’s only an isolated thing. As I practice more and more it’s inevitable that I’ll be able to have more and more experiences like this. When one becomes enlightened, which probably takes years and years of strict and disciplined practice, they are in that state continuously. Jon Kabat-Zinn, in Coming To Our Senses, uses the analogy of a dial-up vs. a DSL internet connection. Someone just starting out will “plug-in” to a mindful state from time-to-time, like a dial-up connection, but an enlightened person is always in that state in the same way that a DSL computer is always connected to the internet.

So during lunch today I may walk outside and hear someone talking about something that annoys me and not be able to get it out of my head. My connection will have been severed. Or it may happen tomorrow or the next day. But whenever I’m having issues I’m going to think back to that train ride and remember that non-attachment, one of the core teachings of both yoga and Buddhism, is what I need to exercise to free myself from harmful patterns of the mind.