Moving From Attachment to Detachment.

Let us begin by hearing from St. John of the Cross, a great Carmelite saint and a Doctor of the Church: “in detachment the spirit finds peace and rest because it covets nothing. Nothing wearies it by elation, nothing oppresses it by dejection. It stands in the center of its own humility.” (From The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1:13)

These three sentences are full of deep insight and great spiritual wisdom. Let’s dig into them.

The first thing we must clearly understand in the first sentence is the meaning of “detachment.” Detachment is a spiritual state in which the person is completely devoid of all attachments. As we saw in the story of the rich young man, an attachment is an excessive, inordinate, “way to big” desire for something in the world. We can be attached to money, sex, power, status, alcohol, drugs, doing things perfectly, approval or anything at all. Detachment is the spiritual state where there are no attachments present any more; all attachments have been eliminated. Attachments are represented by the stem of the weed, as they represent excessive desire, craving and clinging. Detachment is represented by the stem of the flower, for in detachment all our desires are now holy desires, because all disordered attachments have been eliminated. Attachments dominate in the world of the weed, while detachment dominates in the world of the flower.

Let us now look at the entire first sentence: “In detachment the spirit finds peace and rest because it covets nothing.” Here, St. John of the Cross is saying that detachment is the state of coveting nothing, and as a result of coveting nothing (except that which is holy), the spirit finds pause and rest. This is exactly what we have already said about the world of the flower. Once all our desires are holy (that is they are the same desires that Jesus wants us to have),we naturally experience the peace, rest, joy and love of Christ (the bloom of the flower).

St. John than elaborates on the summary statement he made in the first sentence. “Nothing wearies it (the spirit) by elation, and nothing oppresses it by dejection.” In the weed, where attachments (strong desires) reign, there are always two possible ways it can go; if you get what you want you will feel elated, and if you don’t get what you want you will feel dejected. John is saying both elation and dejection weary the spirit. Some might be surprised by this because many people like being elated. Your team wins, you win the lottery, you are high on alcohol or you are on a roller-coaster ride. St. John is pointing out here that elation, or thrills, are not true happiness and they can not last; and as such, they are really a subtle form of suffering. Many people run after passing thrills hoping to find true happiness, only to find nothing but weariness. This, of course, is the world of the weed with attachments as the stem, and elation and dejection as the bloom. In the flower, the attachments, the elation and dejection, and the weariness are all absent.

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