Description

Rev. Patrick looks at the Five Levels of Attachment by Don Miguel Ruiz, Jr.:

1. The Authentic Self: Is knowledge controlling us or are we controlling knowledge?
2. Preference: We use knowledge as a tool by which we engage our preference in life.
3. Identity: We identify ourselves with knowledge, although we use it to see and understand the world.
4. Internalization: Our identity in the form of our knowledge gives us the rules and guidelines by which we must live our life.
5. Fanaticism: Our knowledge controls our every action.

How do we move out of these levels of attachment?

Fanaticism is a loss of humanity. We lose our compassion and our willingness to see another's point of view. So the way out of fanaticism is to move towards more compassion: Love for ourselves and love for others. The way out of internalization is to just stop believing in our own separateness from others. The way out of identity is to realize that we can take off our mask at any time. The way out of preference is to realize that we can disengage from our preferences at will.

In this moment, we can find a place to love ourselves, and it's not contingent on us making changes, for that would lead to a conditional relationship with ourselves. Let us take the mask off and just love ourselves in this moment.