Detachment and Thanksgiving

One goal of the spiritual life is to stop craving the world. To be released from our addiction to things, to feelings, to experiences. To move to a place where we can simply be and be with whatever God gives to us.

The fruit of this goal is named in various ways, but I find it ironic to note that "detachment" and "thanksgiving" are two of the names given it. Detachment and Thanksgiving--they seem to pull us in opposite directions, but I find them to be coupled.

Alexander Schmemann, a Russian Orthodox theologian, claims that we were created to be eucharistic beings. That's a fancy way of saying that we were created to give thanks--to receive the world that we've been given with gratitude. The goal of the spiritual life is to move into this Eucharistic way of being.

Pantanjali, in the Yoga Sutras, instructs us that the practice of yoga opens up the way of detachment for us. Detachment, here, does not mean a disdain for the world. It means a letting go of our craving for the world, and we let go so that we can be attentive to the world. We detach so that we can attend to the world single-mindedly. I think this single mind is the mind of thanksgiving.

We practice mindfulness so that we can let go of our craving for the world. We can stop seeing the world as something to be consumed, to use Schmemann's language. When we let go--detach--then we can attend to the world with care, without desperation. The fruit of this careful attention is thanks. The world around us is gift. We cannot help but to be moved to thanks for this world if we only notice it. If we only detach, so that we can see the truth of it. That is a goal of the spiritual life.