Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

From a spiritual perspective, I find myself asking the question, which came first, the Law of Detachment or enlightenment?  I really thought I was enlightened and looking back, I still think I was.  Yet, when I finally mastered the Law of Detachment, it made what I thought of as enlightenment seem like child’s play.  So, which one really came first?

During my ongoing research around the topic of ‘happiness’, I keep finding references to ‘creating abundance’.  Yes, there’s a lot more to finding happiness then just the ability to manifest an abundance of life’s treasures, but for the sake of this article, let’s just focus on this one piece for now.  When one sets their mind on manifesting money or a new job or true love or whatever else, they are told to also practice detachment.  The idea being that if you’re too attached to the outcome and how it shows up and how it looks when it shows up, then you will sabotage the whole thing.  On the other hand, you’re supposed to visualize that thing coming into your life and you’re supposed to infuse the vision with your passion and life force.  

Therein lies the problem.  You have to give it power, but be detached from how it happens and even if it actually happens.  Much easier said then done!  They really don’t tell you how to detach, just that it’s really very important.  Some will describe to you what detachment looks like and why it’s so important.  So great, I can logically wrap my head around the concept, but how in the heck do you detach from your hopes and dreams and yet still empower them with your cosmic energy?  All the really cool kids know how to be enlightened, detached.  Why can’t I figure this out!?

So I went along for years, understanding it and on a small scale I learned how to do it.  If I want to get a new car, then I place my order with the powers that be and then sit back confident that it will show up, but not caring one way or the other how it shows up.  Yeah, you have to actually take steps and such towards making the car happen, but the added dynamic of this proper visualization technique does add phenomenal power and make it so much easier than the old fashioned way of working your buns off and saving money forever.  I kind of liken it to the “God helps those who help themselves” concept.  The detached visualization just makes for one heck of a turbo charge.  

But what about the big stuff?  You know, like finding a soulmate or saving the rainforest or becoming an American Idol?  How do you stay detached from something so big?  I struggled with that piece for years.  I couldn’t find the answers, just the repeated fact that the road to abundance is paved with detachment.  Then, I had some really huge painful stuff happen.  It’s not important what, just that it was huge and it kept happening daily for three years.  I was forced to detach from it in order to survive it.  

Detachment is a godsend!  How wonderful to be able to really look at loved one’s as they struggle and not get completely caught up in their dramas yet be able to love them every bit as much as before.  It’s amazing to sit with something really scary like sending out book proposals to publishers and to not be absolutely terrified of rejection.  It’s completely freeing to be able to simply ‘know’ that your most cherished dreams are going to manifest, but have absolutely no concern whatsoever as to how or when.  I don’t even care what kind of cosmic timeline is working behind the scenes.  I just know that all is well and I can add my own fire and passion without being attached to any aspect of it.  

Once I detached in one area of my life, it sort of seeped it’s way through the other areas of my life.  Over the next six months, I found myself becoming more and more detached from a need to force life to go my way.  It’s an incredible feeling and yet I find myself not being able to tell you exactly how it feels or how to achieve it.  I’m detached from even the fact that I’m detached, weird.  

This brings me back to my original observation.  Once I experienced the Law of Detachment on such a grand scale, I found that my sense of enlightenment expanded beyond what I knew was possible.  I found myself wondering, was I actually enlightened before or was I just playing at enlightenment, practicing for that moment when it all came together?  Could I have become detached if I hadn’t played at spiritual enlightenment for so long?  It was the skills I learned from a place of enlightenment that led me to recognizing a need to become detached and to become aware that I had indeed mastered it.  And yet, after detaching, the peace and harmony of enlightenment, the overwhelming oneness of the universe suddenly took on so much more depth of meaning.  

So you tell me, which came first the Law of Detachment or enlightenment?  Does the one plant seeds in the other until they both take root together?  Can you truly have one without the other?  I’m seeing this garden analogy take form.  If our minds are the fertile soil and our hopes and dreams are the seeds we plant… and the sun is enlightenment and detachment is the rain, then somehow it all comes together to create that magic life force that makes the flower grow.  The sun and the rain combine to create rainbows.  Do rainbows make flowers grow?  No, but they add a beautiful dimension to the beauty of the garden.  We can make our dreams come true without spiritual enlightenment and without detaching from the outcome.  But the rainbow adds such a beautiful backdrop.