I have experienced a lot of life since I first started to apprentice in my family’s traditions. I have felt the ups and downs of life—from confrontations to harmony, from feeling anger and fear to happiness and love. I have learned that the key to all forms of transformation is awareness. The starting point for any form of transformation is set on our willingness to accept our truth at that moment of awareness, a moment that moves with us along our path of transformation.
I developed an attachment to an outcome when I first started my work, but I continued into a process that goes beyond that attachment. I saw that there is an attachment to everything I have ever perceived—and only because I was afraid of the unknown.
Moving Outside of Our Safety Zone
We feel most at ease with our safety net, of course, but as I began to move outside of that safety zone, the levels of attachment began to take shape.
We all want to be a part of a group or a community, to find that place that allows us to feel as one. We are always looking for that communion, so in the end, all of this work is about the ability to have a harmonious relationship with my brothers, my sisters, and myself.
At first I thought it was about a quest to discover the hidden secrets of life, glazed with incredible stories of the metaphysical. But this practice really is about life itself. It has always been about creating a clear channel of communication with the people I love, starting with myself.
Understanding and Interacting with the Five Levels of Attachment
Understanding the Five Levels of Attachment {The Authentic Self, Preference, Identity, Internalization, Fanaticism] is the beginning of reestablishing an unconditional relationship with ourselves. I start by recognizing that my life is worth something and that my body and my mind are the tools by which I am able to express myself—in love, intellect, and awareness. Knowledge turns to wisdom when the information that describes the world is a clear reflection of truth that flows and evolves along with us as we move through life. Love starts with me.
We don’t all live in a monastery or an ashram where we are surrounded by people who are working toward the same end, allowing one another to enter into silence and work on our process. Rather, we live in the Dream of the Planet, where we are continuously interacting with people who find themselves at various levels of their own attachments. As we interact with others and want harmony in those relationships, the harmony starts with us. We become aware of ourselves and accept ourselves, and we are then able to give to others what we hope to receive in return.
Controlled Folly: Being Aware of Our Own Truth while Relating to Others
The discipline of staying in that awareness while being able to relate to others is called “Controlled Folly.” This mastery cannot be started without first becoming aware of our own truth, and the Five Levels of Attachment are an instrument that allow us to see our present truth with more clarity. As we begin to reconstruct our Personal Dream with greater awareness into our personal great work of art (which is always in progress), we have the ability to choose to create the most perfect harmony, if that is our desire.
In the end, it is all about seeing knowledge as the building blocks to co-create a dream with another person while maintaining our awareness of self. I enjoy interacting with the Dream of the Planet. I enjoy using knowledge to communicate my dream with you. I enjoy playing with the world that surrounds me with respect and love. I am a part of this creation.
We can all become aware that it is love that bonds us to one another. We can love each other with conditions or with respect. The difference is harmony—a form of heaven on earth. When we have respect for one another’s free will, then we have peace.
For me, home is no longer a physical place; home is me. It is everywhere my heart and love go. Wherever I am, that is where I call home.
Letting Go of the Wounds That Have Kept Us Oppressed
What better way to express our freedom than to let go of the wounds that have kept us oppressed? What better way to use my words than to say I forgive you? What better way to say I am free than to say that I love another without fear?
Let us enjoy this moment in life. The past is done, the future is coming, and the best way to say hello is by learning to say goodbye. I am love and peace starts with me. I do not see race, creed, religion, gender, or whatever else as a division of the human species. I do not see a belief that tears me away from my brother and sister. I do not see an ego, a personal importance that forbids me from communing with everything in existence.
The Point of Life Is To Love & To Do So Is A Choice
The point of life is to love, and to do so is a choice. In that choice I take action, and in that action, I am love. I have a voice. I can use it to oppress, or I can use it to liberate. I can create, I can lead, and I can love. The same is true for you. Together we can say, I love.
All we have and are is love.
*Subtitles added by InnerSelf
©2013 by don Miguel Ruiz Jr. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Hierophant Publishing.
Dist. by Red Wheel/Weiser, Inc. www.redwheelweiser.com
Article Source
The Five Levels of Attachment: Toltec Wisdom for the Modern World
by don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
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About the Author
don Miguel Ruiz, Jr., is a Nagual, or a Toltec Master of Transformation. He is a direct descendant of the Toltecs of the Eagle Night lineage, and is the son of don Miguel Ruiz, Sr., author of The Four Agreements. At the age of 14, don Miguel Jr. apprenticed to his father and his grandmother, Madre Sarita. His apprenticeship lasted 10 years. For the past six years, don Miguel Jr. has applied the lessons learned from his father and grandmother to define and enjoy his own personal freedom while achieving peace with all of creation. As a Nagual, he now helps others discover optimal physical and spiritual health, so that they may achieve their own personal freedom.
