Be in the World But Not of It

Be in the world but not of it. Through detachment, you master both inner and outer reality.

Detachment isn’t the same thing as indifference or passivity. This is an important distinction. You are more than the flesh-and-blood person you see in the mirror, a person created by the world around you. Your actual being has its source in spirit.

Through detachment you shift your allegiance away from the physical toward the spiritual. Since you are the spirit first and an individual person second, the world is actually in you, as images, thoughts, sensations, memories, and projections. You are more real than the material world and closer to the creative source.

Exercise: You can sit for this exercise at first, but it is meant to be used at any time, even in activity. Center yourself for a moment, then become aware of your breath going in and out. Be mindful of its flow, how the breath is constantly changing in subtle or obvious ways.

At the same time, be mindful of the background of your breathing. This is the ground of being and silence, the ground of yourself. Notice how both aspects coexist, the changing and the nonchanging. You can be in the world of change while remembering the ground of nonchange.

Breath and spirit have always been connected; there is a subtle link between inspiration and respiration. If you are mindful of this link, it will strengthen. Being mindful of your breathing is in fact one of the most natural ways to find detachment from the turmoil around you.

Adapted from The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).

Read more: Spirit, Deepak Chopra's Tips, breath, detachment, mindful, spirit

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Carole R.

1:08PM PST on Nov 24, 2011

Interesting ideas.

send a green star

Ida J.

3:39AM PDT on Sep 25, 2011

thanks

Reuben N.

5:52AM PDT on Jul 4, 2011

Something similar to meditation.

Juliet D.

6:08AM PDT on Jul 2, 2011

Sorry, but this sounds like Benny Hinn telling his flock to "forget about the American dream." The hyper-wealthy and the big corporations would love to have us become a nation of people who "trust in God to provide" and don't even squeak as our children lose their chance for higher education and our working adults lose all the rights their parents worked so hard to secure.

Kathy K.

8:46AM PDT on Jul 1, 2011

thanks.

Dot A.

10:16AM PDT on Jun 30, 2011

Thank you Dr. Chopra for the great reminder of our spirit being primary and the manifestion of physical matter following. All One, yet spirit leads. Our world may find greater solutions to many complicated situations should this lesson be firmly accepted by us. I believe this will eventually be well understood.

"... there is a subtle link between inspiration and respiration."

So I will continue doing that* =)

Frank G.

8:44AM PDT on Jun 30, 2011

Hmmm, I ought to try this.

Zen W.

8:30AM PDT on Jun 30, 2011

Testing the comments problem

Elena A.

6:29AM PDT on Jun 30, 2011

Thx for sharing

No Emails H.

6:09AM PDT on Jun 30, 2011

"Since you are spirit first and individual person second..." I never thought of life that way--what a great perspective---it gives you a sense of the bigger picture. I will definitely try to apply this. Thank You