André Duqum

And I think the more that you examine this, the more that you actually don't need a reason or an outcome for your own joy to be present.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that's another controversial idea that might be offensive to some people at first of, of course I need a reason to be happy.

How could I be happy if things aren't going well in my life?

But that's what we're talking about, I think, is a little deeper than that.

It's a level deeper than that.

But the idea beneath it is that

attachment is itself a contracted mental state, right?

I'm zeroing in on something.

I'm focusing my mind on a pursuit of a goal.

And so I have to contract my mind to pursue the desire, the attachment.

And so desire is not bad or wrong in any way.

It's very divine.

We're just supposed to be pointing it or we should point our desire towards divine things, you know, realizing our purpose and our truth, our essence and all of that.

It's beautiful to desire

good, loving, and godly things.

But when the ego hijacks desire and points it towards objects and sense pleasures, that's where we get lost in the weeds and start suffering.

And so in the same way that the kind of underlying philosophy of lack is giving, right?

Giving is the remedy for lacking.

In that same way, detachment is the remedy for attachment, right?