Detachment Meditation

A process of progressive letting go of all of your psychological attachments, leading to a liberating encounter with the pure essence of your being.

Transcript

Detachment meditation.

First of all let's just be aware of our breath for a few moments.

Let's be aware of our breathing,

Be aware of the air as it brushes the inside of your nose as you breathe in,

As it brushes the inside of your nose as you breathe out.

Just feel the sensation of the air brushing inside your nose.

Be aware of how your stomach rises and falls as you breathe in and out and be aware of how with each breath you become a little calmer and more contented and your breathing becomes slightly slower and deeper with each breath.

And now I want you to imagine that you're walking down a long straight road that stretches as far as you can see into the distance ahead of you.

You're walking in a straight line along this long straight road into the future and as you walk I want you to think of one or two scenes from your future,

One or two events that are coming up in your future and create images that signify those events and place those images by the side of the road so that you're walking towards them.

Behind you you can see the road stretching as far as you can see behind you into the past and just as you did with the future I want you to think about one or two significant events from your past and create scenes from those events and place those scenes by the side of the road so that you're walking away from them.

So you're walking into the future in a straight line away from the past but now way off in the distance you can see a foaming grey mist begin to emerge and begin to cover the road in front of you.

It foams slowly towards you closer and closer it covers up the road it covers up those scenes from your future events and it moves closer and closer towards you and it feels welcoming calm and soft this foaming soft grey mist and it touches your skin your whole body and even inside your body you can feel the mist foaming towards your head down into your arms and hands into your chest and lower body your waist your legs down into your feet filling you with calmness and softness and the mist begins to flow behind you as well covering the road behind you covering those events from your past those scenes foaming further and further behind you until now the whole of the road in front of you behind you is covered in this soft foaming grey mist there is no more road no more future no more past only this mist everywhere around you in all directions but slowly now the mist begins to clear and sunlight begins to break through just like dawn when the mist begins to clear and the morning sun begins to shine through the mist begins to clear and slowly a natural scene emerges around you a natural scene of trees fields hills in the distance the sky above you a panorama a natural landscape that stretches all around you and you realize now that there is no direction there is no future there is no past there is only the panorama of the present which is all that exists and all that will ever exist and as you survey this beautiful natural landscape I want you to make a gentle mental effort to let go of attachment to the future and to the past remembering that the future is only imagination and anticipation the past is only memory and recordings of past events in reality neither of neither the future or the past exist so let's let go of our attachment to the future and the past now let's consider our beliefs our beliefs about the world political religious beliefs beliefs about life after death let's remind ourselves that beliefs are only ideas and thoughts that have become rigid and solid and become fixed into our minds and let's make a gentle mental effort to let go of these beliefs let's consider also the knowledge we've collected the knowledge we've gained from books from listening to teachers from doing courses let's remind ourselves that knowledge only exists in memory that sometimes it can be useful but this knowledge has no connection with our true self at this moment we don't need to draw on it and we can let go of our attachment to it so let's let make a gentle mental effort to release ourselves from attachment to knowledge let's consider any achievements we've made in the past and any status or success we've developed as a result of those achievements and any sense of being a successful or important person that we may have let's remember that status and success are only ideas in ours in our own minds or in other people's minds and they have no connection to our true selves so let's make a gentle mental effort to let go of attachment to our achievements or to our status let's consider our possessions the objects and the different phenomena we use and we feel that we own and also any money that we feel we own and let's remind ourselves that in reality we can own nothing there are only objects we can use for a certain amount of time then set down again but they have no connection to us and we don't own them so let's make a gentle mental effort to let go of attachment to possessions and money let's release ourselves from that attachment and let's consider now our appearance how we appear to ourselves when we look in the mirror and how we appear to other people let's remind ourselves that our true essence has no appearance and no form and our outer appearance has no bearing on our inner being let's make a gentle mental effort to let go of attachment to our appearance which is of no significance to our to our to our formless inner being let's let go of attachment to form or appearance let's consider the concept of age how other people define us or we may define ourselves in terms of age let's remind ourselves that our true essence has no age just as it has no form our true essence is formless and timeless and ageless and age is just a meaningless concept a meaningless number which just denotes the amount of the number of times the earth has all we did around the Sun since we were born so let's let go of our attachment to the concept of age and finally let's consider our names let's remember that our names are just sounds which our parents decided to give us to communicate with us to label us and let's remember that the essence of our being has no name just as it as it has no age and no form or appearance so let's release ourselves from the concept of our names let go of attachment to your name so at the end of this process of detachment after we've let go of attachment to the future in the past to beliefs to our knowledge to our achievements to possessions to our appearance to our age and our name what's left at the end of this process what's left is the essence of our being what's left is an energy and an awareness there's an energy we can feel flowing through our being flowing through our body and this is the energy of being which exists in a state of well-being a state of radiant serenity and there's also the awareness with which we can sense that being and the awareness with which you can hear my voice and hear other sounds so this energy and this awareness are the two qualities of the essence of our being and the essence of our being exists in a natural state of well-being and wholeness which doesn't need to collect achievements or attachments because it's already whole and already exists in a state of fulfillment and contentment so just for a few moments now let's rest within the well-being of our essence of the essence of our being let's experience the fullness and the harmony of our true nature and now let's return our attention to the sounds inside this room feel your body sitting on the chair feel the breath again brushing the inside of your nose and when you're ready let's bring this meditation to a close and open our eyes

Reviews

Some very powerful and needed reminders on our attachments

Really enjoyed this meditation and the concept it explored.

Thank you so much, this visualisation was helpful ✨

Perfect for this morning. I am relocating my residence, and a meditation for being present was just right. Thank you!

Very beautiful. Truly appreciate it and will listen to again. 🙏

I’ve been so wrapped up in things out of my control. Thank you for guiding me back to the present.

I love this meditation. I've been working on letting go of attachments recently and this one is a great help. I love the quiet instruction. Thank you.

A great detachment meditation for many aspects that I have become attached to. I really enjoyed this eye-opening Meditation. Thank you

Exactly what I needed! Thank you

An excellent narrative on how to let go of attachment and embrace our true essence.

It felt really nice to have a visual walk through of how attachment can look like. The concept of leaving the thoughts of the past behind and not running into the future with worries made me reflect on anxiety (thoughts of future) and depression (thoughts of past). The voice guiding it is very soothing! Thank you for helping me today.

Difficult. I've been meditating for years, but never this level of detachment. I cried when I had to let go of the past as only memories. It was a much needed eye opening experience for me at my attachment for many of these things as my identity. Thank you.

It really all came together at the end. Thank you.

Remarkable! Thanks for sharing it! Namastê 🙏🏽

This meditation brought tears of joy to my eyes, and I felt a heavy sense of peace with just being present in the current moment. ♥️

Very powerful. Thank you.

Thank you, Steve! I discovered you in watching the Livestream of Eckhart Tolle's recent Living a Life of Presence event. I was delighted to find that the detachment meditation you shared exists here.

This meditation is going deep for me. One that I will need to repeat in order to release. I am ready to be all that I am.

Thank you...I am working on detachment especially to money and things...spiritual materialism...which is not love so will listen and run often...open to any other suggestions . Will book mark and play often