Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel
Dear Jeanne,
We have been discussing the process of learning what it means to be detached yet compassionate. So far you have taught us that learning detachment requires practicing Not Doing and Knowing Our Purpose in Life. Last night I dreamed something about the importance of understanding attachment though I failed to write it down. I wonder if this has something to do with the process of learning detachment. What is the third step?
As I spoke of earlier, one must know what one is detaching from so, obviously, attachments must be fully understood for how they affect and direct a life. Detachment requires knowing the self fully, as an evolving being, and this requires quite a bit of self-knowing with the understanding that one is seeking release from the conventional, the expected, and preconceived notions of how life should be lived.
Detachment requires a rejection of the norms, but only after they have been fully explored, for one cannot truthfully say that one has lived if one has indeed not done so. Detachment requires having experiences to fully understand and know the self and others. This you already know. In order to fully understand anything one must experience it.
As one seeks to learn about the self, one must do so in the environment one lives in. You are in the perfect environment for you to learn what you must learn about the self in this lifetime. The next step in the practice of learning detachment is to slow down and reconcile with the gifts you are given by your environment, your choices made regarding relationships, jobs, life situations, and acts of God. Stop asking why and find out what you are meant to learn about the self in your current situation in life. Accept responsibility for it. This is the third step: to accept full responsibility for the self, for the life you live, and everything that it entails. No one is to blame for where you find your self, and no one is to blame for where others find themselves. You see, you must take total responsibility for your life, and you are not to blame for the choices others have made in their lives. Though you may be quite entangled with others, and they with you, what is the deeper meaning of that entanglement?
In untangling the mysteries of your outer environment you will begin to understand what it means to detach the self from the conventional and pre-laid expectations of the world around you. Are your experiences in life thus far limited to the rules as laid out by others? Are there rules you can break that do no harm, nor go against the legal systems? Are there rules of the self, imposed by the self that keep you limited, unadventuresome, and confined to a life of little or no exploration? Can you change your routine, even slightly, to offer the self the opportunity to have a new experience in life? Can you shift the self in some small way today that expresses this next step in learning detachment? Can you do something that places you in the position of having to take full responsibility for your actions and know it, fully experiencing what this means, out of your normal routine? Do something different today and, in so doing, experience the fullness of taking responsibility and feeling what it means to have an experience out of the ordinary.
If you are normally constrained, do something generous. If you are normally effusive, do something for the self. If you are often judgmental, be thoughtful of the feelings and issues of others, even while you clearly see that they are responsible for their own place in life. If you are unable to shift your self out of your current malaise, find someone else in a similar situation and spur each other to do something new. Seek a shift in experience by taking responsibility for the self, gaining insight into what it means to be fully responsible for the self, no matter what your experiences in life have dealt you. Learn to detach your experiences from conventional forms of explanation. Look at life differently each day now, breaking your normal perceptions, offering your self a new outlook, so that your next step may take you more fully into understanding how you are fully responsible for everything you do, think, act upon, engage in, and entice towards you.
Life will begin to appear differently if you begin to understand that you are loaded with the power of full responsibility. What a gift this is! What are you going to do with it? How are you going to use it? Responsibly? In a new way, or in an old way? Which way will give you more energy, more insight, more clarity on your life and that of others? Which way offers something new?
Take responsibility for the self and the life you live. You will only understand what detachment means by doing so, fully, and in alignment with your spirit’s intent. Today’s mantra: I am fully responsible for my self!