Tag Archives: detachment

Chuck’s Place: Awaken To The Stupendous Spiritual Opportunity Of Now

Stupendous Spirit emerging into new life…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Please indulge me in the sharing of this succinct AI summary of Kali Yuga, the Hindu cosmological season that we are now pervasively living through:

“In Hindu cosmology, Kali Yuga is the final age in the Yuga cycle, representing a period of decline in morality, righteousness, and spiritual awareness. It is characterized by increased materialism, greed, and a weakening of traditional values. While often seen as a “dark age,” Kali Yuga is also believed to be a time of opportunity for spiritual growth…”

If we can suspend judgment, and grasp that we are living through a season that cannot be stopped, any more than we can decide not to have winter, spring, summer or fall, we are freed to detach from negativity, helplessness and blame, and awaken to the stupendous spiritual opportunity of now.

 At its essence, profound change is the birth of whole new life. Spiritual birth is the discovery and gaining of access to the knowledge and capabilities of our greater Self, or Spirit, that is connected to us in this life, yet resides at subtler levels of our being, beyond the coarser daily drama we are so deeply attached to.

Our current sojourn, on this planet earth, is deeply immersed in a physical life monopolized by material concerns. This daily focus on physical survival and fulfillment consumes nearly all of our mental and emotional energy. Our Spirits are so dominated by material concerns that Spirit is often only experienced through its projections of itself upon those we admire and desire, or objects of beauty, taste and comfort.

To advance to Spirit connection, beyond mere attachment to its material reflections, we must bring home the essence of these outer projections of Self. The hardest part of this process is acquiescing to the inevitability  of detachment. We recognize a simple detachment in the letting go to trash or thrift store of an article that once shined with promise and lit up our lives.

For the child it is the stuffed animal or material article that was once imbued with mother’s magic, now tossed aside, as its basic spirit of security has taken up residence within the growing personality. This internalization of the magic does not require loss of love for the outer object, but it does grant it its own existence, beyond the burden and illusion of carrying our Spirit for us.

Kali Yuga is the time of grand detachment. The climate of the planet is extraordinarily volatile, unpredictable and ruthless. Basic rights to land, property and life itself are not guaranteed. Beliefs that have ruled civilization are being torn down, seriously doubted, and flippantly revised. Morality is now governed by self-interest alone.

I stress here the need to suspend judgment. There is plenty to judge, but the greater reality is the all-pervasive breakdown of the ability to rely on anything we have previously held sacred and secure, things we could definitely count on. All the magic once projected onto the outer world, to keep us secure, is gone. The world we knew and trusted in is rapidly unraveling. In this time of utter uncertainty of attachment, room is made for new possibility.

It’s time to awaken to the stupendous spiritual opportunity of now. Many who are severely traumatized now are discovering their Spirit life beyond the physical body, as they are thrown out-of-body by impact of traumatic agent. This is a rude and unexpected awakening, hard to wake up to, but it opens the door to greater Spirit discovery and experience.

Scientifically validated approaches to health and healing are all being challenged and made scarcely accessible. This forced detachment has opened for many the spiritual discovery of the power of the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds.

The subconscious mind has access to all knowledge and powers of manifestation. Under the influence of proper suggestion from the conscious mind the subconscious can miraculously heal the body, what was once brandished as mere placebo. These powers do not invalidate the truths and practices of medical science, but they do empower access to the healing power of Spirit within.

Kali Yuga is a passing season that will morph into new life with new understanding and power. But we have no choice but to bear the brunt of its fierce storms, as it tears down all the prior givens of civilization. Let mourning be brief, as the flood of change is exponential and has yet to reach its climax. We cannot stop it; no one is to blame, it’s just the spiritual weather of this cosmic season.

Buddha experienced a brief deep sorrow as he opened the door to his enlightenment. This was the accompanying sorrow of loss of a narrow view, the personal dramas we are so deeply attached to, to the greater view of the relativity of all views, as well as the seeds of all possibilities in the cosmic oneness of enlightenment. This is the bittersweet moment of pause we experience as we cross from adolescence to adulthood of Spirit.

Use the impact of this time to shake free of all old attachments, no matter how worthy they are, and awaken to the stupendous spiritual opportunity of now. This expansion will usher in a world of unfolding spiritual potential, from telepathy as our native language to effortless travel and material manifestation via confident intent alone.

Turn attention inward, away from the outer suggestions to give over your spiritual independence. Ask from the subconscious for all that furthers your individual good and the greater good of all. Claim and manifest the best from your own divinity. Become the next chapter of who you really are.

Simply Stupendous,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Attack In Your Mind Whatever You Fear

Compassionate detachment is the key…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

“…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance,” stated Franklin Roosevelt in his first inaugural address.

Fearful thoughts literally have substance. The substance of our thoughts is the energetic play of our imagination, the building blocks of what will become substantial physical reality. Fearful thoughts manifest as earthquakes and solar flares in the physical body.

When we imagine, we engage the subtle energy of the astral world, the next stop on our infinite journey beyond life in this physical world. The currency and subtle building materials of that world are thought and imagination.

When we imagine, while in physical form, our mind shifts to the astral plane as we channel its creative capacity to give substance and form to our desires in this world. This is how the subconscious mind manifests our suggestions. What we imagine, with feeling, the subconscious mind brings to life.

At present, our world is teeming with warring thoughts. These outer thought munitions infiltrate the mind with images and emotions that suggest terror to the subconscious mind. This results in paralytic panic in the physical body, which charges the imagination to create even more fearful outcomes, a vicious cycle continuously escalating and spinning out of control.

The real battlefield for this unrelenting attack is the mind itself. At the quantum dimension of our being we are a fully interconnected ocean of thoughts, telepathically exposed to all thoughts. Exposure to thought is one thing, absorption of thought is something else.

Absorbing thought means attaching to a thought, as we doggedly think about it. This incessant attention allows the substance of the thought to subtlety take control of the mind. Even if we disagree with a thought, by mentally and emotionally fighting with it, we increase its power over us because it becomes the central focus of our attention, usurping our vital energy.

To attack in your mind whatever you fear is to become lucid. In a dream state, lucidity allows us to wake up and take charge of the progression of a dream. To become lucid in waking reality is to become aware of the thoughts we have unconsciously become enslaved by, and then to exercise our innate ability to choose where we spend our attention.

Detachment is freedom of attention. With detachment we become emotionally neutral and objective. We are afforded views of current events that clarify the cosmic cycles behind the current dance of humanity. Our narcissistic worldview, that ordinarily has us take things so personally, becomes neutral and objective, despite the horrors of the present. Though not robbed of our compassion, we absorb no grievance.

This freedom of refined attention is aided by guides and intuitions issued from the higher planes of the astral world, from helpful souls who have reached total acceptance of all that is, and seek only the truth. We open to these positive channels of truth as we exercise our lucidity and attack in the mind whatever we fear.

Wake up to the state of your mind and reclaim all of its power by releasing, with love, the thoughts that once bound you to fear. Think only of the greater good for all.

The Greater Good for All,
Chuck

Inspiration for this blog: Your Forces And How To Use Them by Prentice Mulford

Chuck’s Place: Love Is No Pity

A place of no pity…
-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Perhaps the most Herculean task that we all face is for our Soul to have to fit itself into the helplessness of a human infant’s body, completely dependent upon the kindness of others to usher it into a human life and support it to maturity.

Stan Grof, with his extensive research into the perinatal stages of birth and the accompanying impact of primal birth trauma, has extended our knowledge of the Soul’s consciousness of itself as it evolves through all stages of gestation.

Back further still are the Soul’s prior lives and identities, which the Soul is required to temporarily forget in order to create the blank slate needed to authentically engage in the purity of a totally new, unfettered human life.  Knowledge of one’s infinite life would completely minimize the impact of any suffering in this life, undermining the very reason the Soul chose to enter into the life it is in. Earth School’s working axiom is simple: no pain, no gain.

The postnatal stages of development are archetypally governed by what are called object relationships with significant others, essentially our parents or first caregivers, to reach the necessary milestones of physical and ego autonomy. What we call ego is actually a part of the Soul, wiped clean of its eternal history, capable of growing into a mature adult; ego is the center of the Soul’s identity in this life.

In truth, what we call the inner child is actually the ego itself, a lost soul separated from its true parentage, forced to grow and learn how to navigate this mysterious world it was adopted into. How does one not feel sorry for this lost soul? Even great Master teachers in infinity have a soft spot for the plight of the innocent infant ego. However loving or unloving its adoptive world may be, it will never truly be home.

How does ego not fall prey to self-pity? No matter how much it inflates or deflates itself, at its core, ego feels itself as an abandoned child, disempowered of its divine heritage, inadequate to the task it unknowingly tasked itself with. This pervasive and inescapable self-pity might be tucked away in the ego’s guiding attitude of perfectionism, but even here it sneakily binds one’s attention and emotion through projecting itself upon the sad state of victimized others.

The shamans of ancient Mexico pierced this true reality of human suffering. They understood that the majority of human energy is spent on self-pity. To unclip one’s wings and fly to true freedom one needs a ruthless awakening to this hostage state. They called this great accomplishment, arriving at the place of no pity.

Carlos Castaneda truly loved his Master teacher, the Nagual, don Juan Matus. One day, don Juan had Carlos drive him into a city. Suddenly, Don Juan transmogrified himself into a feeble old man, who had seemingly just suffered a stroke. Carlos was beside himself with fear and pity. Don Juan then started screaming for help, claiming that Carlos was a predatory foreigner trying to rob and kill him. This aroused a group of young men who chased after Carlos.

Carlos was able to get away and ultimately reach a place of cold indifference toward don Juan, at which point he returned and found don Juan transmogrified back into his more familiar, kind and youthful self. Carlos had reached the place of no pity, total detachment.

In fact, the place of no pity is the place where the ultimate veil of narcissism is lifted. Don Juan explained that Carlos’ apparent love and pity for the old suffering don Juan was actually a projection of his own self-pity onto don Juan. The egoistic inner child state of self-pity was lifted as Carlos stepped out of the matrix of his projected self.

A modern example might be a parent blocking their adult addict child’s phone number. This ruthless act is in fact an act of true love, as the child is given the opportunity to assume responsibility for sustaining their own life in this world, a hallmark milestone of mature adulthood.

This cutting of the phone cord sends the message to the child that they truly have been let go to live their own life, and for them to trust in their own independent Soul to guide their journey, wherever that may lead. Trust that this being has their own angels and spirit guides. Retire the overbearing helicopter parent attitude.

In letting go, the parent must suffer the dread of the deep subconscious parental archetype that refuses to ever release the parent from parental responsibility.  However, to fully let go, the parent must in turn assume responsibility for their own innerly projected wounded child, which they had previously sought to rescue in the person of their actual child.

For love to rise above the veil of narcissism we must free ourselves from our own self-pity. Outwardly, this means reclaiming our self-pitied selves and facing them squarely. Ego is next tasked with assuming its true purpose and capability in this life: aligning with and mastering its greater Soul’s true mission for this life. That mission is likely situated in the very life circumstance that draws one to self -pity.

Truthfully, the adult self must arrive at the place of no pity toward its own inner child’s journey. This involves deep loving compassion for all of the child’s suffering yet appreciation for the lessons learned and a total assimilation/integration of those experiences into the adult self’s being.

From a place of no pity all experiences are valued with true equanimity. The real question becomes not how was I victimized, but what have I learned? And yes, the journey requires feeling the fullness of all life lived, however traumatic, and the release of stored emotional energies, but ultimately it is awe for the fantastic journey of the fullness of one’s actual life that one seeks.

In the end, full assimilation means to appreciate one’s life, regardless of its experiences, as a beautiful work of art. In this way the child self is dissolved into a powerful adult being, who discovers how much it has truly learned and grown through all of life’s many experiences, good and bad alike.

With this loving embodiment of all that one is, one is reunited with one’s greater Soul. And then one is able to handle remembering their true identity, in and beyond this life.

The willingness to suffer the fullness of one’s Soul’s mission is true love of self, love of Soul, and love of other.

On the mission, with love,
Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: Yesterday’s Last Stand

Heading into the future of a bright new day…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

My Spirit informs me every morning that yesterday is a past life. Deeply appreciative of that life lived, now is the time to pay it forward by meeting new life without attachment. Attachment is actually an emotional investment in an outcome.

There is a governor’s race of significance happening in Virginia on the day this blog is published. I believe I know what winner would represent the better outcome for being in the Tao. I voted, yet intend to have no attachment to the outcome.

The challenge is to achieve equanimity. The shamans of ancient Mexico taught that to truly be open to what infinity presents we must be free of expectation and prejudice. They discovered that the best training ground for that level of receptive attitude was in one’s encounters with the petty tyrants of this world.

A petty tyrant disregards all the rules. A petty tyrant has no consideration for the needs of others. A petty tyrant uses and abuses to satisfy their own selfish needs.

When we encounter petty tyrants we may be deeply hurt and offended by their actions. Ironically, this helps us, as we are shown where our egos have become personally attached and identified with the actions of others. Our emotions flare, as we are thrown off balance, and are drained of our energetic reserves. Our egos become deeply offended, requiring palliative care.

Sidelined by deflation, negativity pours in and we become slaves to our wounded feelings. The shamans recommend that we refine our egos by releasing all attachment to expectations of fairness and the consequent reactive emotions.

Ego, freed of these attachments, becomes a highly tuned unit of navigation, capable of adjusting to anything it encounters. It needn’t spend any of its vital energy defending its self-importance. The refined ego identifies fully with the values and intents of its Spirit, and adapts itself to what is possible, in any given situation.

Thus, if ‘the other guy’ wins the election, the ego will waste no time feeling sad, frightened or angry. If ‘the right guy’ wins the election, the ego will not indulge in feeling happy or hopeful. Equanimity imposes no judgment upon what is. Equanimity says: suspend judgment, await guidance from Spirit as to the next right action.

At the soul level of being—that is, life beyond the physical dimension—it is evident that powerful influences are engaged in the current struggle upon this Earth. As evenly divided as the legislatures of this world are, so are the positive and negative energies impacting this world. We are all engaged in a multi-dimensional dance between the forces of good and evil, no matter how attached or detached we are.

The I Ching frames this as the time of Coming to Meet (Hexagram #44). We are warned of the danger of such powerful clashes. Nonetheless, if we use such encounters as opportunities for shedding the heaviness of self-importance, we advance in spiritual lightness.

Spiritual lightness is our evolutionary destiny now, as we release yesterday’s attachment to material obsession and ego importance. This lightness of being allows us to be supremely in the Tao, now, irrespective of the world’s dance. We simply go with the flow, with abandon.

The most oppressive petty tyrants we face reveal themselves in our own inner prejudices. Ironically, they are also our greatest blindspots. We tend too quickly to project them upon the many tyrants of the outside world.

Nonetheless, if we track and examine our passionate emotions we are sure to be led to inner attachments, those attitudes that resist the new life of each new day.

As we are all holograms of our subtler interconnectedness, know that all personal progress in detachment advances our greater whole along its evolutionary path.  Appreciate, as well, those who so tightly cling to yesterday. Yesterday’s last stand is but the prelude to today’s unfolding.

Going with the flow,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Day of Equanimity

This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness… an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. (Rumi)

Greet each day with equanimity…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Today will determine the future direction of the world. A polarized electorate officially decides who will govern the country. Clarity may come at once, or take several weeks to determine. The significance of the outcome has taken center stage in the lives of many world citizens.

Equanimity is the ability to remain composed, no matter what fate befalls a person. In Buddhist terms, it means to not attach to an outcome such that one loses composure if one’s preference does not manifest. Full acceptance of what is is the challenge.

In shamanic terms, the challenge is to be impeccable in stating and supporting one’s intent, but equally to have no attachment as to whether or not it manifests. When Jeanne and I took the alternative cancer journey, our sole concern was to impeccably follow the signs that guided us. When it became evident that she would be leaving this world we marveled at the journey we’d taken. Success and failure are an equal set of opposites in the shaman’s world. Regardless of outcome one continues to travel one’s path of heart, without skipping a beat.

Polishing one’s link to equanimity is perhaps the major offering of life in Earth School. Earth is a world that requires attachment to survive, yet insists upon loss of everything at death. To open to love while knowing its temporal limits in human form, is the shadow over every human relationship. To retain one’s love in pure spirit form, as one leaps freely into infinity, is the true graduation from Earth School.

The seeds of reincarnation, or limbo, are one’s non-readiness to allow for what is: the relativity of human form in a physical world. To remain in the illusion that nothing has changed is the consequence of unrelenting attachment to all things physical. Indeed, “what a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties… the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals…” (lyrics from Hair). In one form or another, wherever we are, we will remain bound to this world until we arrive at equanimity, the attitudinal ticket to life beyond the body.

Days like today offer the opportunity to get deeply calm and connected to the transcendent dimension of life. Ego is the part of spirit most attached to control in the physical world. Ego has its wants, needs, and expectations. Ego rises in success and sinks in failure. Ego is frequently alienated from its fuller transcendent self and thus invests fully in measuring its worth by its standing in the outside world.

The transcendent self views all experiences of victimhood as opportunities for ego to be in acceptance of all that is, or has been, another definition of equanimity. An ego that has achieved this level of fluidity experiences the constancy of awe, regardless of experience.

Of course, one will have one’s very human reaction to today’s outcome. But, whether it be joy or sorrow, release it in the next exhalation. With equanimity, remain connected to one’s transcendent self, sharing with it this moment in time but being lifted by it to the fuller multidimensionality of life as well.

Finally, let love, the heart of the transcendent self, deliver one to the fullest acceptance of all that life is, with equanimity.

With Equanimity,

Chuck