Be in the world

As St. Augustibe advised: "Be in the world, not of the world." We may live in the world, but that must not make us worldly...In a similar vein Sri Ramakrishna said: "There is no harm if the boat is in the water, but the water should not be in the boat." We can be in the world, but the world must not be in us. This is the attitude of detachment which gives rise to the love of God. The quality of detachment is referred to repeatedly in the Hindu Scriptures. For example, we read in the Bhagavad-Gita: "He who works renouncing attachment, offering his actions to Brahman, remains unstrained by sin (even as the lotus leaf remains untouched by water). This is the way we must live in the world. If we are detached from our actions, we will not be bound by them. The repetition of the Lord's name, meditation, prayer and worship are extremely valuable when they are practiced without attachment. "To work in such a spirit of detachment is known as Karma yoga", work in a detached spirit, not craving the work's results.

The complete works of Swami Vivekananda

The courage to believe

When you desire and fear, and identify yourself with your feelings, you create sorrow and bondage. When you create, with love and wisdom, and remain unattached to your creations, the result is harmony andpeace. But whatever be the condition of your mind, in what way does itreflect on you? It is only your self-identification with your mind that makes you happy or unhappy. Rebel against your slavery to your mind, see your bonds as self- created and break the chains of attachment and revulsion. Keep in mind your goal of freedom, until it dawns on you that you are already free, that freedom is not something in the distant future to be earned with painful efforts, but perennially one's own, to be used! Liberation is not an acquisition but a matter of courage, the courage to believe that you are free already and to act on it.

--Nisargadatta