At home in the world

Sorry
functioning in the so-called ‘real world’ is recognizing those
different perceptions and opinions, the conventions that we
use. Driving on the left or the right, what something’s worth:
those are just society’s fictions that we use to get through a day
and to function as a human group. And if we hold them lightly
in that way, if we loosen our grip on the world, rather than
it becoming ‘less real’, we mysteriously find ourselves more
totally at home with it. If you love the world completely, you
let go of it. The more tightly you hold on to it and want to keep
and own it, the more alienation you create between yourself
and it.
That’s the principle of letting go or non-attachment; you’re not
trying to nullify your life and your feelings out of a dismissal of
the world. Rather, ironically and mysteriously, when you let go
of the world you find yourself at home in it. That’s the human
drama. You still have all your desires and ambitions, but you
don’t grasp them.

Ajahn Amaro

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