Non-attachment involves always being able to keep our minds above any turmoil or trials of the environment. So as to rise above irritations and injustices that assail us, what happens each moment is viewed as a passing instance. Non-attachment arises in adopting the long-term perspective on any matter, rather than considering only spontaneous impulses, immediate fears or short-term satisfactions. It comes of taking the broad view in making judgements rather than strictly personal or partisan interests. Non-attachment will be easy to achieve to the extent that our understanding, through both experience and proper instruction, enables us to realise the fuller meaning and consequences of different sorts of attitude and action for us, for others and thus again for the common interest (which again includes our interest).

Non-attachment produces equanimity. It has long been referred to by Vedantists as the attitude of 'being in the world but not being of it'. (Non-attachment in sanskrit is prasakti or vairagya) In practice this implies engaging in all normal worldly activities and duties without defining oneself fundamentally in terms of them - in other words, without regarding one's personal success or failure as being crucially dependent on the results that accrue from one's doings of the world. This does not mean an avoidance of personal responsibility or abdication of personal initiative, but rather implies the independence of one's sense of being (or of inner well-being) from external events.

On the other hand, it means a positive identification with one's being with one's true nature or birthright, one's higher potentialities or 'spirituality' in the widest sense. Attachment is always to temporary, worldly affairs; non-attachment can be called 'attachment to the spiritual and immutable'.

Such non-attachment implies a renunciation of worldly desires, which results in withdrawal or detachment of our feelings from both positive and negative events that may otherwise affect us in the physical or social spheres. It is nevertheless not a non-caring detachment or simply being thick-skinned: it allows neither of 'hiding the head in the sand' nor 'losing one's head in the heat of the moment'. It is an attitude won both of witnessing with the mind and caring with the heart which can remain equal-minded and stout-hearted by virtue of the requisite understanding. Such understanding is itself a progressive fruit of life experience and practice of non-attachment.

The attitude of non-attachment is unavoidable in the fulfilment of a person's maximum potential development. The attainment of all-round non-attachment amounts to the highest of achievements, it is not meaningful to define it in any straightforward manner. Anything but a superficial grasp of the subject requires study combined with relevant practical experience and reflection through some considerable period of time. It is not a simple concept, nor can it be practised by any easy method. It calls for gradual insight into how the phenomena of the world and the inner workings of our minds bind us unduly, working back on us according to the law of equal returns.

However, non-attachment is not an entirely foreign experience to anyone. The extent to which it is understood and practised in actual life varies. Everyone knows what it is to feel neutral in respect of, say, possessions that neither concern nor affect us personally. This intimates at least the simplest form of non-attached relationship. The car a person is attached to, once junked and replaced, is no longer an object of attachment. Non-attachment means letting go of desires and ideas that are the cause of unwanted habits and problems, compulsions and so-called 'neuroses' as well as other kinds of emotional and mental unbalance.

Attachments differ with each phase or varying stages of personality growth, as would be expected, from bodily functions and material wants, through emotional binds and bonds and on to the level of mental attachments. One may also speak of attachment to human values and the universal truth and goodness, which can also have emotional aspects. However, this is a non-egoic and selfless 'attachment' to the highest in our nature, which is actually the essence of non-attachment, paradoxical as this may seem at first.

ATTACHMENTS AND EMOTIONS

The fact that emotions essentially express attachments and the consequences of this insight have not been sufficiently appreciated in modern Western psychology. Emotions may build upon attachments to material goods, from health and wealth to personal possessions, attachment to family members and other persons, also to certain types of experience. As we look into our own involvements more clearly, we see both the strength of our various attachments and their positive and negative aspects. Attachment refers to worldly matters and relationships. What may be called the higher emotions, like unselfish love, joy at another's success, heartfelt sympathy and compassion for everyone are altruistic emotions and are thus not expressions of personal attachment. One can say that they express only 'attachment' to the universal Overself.

Emotions are often connected to habits of attitude and thought, often traceable back to early impulses and childhood experience. They may also be generated in adult life from adopted thoughts and beliefs, such as with emotions in political and other such conflicts of opinion, or even arise in the lack of proper mental activity or thought effort. Whether spontaneous, temporary, periodic or ingrained, emotions are usually experienced as arising involuntarily rather than from conscious design and will, though their expression is often intentional and they are also partly sustained and developed through conscious thought.

How to avoid negative feelings will vary with the situation and the possibilities it offers. Anger can sometimes be 'brought off the boil' by learning such routines as going away from whoever one is angry with, looking at oneself in a mirror, fetching and drinking a glass of water, and various other cues that can be designed to suit the person or circumstance.

One's opinion of anger can itself influence one's behaviour: those who feel that being angry is quite normal or even good are likely to develop patterns of angry response where others may not. Anger increases blood pressure, adrenalin flow and influences other hormonal functions, while it decreases the serotonin in the brain with consequent decrease in the sense of well-being. Those who know that this leads to premature death in many persons, particularly when middle-age is reached, are more likely to try to avoid feeling anger.

Feelings are often thought of as either positive or negative, sympathetic or antipathetic, pleasurable or painful and so on. This need make no difference to their quality of 'attachment', for even repulsion of something reveals an attachment, being inseparable from attachment to its opposite or its absence. An attachment is any kind of relationship which, if disrupted, causes a disturbance of the feelings or mind, such as nervousness, hurt, grief, anxiety. Attachment always also lies at the root of the ego (in 'the sense of me and mine' as earlier defined). Thus, the greater the degree of non-attachment a person achieves, the less predominant that person's ego is.

A basic thesis of psychological understanding must be that, in all cases of emotional disturbance, some form of attachment is involved, whether or not it is always the decisive factor. As already suggested, this does not at all mean that all emotions are to be regarded as undesirable. What is an appropriate emotion depends upon many varying circumstances, not least at which stage of life and personal development a person is. What counts as a negative and unworthy emotion will necessarily vary with the situation within certain general limits. What those limits should be cannot be set by any definitive formula, though such moral limits and human laws must and do of course exist.

Positive emotions that express or represent worldly attachments - thus not being entirely altruistic, will usually only be undesirable when they involve excessive attachment, so awakening negative feelings like antipathy. Emotional attachments can obviously have selfish motives and lead to worry, dangerous jealousy and other destructive qualities, including greed, hate and aggressiveness. Excessive attachment is seen in many kinds of relationship, from property-owning to marriage, over-protective motherhood to blood feuds.

Some emotions, like a sense of loyalty to friends come what may or grief over loss and so on, are so natural to human life and what is best in society, that they are regarded as expressing undue attachment only from the viewpoint of the highest levels of human development. By the nature of the case, persons without any attachments at all are beyond any form of worldly psychological measurement or judgement. However, to attempt to suppress or eliminate all personal feelings in the effort to attain states of higher consciousness, as is practised sometimes by spiritual aspirants, can be self-defeating and dangerous. One reason for this is that the attainment of complete non-attachment or egolessness is the result of working out of one's own tendencies or desires in the worldly arena by very long and concerted effort on many fronts until the only 'desire' that remains and fills all consciousness constantly is for the ultimate.

Non-attachment is present where the mind reaches equilibrium in the face of actual events, not simply where one has simply made some mental commitment in 'the armchair position'. Equilibrium is not the same as indifference or sheer disinterest. Non-attachment is rather a form of dis-engaged interest; that is an attitude of interest in so far as the full force of any issue that arises in the course of duties or other proper activities is recognised. The emotions that arise - in others or oneself - are accepted for what they are while striving to keep them under sufficient control so as to avoid the clouding of judgement and impulsive decisions.

The question how to distance oneself sufficiently from negative and potentially harmful feelings, for example, and to be a witness to one's own psychic process is open to many possible answers. Though success will sometimes depend more or less on external conditions over which one has no control, the role played by one's immediate reactions as well as on one's own longer-term decisions is often far greater than realised by 'conventional wisdom'.

An understanding of the benefits to be gained by giving up an attachments is the starting point without which almost nothing can be done. The example of tobacco dependency illustrates this: until one is convinced that it is unhealthy or dangerous for oneself, it is unlikely that one will face the struggle generally involved. Attachments having a physiological basis naturally tend to be stronger than those resulting largely from the mind's autonomous activity, as when it leads us on by multiplying one want into more. The practice of attaining full, stable psychic equanimity therefore depends to a crucial extent upon whether or not one thinks rightly and how well the mind is itself correctly disciplined.

What is good, correct or right for everyone aiming at self-transformation cannot be prescribed once and for all in specific terms... there are many ways upwards to the same mountain peak, but the goal is not achieved without sustained efforts in following well-tried precepts.

SATISFACTION AND ATTACHMENTS

Though we usually make or keep attachments because of the pleasure and satisfaction we derive from them, satisfaction and non-attachment are actually equivalents. This refers to the truest self-satisfaction that comes of peace of mind, such as in not feeling restless or incapacitated under one's present conditions. Purely temporary satisfactions of the sort that arise from and depend for their continuance on external sources such as sensual gratifications, worldly successes, the acclaim of others (name and fame) do not constitute self-satisfaction in the constructive spiritual sense intended here. Self-satisfaction proper comes of realisation of permanent values both as can be experienced from putting them into practice and in the understanding of life and supra-personal awareness that arise through it. The only attachment that gives permanent satisfaction is to the inner expansion, often called 'the spiritual life'; to all the forms of universalisation and divinisation of consciousness implied by it.

One sign of emotional detachment (non-attachment) is the absence of negativity and positivity in the shape of likes and dislikes. The truth about any matter can certainly best be perceived in dispassion because the passions very easily blur vision of the facts, sway judgement and obscure the fuller picture. Those who are disturbed neither by despondency nor excitement have the mind control that amounts to spiritual detachment. Many different experiences doubtless lie behind this achievement. This is not just some simple technique of losing interest in something because we cannot but live and partake in this world, nor should we even try physically to withdraw from it. We remain subject to many of its unavoidable ups and downs because we cannot become independent of, or ignore, the people around us.

Only by becoming convinced through experience and informed observation of the effects of strong emotion in the longer term will the real motivation towards non-attachment be gained. People swayed by strong feelings have first to recognise the actual results of them and the difficulties and unease they aggravate. From systematic and unbiased comparison with people who possess equanimity, psychologists can learn much about psychic and social effects of emotional reactions both in themselves and in others. Observing thus as a witness strengthens insight and reinforces non-attachment.

One axiom to follow in practising detached observation is primarily to try to discover and analyse our own errors and attendant motives, rather than those of others. This is because a person who does not know something from personal experience is basically ignorant of its actuality, even while perhaps being mentally or 'intellectually' cognisant of its external features. Further, we cannot be sure that we appreciate the true significance of what we observe in others' behaviour both because the intention is subjective and the role that any event plays in a person's life and growth differs very greatly from persons to person. Thus, the greatest caution must be observed when considering both the possible inward significance of another's actions and when trying to decide how the world happens to present itself seen from their perspective. It is an elementary fact of practical psychology that others' apparently glaring errors may, if approached with inward patience and courtesy, very often begin to appear in quite another light when more becomes known about the background situation, and time brings other relevant information previously not obtained.

One way of getting a more dispassionate attitude is through sharing our thoughts and feelings with reliable and understanding persons. Through talking we may identify the attachments we feel towards various things, persons or ideas and, as our overview develops, reach understanding that transcends the various patterns of desires and tends to release us from the bonds of our ego-feeling. This is like becoming the spectator to the situation as a drama where one is also a player interested in the outcome. Very much this kind of method was suggested by Roberto Assagioli¹, whereby polarities are transcended and a balance is obtained through a more comprehensive and benevolent understanding, preferably through rising above the continuum of feelings (eg. sympathy - indifference - antipathy) by not identifying with the limitation and problems that each of the positions impose.

There are usually certain attachments, however, that fail to dissolve simply because they are recognised and understood. Even sustained efforts of will at overcoming them may be ineffective. This is probably most difficult with attachments that have physiological effects, the most obvious being those related to the most basic instinctual and physical needs like the desire for particular foodstuffs, sexual relations, bodily rest and habitual comforts of different kinds. The acquired needs like tobacco, alcohol or other drugs can make for such strong dependencies that the will power to master them often falls short. This is the point at which different kinds of activity involving counsel, therapy, courses of treatment and many other kind of social aids may be helpful.

Freedom from recurrent thoughts, not only from those that are compulsive and 'neurotic', is the aim of most forms of contemplation and meditation. The time-honoured method is described as 'watching thoughts arise, pass by and depart'. This presumes that we are not compelled to act upon them or let them draw us on into just any direction. Freedom from such compulsion is partly a result of having trained oneself to concentrate, whether on practical or mental tasks. Perfect concentration in work is an excellent basis for meditation whereby one controls the vagaries of the mind and awakens other faculties that it tends to overrule

Giving upcertain things is not so difficult or so undesirable when it is actually removing a burden. Once we loosen our grasp, the weight we carry falls away. Limiting desires means less to worry about, less to get upset or angry about. Similarly, by so doing there are more resources left for others in my immediate environment, more elbow-room, which tends to lessen causes of others' anxiety and anger and be of benefit. Even Lenin held that any indulgence that reduces a man's self-control should not be allowed in a political leader.

CONVERTING NEGATIVITY

We can all note how, once we concentrate or dwell on a negative feeling that arises in us, it tends to extend itself to other events - both to real and imaginary situations, past and future. Negative feelings we all have about something or other soon obtain a power of their own within us. Such negativity attaches itself to thoughts and, when something recalls them, it returns along with them. This can grow and spread to affect our basic attitudes, unless conscious efforts are made to see things from both the pro and the contra sides, noting both the plus and the minus. This can give control of the mind without simply having to give up ones' better judgement. A neutral witness remains even-minded until, say, further information or inspiration may come to settle unanswered questions. This also regulates the flow of feelings, which are always eventually channelled through the general landscape of our thoughts. To be meaningful and fruitful, observation and self-observation must be guided by clear ideas and questions that have to be applied repeatedly (see some example questions below). Just to observe will not itself lead to much correct insight or to positive transformation.

We get so used to bad moods and negative thoughts that we may fall into the trap of thinking their cause is always something outside us. When our own negativity is 'projected' outwards, we blame the wrong events and people for the wrong reasons and we then become less able to recognise and change our own attitudes. But such negative experiences have no existence apart from our own minds. It is the same with everything that dejects, disillusions, depresses, disappoints, discourages, disgusts, disheartens, dismays, desponds, disenchants... and so on throughout a dictionary of ills, not to mention the endless trivialities some people complain about. The rule is, no one else but I am the sustainer of my own attitudes.

Many thoughts we tend to consider 'negative' are stimulated by what other persons say or do, or what we observe of them. The negative aspect of a thought , however, comes of the thinker's mind or psyche. Thoughts are themselves not necessarily negative or positive, they are simply perceptions or ideas. The negative or positive qualities we may attribute to them come of our own feelings, and these again are expressions of what we are attached to, our desires... to whatever degree we may have consciously chosen them. So the feeling is what makes a thought negative or positive. The good or bad quality is not itself any intrinsic part of what we think about, it is not so much the content of the thought but the intent we have in thinking it that matters. To take an example: simply seeing some event in the mind's eye - say, part of a forest on fire - is obviously not at all the same as seeing this with the wish that it should occur, or the intention of setting fire to it. It is the intent that makes the content negative... or positive, as the case may be. There are even circumstances where seeing part of a forest burn is relatively positive, such as when it is necessary to serve as a firebreak against it spreading to consume houses etc. There are relatively few events indeed that can definitively be said to be negative from every possible angle, whatever the circumstance involved. This shows how 'good' and 'bad' are really always ultimately subjective qualities that arise 'in the breast of the observer', not objective or observable facts.

Negativity may be deep-seated, such as when it has arisen early in life, and we may not even normally recognise bad thoughts and feelings for what they are. Such negativity drains us of the will to act in the right way, which in turn depresses the spirit further; like a 'black hole' that increasingly draws energy into its own emptiness.

Refraining from expressing such negativity of feeling or thought is obviously almost always best for oneself, one's relationships and other persons, provided that it is instead dealt with internally and not simply not stored up emotionally in the form of fixed reactions and thoughts. If not examined and uprooted, it can continue to lurk and spread subconsciously, later arising as bad dreams, in unguarded words or uncontrolled behaviour and so on. It can cause many types of self-destructiveness. By contrast, positive emotions, seldom have such results and are seemingly not subconsciously repressed either.

The force of bottled up negativity, when worked out and released in the right spirit - and in an entirely non-destructive way - converts into equally powerful constructive energy. There are many good ways of working consciously to tap this; from self-examination and contemplative reflection to goal-directed private discussion, group work and spiritually-oriented counselling or therapy. One important test of the rightness and effectiveness of methods used is always how much non-attachment or equanimity is achieved by their aid.

Winning or losing before the various challenges set for us in life, and also those set by ourselves, are prime motives for the positive and negative attitudes. Rudyard Kipling stated the ideal of detachment in his famous poem, as follows: "If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat these two impostors just the same" .Success or failure are prime motives for those pro and con attitudes that upset our balance of mind and disable our good intentions. The absence of the negative and positive attitude, of like and dislike, despondency and excitement, is non-attachment. This achievement surely cannot come suddenly of some simple technique of ignoring the world around us, for such self-knowledge arises from the struggle with many varied experiences in life.

One aid in learning the effects of feelings and developing non-attachment, whether in ourselves or others - especially in the longer term, is making a self-observational log-book. In time it can serve as a reminder of where one was and show how much progress has after all been made. Major and minor experiences relevant to personal development are recorded, keeping up awareness and firmness of purpose. Correct insights and self-development do not come automatically, hence they must repeatedly be guided by the right questions and inspired by sound ideas from spiritual teachings, which can provide a 'working theory' and a helpful framework for our experiences.

The goal of working to see the good in everyone and in all situations often raises the objections: 'How can I see good when there seems to be only bad?' or 'To ignore and deny the bad or to see good where the opposite is the case is naive or plain foolish!' In response to this, here are some ways in which negativity can sometimes be converted into its opposite:-

1) Not identifying the person with the action: Unavoidably, we may observe a person's bad action without also thereby seeing the person as bad. To think the person bad is usually to fixate on a few actions while forgetting many others. One also ignores their potential for changing to the better later on by fixing a mental 'bad' label to the person.

Discrimination makes us recognise the difference between good and bad behaviour, but however much we know, we can only ever see a mere part of another's many-sided life. Though it is best that we look only for the good, we cannot usually do so without first distinguishing it from what we see as bad. Being judgemental tends to aggravate the situation when we might just as well have looked ahead on the bright side to bring out the good in the other. Rather than dwell on the negative, it is more fruitful to seek something positive. Much of what is negative can safely be ignored. Yet this obviously doesn't mean that we must always go on humouring or even associating further with persons who act wrongly.

2) Deciding to refrain from dwelling upon thoughts negatively: Once we dwell on a negative feeling that has arisen in us, it can extend itself to other things, people and events - both to real and imaginary situations and soon seems to get a power of its own. The effects of bad feelings on thoughts in the long term are easiest to overlook, because of the time and memory it takes to study the connection of cause and consequence. If not checked by conscious effort, negativity also attaches itself to thoughts and returns with them whenever we remember them.

Negative impulses can be transformed and avoided by consciously re-programming thought patterns. One antidote is the simple advice; when we see a 'minus side' in someone we should also look for the 'plus side', to the cons we should also add the 'pros'. Rather than the unpleasantness of having to think of life's ills, the failings of others or the madness of the world, one can develop routines for breaking such patterns with different enjoyable subjects. All such mental hangers and hang-ups limit satisfaction, narrow vision and destroy self-esteem.

What may seem to be done for bad reasons may - if we could see into the heart of the doer - have been done out of a high motive or may just have been a misguided effort. What we may feel to be bad behaviour by someone, we may later realise in light of new information, to have been a well-intentioned act instead. Such instability in judgement indicates insufficient non-attachment. Being for or against someone or something most often means having some sort of binding attachment to our own mistaken thoughts, selfish feelings or even to quite imaginary notions.

'Smile and the world smiles back,' is very often simply true, and yet more so when taken more figuratively as applying to all one's thoughts, words and doings. Keeping modestly to oneself and seeking the good in others wherever possible is a fruitful policy; one's own benignity more easily evokes the benign in others and creates relations of happy mutual respect.

3) Waiting and examining before judging between right and wrong: We seldom know all the facts, reasons and motives that are involved even in quite simple situations. Goodness lies only in a person's intentions (i.e. in the inner motive) and is not in the behaviour itself, nor what it results in. Right and wrong are judgements about external behaviour, according to whether it offends prevailing public mores and the law of the land. Hence, an illegal action can sometimes be morally good. Though we have a duty to do our best and act with circumspection to achieve the right results, we are always prone to mistakes, wrong estimations and ignorance of facts. Good intention followed by intelligent action, even if misguided, is obviously better than foolish acts or mere good intentions with no commitment.

Any really well-meant act is good, even if it turns out 'badly' in fact, due to the doer's ignorance of certain facts, lack of skill, bad luck etc. We often misjudge things due to the distortions of our own ideas, as self-reflection can always prove. Others' 'glaring weaknesses', if seen with patience and courtesy, may in time be more understandable if we learn what lies behind them. Aggravation may then be supplanted by the feeling of understanding. Yet sometimes doubt about another's good intentions is completely unavoidable. Without trying to deceive ourselves we may still, if even-minded, see some other goodness in that person or look for it constructively, ourselves acting according to this. We cannot usually know or consequently judge another person's deepest motives. So by rather examining ourselves and our own motives we may be able to adopt some conscious distance from our feelings and cherished thoughts, and so gently overlook what we cannot condone or agree with in others.

Every human action and interaction always has both an external, behavioural aspect and an intentional, motivational one. Learning with any reasonable degree of likelihood and accuracy the truth about real motives, is often fraught with every pitfall of reason and understanding. It is usually very difficult even to compile an accurate account of observed behaviour and events, even by persons of maturity and much experience. Constant conflicts about circumstantial court evidence soon convince of this. The weight of evidence can even sometimes be entirely convincing about a person's actual motives, even when this is totally denied by the person concerned. The human heart, moreover, is not open to general inspection. It can have depths invisible to anyone, even much of the time to ourselves.

4) Putting the past behind us and concentrating on present possibilities: This usually removes a good deal of negative dross which the mind accumulates from dwelling on past experience. Attention directed to immediate concerns often frees our awareness and 'turns a new leaf'. The mind is inclined to distance itself from things and, by its nature, it is not bound to the present. The present is the sphere of those qualities we sometimes call 'the heart'. The heart is not necessarily good as such, for ill-feeling, hate and much besides can attach to it. However, the heart is essentially our consciousness of the good, of whatever awakens the best qualities in us, as when we say, for example, that 'my heart goes out to them'.

5) Not letting untruth fester or real injustice pass: Seeing good cannot mean totally closing one's eyes to all facts. Though we must look for the good in all, we are bound sometimes to see wrong and even intolerable injustice. Sometimes, to know a wrong, even a minor one, and not to speak up or act is untruth, whether towards oneself, others or both. To cringe from duty weakens self-confidence and upsets peace of mind because we feel the disagreement of our own thoughts, words and deeds. It can make negativity fester in frustration and even bitterness. But great care and circumspection are doubtless always needed when tackling injustice... and especially self-examination from the outset! The situation and our consciences may call upon us to speak out and to act, say to protect an innocent victim from harm. Mahatma Gandhi himself held that, as a very last resort, we may not be able to avoid using (defensive) force. This need not mean that we act from negativity, provided that we are genuinely selfless and aim to avert a greater ill.

6) Directing thoughts to higher things: Good and bad are our subjective associations to things arising from our desires and expectations, they are not objective qualities in things nor do they have ultimate validity. This applies both to pleasure and pain, including illness and suffering. It follows that thinking about or meditating on whatever relates to the higher reality is affirmative of everyone and everything as it leads away from the distinction of good and bad upon which negativity depends.

SOME QUESTIONS FOR SELF-REFLECTION

Non-attachment is observable in:-

Freedom from affect: absence of destructive feelings (rage/hate/self-hate); absence of any sense of emptiness, lack or meaninglessness; constructivity of views and approach to difficulties; service offered inconspicuously to needy persons when called for.

Self-imposed limits on personal desires: moderation in food and temperance in drink habits; non-reliance on stimulants or drugs; material non-possesiveness shown by moderate and intelligent consumption of all types of goods; non-destructive physical behaviour whatever the environment.

Control of speech habits: soft-mannered and chivalrous speech to all persons; not speaking ill of others; not indulging in argumentation for proving one's own points, in grumbling, criticism, and other expressions of dissatisfaction; avoiding gossip and unnecessary chatter; not repeatedly harping on the same themes; having restrained opinions and approaching issues in a non-judgemental manner.

Patience under trying conditions: good-humoured outlook at all times; freedom from irritations, dislikes, phobias; courtesy towards all; not pushing one's own interests before those of others; forbearance towards others' fads and foibles; not demonstrating intolerance of others' opinions when not in agreement; maintaining a peaceful balance under disturbances or in dangerous surroundings.

Harmony of thought, word and deed: which is observable when words and actions do not conflict over long periods of time. (Whether the thoughts, words and deeds are good, bad or indifferent will , however, obviously depend on the observer's understanding).

The above traits, taken together, would describe a highly-liberated and wholly selfless person. It is fairly safe to assert that few persons are always non-attached in respect of all of the above points. Complete selflessness and consequent self-realisation give rise to what we would regard as a totally determined will power that is simply always, by its very nature, in accordance with whatever occurs. It is important to remain aware that non-attachment is only developed at a gradual pace through sustained attempts, often over a long time, and that the extent to which it is a matter of will-power varies considerable with the relative 'psychic health' of the person concerned.

To what extent the attainment of demonstrable positive personality traits always concurs with the attitude of non-attachment can be tested both by personal observation and systematic research studies.

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