Detachment and Compassion (from an e-mail exchange) Bruce, just to share a thought: I am blessed with Love and Peace within this vessel of clay and when I am at one with the Source all is well, when I am with nature all is well, when I am among the meek and loving all is well; then I see suffering and strife and hatred and I am moved - this state that is referred to as detachment is hard for me to achieve, how can I be detached from another's suffering? How can I not be moved? The state of detachment you write of is not actually a disconnection or distancing, it is the absence of resistance, an utter transparency to being "moved." Let the pattern of thought that calls itself Michael be "moved" completely aside, and what remains is pure compassion for all the "suffering and strife and hatred" in the world. To be this compassionate presence is surely bodhisattva!