Detachment is no more of an endeavour of consciousness than attachment is. Being attached to things is not an act of volition; we do not look to manage other things and situations because they present themselves in our lives; we look to regulate them because we won't do otherwise.
In other words, one man is additionally perfectly content with a circumstance which could drive another man mad; one man might find peace with a person who may irritate or annoy others. Being at peace with circumstances and others is not a choice we make; either we are compatible, or we're not.
The mistake I think we create is conflating psychological attachment with emotional attachment. Although I feel emotional attachment it is also beneficial (For instance, falling in love may not be simply a pleasurable experience but, also, a useful one.), I do not believe psychological attachment is healthy. For me, attachment, in this sense, is mental entanglement.
The distinction is drawn between the capability for sympathy, the ability to share in the emotive states of others, that is crucial to collectivisation, and a conflation of one's mental constitution with that of another's.
Bringing Unity In Times Of Dismay
Though the heart is the mechanism that brings us together as a collective, the mind is the issue that separates us; to understand is to divide; it's to judge; it is the quantitative process that makes a plurality of the planet. However, to feel is to connect one sentient being to another.
As the individual attributes to himself objective value, he consequently creates a set of values which are related to each other, by comparison, a set that is comprised of greater and lesser values in relation to the self. This evaluation of the self is the ego; the more he esteems himself, the larger is his ego.
The problem with being egocentric is it inhibits a man's capability to feel; instead of being sensitive to the circumstances of others, he judges everyone and everything in respect to himself; the value of things although relative to the self, are values that are objectified by the individual's ego.
It is the failure to be sensitive to the circumstances of others that blinds the individual to the external world, and it's his own bias that makes divisiveness and contention.
