Ram Dass: “Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing.”

The Paradox of Involvement vs. Non-Attachment

Posted June 17, 2016

It says in the Tao, “Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing.”

The way I hear this in psychology is: motivation affects perception. When I’m hungry I see what’s edible. If I’m horny, I see what’s makeable. If I’m tired, I see what’s soft, you know, my motivation selects out of the infinity of the universe what it is that fits in with my desires.

Since that’s the case, as long as you’re identified with your desires, you can’t help but manipulate the universe to try to bring about that gratification of your desires. If you carry that to it’s ultimate truth, you see that everybody around you is an object to be manipulated to give you that gratification.

So if it says, “Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing,” what does it mean to have an eye unclouded by longing? It’s the place in your being, in your awareness which is not totally identified with your desire system.

My sense is that to the extent you are not attached to your desire systems, you are able to hear other human beings and you do less of projecting into them what you need, and the result is that out of your action comes responses which are more compassionate to who they are than your need at the moment.

So this doesn’t mean you don’t have desires, but rather there is a paradox that’s hard to work with, which is this: “What does it mean to be fully involved in life and non-attached?”



– Ram Dass