I do not think that detachment would lead to indifference, and this for two reasons. First, even the most secluded hermit still needs to find shelter….

I have struggled with the concept of detachment and not falling into the trap of indifferent so hope you don’t mind that I’m using your posts to help me clarify my thoughts.

When I imagine of a monastic life I’m assuming one in which much of the day is spend in contemplation, meditation/prayer and taking care of the general stuff – food, shelter, cleaning, … the danger of indifference with regards to life out side of that.

From what I’ve read the intention of such contemplation and mediation is to lead an awakening to life as it is – the life/death/life cycle… the good the bad and the ugly (which are neither good, bad or ugly) and know (gnostic knowing) that life as it is… is Love (And You are It).

To get to a place where one can say Yes to this realisation one learns to become detached from outcomes, suffering, joy… and in this way be in the present.  One will continue to notice outcomes…suffering and joy, the cycle of life – death – life however one is not attached to these experiences but a kind of observer of experiences.

(I wonder that if the self does exist is exists at the still point as the observer. ‘I’ am not my thoughts ‘the still point I’ observes thoughts. ‘I am not my experiences, feelings, ‘the still point I’ observes experiences, feeling…)

When you begin these practices enviably the thought comes that all is meaningless. That if all that happens is as it must be, life as it is, working towards some specific end is pointless. If one is detached from any experience why bother? (Of course, such thoughts indicate one continues to be attached and the whole process becomes a tangle and you begin again) Easy to understand how detachment often ends in indifference and depression.

My observation is that many of those who practice detachment don’t engage in life. They do enough to feed and shelter themselves but they don’t engage in life, or vote. If they engage in life they quickly lose the ‘serenity’ that they had achieved when being still so one can understand the temptation to remain still and fall into interference.

The trick then is to awaken to a way of being that can say Yes to Life as it is, know it to be Love while continuing to engage in Life. Acting out one’s truths while being detached from those truths, which may or may not be correct… but as they are yours in this moment must be lived out if one is to be authentic. Open of course, to doing better when learning better.

I think/feel that if someone reaches that kind of state of being one could only view and participate in life from a place of compassion. At such a point questions of purpose, meaning, the good, the bad… the problem of opposites… disappear, become unskillful. This way of being that is ‘present’ while sitting still and or acting and engaging Life where ever you find yourself.

That probably doesn’t make any sense, but there you go.