Attachment and mental health

There's neither good nor bad about the presence and absence of worldly connection building and social interaction. The difference is about the presence or absence of attachment towards agreeable and disagreeable social connections and interactions, that is determining whether the mind (the state of the mind/mental health) is being determined or influenced by the presence and absence of agreeable and disagreeable connections and interactions, or not.

It's normal that the passionate egoistic minds that think and believe they love yoga very much and are practicing yoga regularly, might not like or agree with the teaching and practice of yoga and buddhism about non-attachment, or renunciation and dispassion. These minds, including many mental health professionals, think and believe that all minds can't live without social connections and interactions, where social connections and interactions are highly important for mental health, where lack of social connections and interactions is highly detrimental towards mental health, not knowing that, the main culprit is ATTACHMENT, and it's not really about whether there's sufficient social connections and interactions, or not.

Void of attachment, the presence and absence of all kinds of agreeable and disagreeable worldly connections and interactions don't determine the state of the mind, or mental health.

The presence of attachment towards the presence and absence of agreeable and disagreeable worldly connections and interactions is the reason why suffering/painful sorrow/disturb arise in the mind, upon the absence of, or the lack of, or losing the pleasant and agreeable connections and interactions, as well as upon coming in contact with, or the presence of unpleasant and disagreeable connections and interactions.

The minds that don't know what is non-attachment, or don't know how to remain unattached towards all kinds of connections and interactions, they would be spontaneously or autonomously attracted to, or admiring, or 'falling in love with' something or someone that appeared to be pleasant, agreeable, lovable, beautiful or meaningful to the mind, and being determined or influenced by the presence and absence of all kind of agreeable and disagreeable connections and interactions. These minds also have the desire to become physically and mentally attractive and admirable to other minds in the process of connections building and interactions, being determined by the presence and accumulation of pleasant and agreeable social connections and interactions for developing and empowering the sense of self-esteem, confidence, goodness, happiness, positiveness and meaningfulness towards itself and life existence, which determining, affecting and influencing the state of their mental health.

Even when the mind feels confident, good, happy, positive and meaningful about itself and life existence upon the presence of pleasant and agreeable connections and interactions in the present moment, this is impermanent. The mind will be in suffering, or the state of mental health will be 'bad' or 'disturbed', upon inevitable impermanent changes, upon the presence of unpleasant and disagreeable connections and interactions, and upon the absence of pleasant and agreeable connections and interactions, due to attachment. That is not freedom at all.

The minds that know what is non-attachment, where they can stay unattached towards all kinds of worldly connections and interactions, they can mix and mingle freely among the worldly community, if they want, but without being determined or influenced by the presence and absence of all kinds of agreeable and disagreeable connections and interactions. Such minds don't admire, or attracted to, or 'fall in love with' anything or anyone that appeared to be pleasant, agreeable, lovable, beautiful or meaningful to the mind, of what the mind perceived as 'goodness', 'kindness', 'righteousness', 'meaningfulness', 'positiveness', 'beautiful', 'cuteness', or 'attractiveness'. These minds don't need to rely on the presence and accumulation of agreeable social connections and interactions to be developing and empowering the sense of self-esteem, confidence, goodness, happiness, positiveness and meaningfulness towards itself and life existence, that don't need to be there at all. That's freedom.

Regardless of whether the minds like or dislike, agree or disagree, practice or don't practice, non-attachment is the core teaching and practice of yoga and buddhism. Without non-attachment, all kind of practice won't lead the mind towards liberation from ignorance and egoism, and the consequences of that. One can be practicing and/or teaching yoga to many other people for many years, preaching about awareness and mindfulness, while adopting a way of healthy living, clean eating and high thinking, but the mind might still be not free from functioning under the influence of ignorance and passionate egoism, being determined and influenced very much by the mind perception of a selfless impermanent worldly life existence of impermanent names and forms, worldly identities, activities, affairs, conditions, connections and interactions.

It's neither right nor wrong about the agreement and disagreement of the minds towards the teaching and practice of non-attachment. It's whether the minds are being endowed with the intense yearning for liberation, or not. The minds that are only interested in gaining some momentary physical and mental health and fitness benefits from performing the different type of yoga practice and exercises regularly, and developing the sense of goodness, happiness, positiveness and meaningfulness via the gratification of the desire of craving and aversion, through the presence and enjoyment of pleasant and agreeable names and forms, conditions, activities, connections and interactions, they don't need to agree with or practice non-attachment, as they wish. While the minds that have intense yearning towards liberation from the inevitable suffering of restlessness, of swaying between happiness and unhappiness, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, then non-attachment is the path.

The passionate minds advise the minds that suffered from low self-esteem, low confidence, dissatisfaction, unhappiness and meaninglessness to enlarge the circle of their social connections and interactions, empowering mental and emotional dependence, that give rise to momentary sense of accomplishment, acknowledgement, satisfaction, happiness and meaningfulness to the mind, while the teachings of yoga and buddhism advise such minds to renounce from the worldly connections and interactions for developing non-attachment and dispassion, developing mental and emotional independence, to free the mind from the root cause of low self-esteem, low confidence, dissatisfaction, unhappiness and meaninglessness, which is ignorance and passionate egoism.

Not that the mind will be free from suffering, or will be in a state of constant happiness or satisfaction upon the absence or cessation of selfless impermanent changes, but it is no longer being determined or influenced by the selfless impermanent changes within the impermanent modification of the selfless mind (the different states of the mind) and all kind of names and forms that it perceives through the senses, including this selfless physical body (the different conditions of the physical body).

A truly compassionate and wise teacher/parent/leader/senior/friend will allow the student/child/follower/junior/friend to become independent mentally and emotionally, where one knows how to love oneself, think for oneself, inquire the truth by oneself and look after oneself, and doesn't need to rely on connections and interactions with some others to be receiving love and support, agreement and acknowledgement, to feel good, happy, confident, positive or meaningful, regardless of the presence and absence of agreeable and disagreeable connections and interactions.

The mind that knows this, doesn't suffer from the sense of loneliness, even without any connections and interactions with anyone. The mind that doesn't know this, will be suffering from the sense of loneliness even when there is the presence of different kind of connections and interactions with some others, as it is always looking forward to be receiving ongoing attention, love, support, agreement and acknowledgement from some others. People might think that it's due to the lack of physical and mental companionship and interaction that is why someone is suffering from loneliness, not knowing that, it's the presence of attachment and craving towards receiving attention, love, support, agreement and acknowledgement from some others in order to feel love, good, happy, confident, positive and meaningful.