A check for those attachments that Ram Dass talks about — that it’s best not to have them; that without such attachments, one has found a state of true freedom.

Can I let something go without having a feeling that I’ve somehow betrayed myself? Without having a feeling that now, I don’t quite know who I am any longer?

— My preference in ice cream flavors? Or favorite brand of blue jeans?
— My ideas about the kind of work or hobbies that I do?
— My dislike of, disappointment in, maybe even hatred of, a political system or                                 organization or figure?
— My animosity toward or yearning for someone I once had a relationship with?
— My passion for art history? Or for horror movies? Or for skiing?
— This lifetime?

Can I step back a bit and look at any of these sorts of things and truly say to myself —                                                                                                                                                                                                        “Yeah, I’m good without that.”

It can still be okay to have these sorts of things, as something like props and prompts in the daily and ongoing improvisational theater that is our lives; but to also be able to walk off the stage and leave them there, when that particular scene or act is over.