DETACHMENT

Detachment is defined by Patanjali as "self-mastery," and "freedom from desire for what is seen and heard."

Attached to God alone, the detached person does not crave sense objects and attractions, or the fruits of his actions.  He performs his work as karma yoga, which is the path of selfless work.  With karma yoga the individual offers his every action, and its results, to God as a sacrament.

Detachment does not mean indifference to one's work and other people.  It denotes, on the contrary, a profound regard for work and others, but without the sense of "me" and "mine."

The opposite of detachment is, naturally, attachment, termed upadana in Sanskrit and Pali.  Attachment is the desire to have this, to do that, or to be that, which is the source of much suffering and malcontent in the world.  Both Vedanta and Buddhism warn against this. 

Detachment is a central concept in Zen. One of the most important technical Chinese terms for detachment is "wu nian," which literally means "no thought."  Here is not meant the literal absence of thought, but rather the state of being "bu ran," or "unstained" by thought.  By separating oneself from one's thoughts and opinions, a person avoids being harmed by them.