By Manoj Gupta

During early stage of my career, I used to get upset with provoking situations and people. I reached out to my Mentor for guidance.

Mentor: Imagine you have an urgent meeting & you got stuck in heavy traffic. How will you respond?
Me: Curse traffic & my luck.

Mentor: Imagine the same day, it is a holiday – and you see the same traffic from the 10th floor of your apartment. How will you respond?
Me: I will ignore it & continue doing what I planned.

Mentor: You got the answer!

Me: I didn’t understand, what do you mean?

Mentor: This is called power of attachment vs detachment. In both the situations, ‘heavy traffic’ was common entity. In the first instance, you attached yourself with traffic. In the second instance, you were detached, as you felt traffic has nothing to do with you – and hence continued with composure.

He asked me to close my eyes and visualize both scenarios again with detachment. I followed – and was zapped!

The book, ‘Aristotelian Ethics in contemporary Perspective’ beautifully depicts: “there is no perfect utilitarian perspective, it is the human nature that constrains the adequacy of conception of virtues and vice”.

Even after several years, when I connect the dots, I find this concept equally powerful