If you're too entangled with the world and too identified with what you're doing, you'll lose yourself and your connection to spirit. If you're too detached from the world and too absorbed in spiritual endeavours, you'll lose your humanness and your connection to the world. The solution is the middle way, the balance between both worlds, so called detached involvement.
The concept of detached involvement is best described using examples.
Imagine you are playing Super Mario Cart against some friends. If you were to apply detached involvement in this situation you would be playing full out and trying to win on one level of experiencing (involvement). Yet you would be totally at peace and Zen within yourself regardles of the outcome of the game (detachment).
You are facing a so called deadline at work? Do your best to contribute, serve and meet the deadline (involvement). Yet remind yourself that you are basically a microbe living on a speck of dust spinning at 107.000 km/h around a little sun somewhere in an infinite universe. Nobody will die when you're missing the deadline – it's all play (detachment).
You're in a romantic relationship and you're really in love? Be the best partner that you can be. Literally create the relationship of your dreams (involvement) and yet, don't forget that you are just fine by yourself (detachment). You don't need anything or anyone to be happy. It's all icing on the cake – a gift and not the requirement for fulfilment.
Do you notice an increasing resistance to the idea of detached involvement as you read through the three examples? Good! You have just found a treasure within yourself to work on and take another step into freedom, if that's what you desire.
»We're in the world but not of it.«