Detachment and presence are not opposed. In the differentiated individual they form a single capacity. Detachment is the refusal to let the forces of the age determine the interior direction. Presence is the capacity to remain fully engaged in the concrete demands of the day while that refusal is maintained. The man who achieves only detachment without presence becomes abstract and ineffective. The man who achieves only presence without detachment is absorbed by the current he moves in.
The residual possibility requires both. The applications already established train the double capacity. Discipline of the body keeps the man present in the physical order. Measure in speech and attention keeps him from being pulled into every horizontal current. Consistency in the small decisions of the day builds the habit of acting from the center rather than from reaction. Over time the two aspects reinforce each other.
Young men often oscillate between withdrawal and immersion. Withdrawal appears as a pure form of detachment yet quickly becomes a form of avoidance. Immersion appears as engagement yet quickly becomes a form of surrender. The higher type holds the middle position. He remains in the world without belonging to its direction. He acts without allowing the results of the action to redefine his measure.
Practice the double capacity in the ordinary field of the day. Detachment that leaves the man absent is incomplete. Presence that leaves him determined by the age is incomplete. The residual form of both is realized in the man who continues to stand at the intersection of the two without collapsing into either extreme.