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Author Topic: Attachments  (Read 3326 times)

Offline Endless~Knot

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Attachments
« on: September 09, 2009, 05:52:05 PM »
Most are pretty advanced enough to know that attachments are not good to have. However, still being attached to something is a problem. It is still a day to day struggle to fight being attached to our attachments. We are, attached to our attachments ourselves. Thats right. Thats not a typo or brain fart.

My life, my job, my family, my husband, my house, my car, my shit basically. All I own. Its a wonder that many do renounce the world and go into hermitages, renounce all human life even, just to get away. Because they know the power of attachments, the hold and the pull.

Attachments are what bind us to the world of maya. The grand play. And its difficult to be able to 'see' clearly in the illusory world, what is real, through the clouds of our attachments.

Because our attachments rule us, they define us. "I am this because I am connected to that." We are attached to our personal stories. Our childhood. Our teen years. Our college years. Our midlife. Our age. Our this and that. We think all of this is 'ours' in some way. But its merely passing and fleeting. We dont even own our own bodies. If we owned anything, we could have charge of it. Do what we wanted to. If we truly were masters of our house, we could avoid 'our bodies' being sick, or getting old. But we cannot. So what really, truly does own them then? That is the great question. What does? That doesnt provide an easy answer.

What do we truly have ownership of then, if we own nothing, and nothing is worth getting attached to? Do we even own that little sliver of spark, of buddha nature, of spirit dwelling within us? Can we control that, even after we die? Do we stand a chance, as discussed on the thread of self or not self? We cannot if we are attached to the most difficult thing to let go of, the *I*

The I is the part of us which attaches to anything and everything. I am this, I am that, I own this, I own that. I dont own this, I want that. I can have this, I cant have that. The I constantly prods over itself with its various demands. Its what creates misery in one way or another. and eventually, after much subserviance, will eventually lead to our demise because it was never real to begin with, and it was hopelessly clinging to the unimportant in the first place. My this, my that, my my.

So examining attachments and severing them, esp in mind is very important to do. Its critical or else we'll be slaves of the I, which may be a part of us, but is not us. It is a tyrant which takes over and demands like a needy child, and keeps us from walking the path on the journey back home, inwardly home where we belong.
“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own.” - Bruce Lee

Offline Endless~Knot

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Re: Attachments
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2009, 08:44:36 PM »
"Grasping at things can only yield one of two results:
Either the thing you are grasping at disappears, or you yourself disappear.
It is only a matter of which occurs first."

~Goenka
“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own.” - Bruce Lee

Offline Endless~Knot

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Re: Attachments
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2009, 12:03:38 PM »
The process of practice is to see through, not to eliminate, anything to which we are attached. We could have great financial wealth and be unattached to it, or we  have nothing and be very attached to having nothing. Usually, if we have seen through the nature of attachment, we will have a tendency to have few possessions, but not necessarily. Most practice gets caught in this area of fiddling with our environments or our minds. " My mind should be quiet". Our mind doesn't matter; what matters is non attachment to the activities of the mind.

And our emotions are harmless unless they dominate us  that is, if we are attached to them)---then they create dis-harmony for everyone.

The first problem in practice is to see that we are attached. As we do consistent, patient zazen we begin to know that we are nothing but attachments; they rule our lives. But we never lose an attachment by saying it has to go.

Only as we gain true awareness of its true nature does it quietly and imperceptibly wither away; like a sandcastle with waves rolling over, it just smoothes out and finally Where is it? What was it?

 by Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own.” - Bruce Lee

Offline daphne

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Re: Attachments
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2009, 02:35:17 PM »
Amazing what we can be attached to! We can even be attached to the path! We can also become too attached to releasing attachments, andl then, we are again attached!. 
Knowing that nothing lasts, is a good way to release attachments; to people, to things, even to ideas!

Offline Michael

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Re: Attachments
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2012, 05:36:03 AM »
Knowing that nothing lasts, is a good way to release attachments; to people

Waiting...

Offline Endless~Knot

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Re: Attachments
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2013, 08:45:43 PM »
Sometimes it's fun to read old posts to see where your mindset was, what you were pondering about quite some time ago.

I have a strange detachment within I have learned over the years. It could be because I have lost some material things, seen relationships come and go, but also I have children who are growing up.

I really own nothing but that little tiny semblance of 'spark' within me. That is all I really, have a shot of taking anywhere. I own no person, no home, no-thing. But I do have a little something within me of awareness.

I am hoping when death comes I can take it so I do not lose myself, so when I encounter the dark sea of awareness, I do not lose myself too strongly.

I want to be in control of my fate. I do not like the unknown on one hand, yet I know, the unknown is the only real thing I know.

I try to defeat my programming of my past, from my parents, from my lives I have lived in this one. I try to become a stable human being.

I feel strangely detached from this world. Not uncaring however. I care very deeply about its fate, the more I become detached.

I can only hope what I have scraped off in finding my 'me', what is left, will carry me to the right place.
“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own.” - Bruce Lee