Attachment.......
.
........is the root of all suffering.
Supposedly saith the Buddha.
On days when I pause to think of it, I begin to think there might be something to that. Whether it be attachment to hearth and home or to loved ones or possessions, jobs, cars, fine jewelry, art, a myriad of tangible and not so things.
On the other hand, without the desire for so many of these things we might still be eating what we picked up off the ground and beating our cousins the chimpanzees off with a stick.
But then if you never had it, you'd never miss it.........Right?
6 comments:
never had it = never miss it ?
Maybe, when it comes to things.
Never having had love, however, doesn't seem to apply. At least, not for me.
Aaahh, but dear Lady, you see, you are loved.
I have many life-lessons to learn. One of which is being... grateful.
Thank you, sweet man, for helping me remember.
Therein lies love for you, also.
Attachment is the source of all comfort. And it begins with species other than ourselves. It pre-dates humans.
A mother octopus will sit, covered with her babies eggs, to protect them until they hatch. In the process she starves to death. She gives her life so they might live.
A mother alligator will guard her egg mound for months until they're ready to hatch. She tests the temperature carefully thtoughout, and adjusts the coverings to keep it just right.
When she hears the first little chirps from the mound, meaning the babies are ready to hatch, she uncovers it. With extraordinary gentleness, she takes each egg in her mouth and cracks it a bit to help the baby hatch. Then she tenderly, lovingly picks the tiny kittens up in her enormous toothy jaw, and takes them to the water for their first swim.
And we haven't even gotten up to the level of birds yet here. Much less mammals.
It's not attachment that causes pain. Pain comes from problems in attachment.
There's no freedom in lack of attachment. Only loss and mental illness.
Just my $.02 worth.
And after the baby alligators are in the water and start hunting on their own, which she does not teach them to do, they go their way and if by chance the mama alligator comes across then when hungry, they become bait, and likely die.
I think the Buddha is trying to teach is that we form attachments to try to define ourselves. The minute you awaken to the cause of suffering, which is your preoccupation to your “self”, then you’ll began to feel joy in your life.
Oh yes. All sorts of animals cannibalize, and chimps commit murder upon each other.
Not bonobos, though. Just regular chimps. Bonobos make love not war.
I agree with your explanation of what the Buddha was going about. Fortunately, I was exposed to that way of thought at an early age. It's one of the reasons I spent most of my life traveling light light light. I never wanted my *things* to own me, and so I owned almost nothing. It made moving constantly a lot easier than if I'd had furniture. My hundreds of books comprised most of my possessions, and those I mailed at library rate.
Having the material world define us, especially when it defines us to our own selves, is a very sad thing.
I also never wanted my work to define me. I didn't want to be like so many men I knew who went to pieces or immediately died when they retired.
Still, I felt quite a sense of loss when I couldn't work any more, at age 32. It was a very deep wound. After so many years of working jobs I really didn't like, I'd finally found my niche. It was an extraordinary feeling. I did work I was born to do and I felt it from head to toe and so did everyone around me.
It only lasted 6 years, and then I got sick, and everything was gone. Everything.
And if it weren't for what I'd learned from ol' Buddha there, back in my teens? I would have been wounded by that event far worse than I was.
Ultimately, most of it was just...stuff. Stuff I can do without, in a heartbeat. There's very little stuff I become attached to. Even things I love, like my orchids, I can lose, and be philosophical about it.
Even attachment to my physical body is something I can moderate. To deal with the extreme physical pain various maladies impose on that body, it really helps to *detach.*
Losing the ability to contribute to life and society? That's a bit different.
And something I object to had far less to do with Buddha than with those who, like all philosophies and religions, twist what he's getting at to meet their own ends.
Love really and truly matters. It helps and it heals and it makes and creates life.
THAT attachment is not one that causes harm. It's lack of love that does that. Losing love. Finding out you weren't loved when you thought you were, that someone was fooling and betraying and using you. Finding out the person who loved you was too damaged to do it in a healthy way.
That's what I meant about attachment problems being what hurts, not attachment itself.
Without attachment, we are not whole. We are made that way. Without good and healthy attachment we suffer, and when that happens too young and/or too hard, we are damaged beyond repair, and never stop suffering until we die.
Those who twist this concept in order to excuse their unattached use and abuse of other humans may suffer after they die.
Post a Comment