Understanding Attachment
Entertainment industries publicize the illusion (false belief) that in order to be happy we must acquire "things" and form relationships of attachment to them; that in order to find love we must possess or be attached to the other person. This confusion between love and attachment has entered into all our relationships in a number of ways.
To our conditioned minds it appears to be a contradiction (error), but it is a basic spiritual truth - to be loving it is necessary to be detached. Attachment is the root of fear and fear and love cannot exist together just as day and night, winter and summer cannot. The idea and the practice of detachment are found in almost all the paths of wisdom, over the centuries. This is so because attachment is one of the deepest habits that we learn to develop, and we do not realize that anything we attach ourselves to turns into a trap for our consciousness, for the self, the being. We know we are attached when we begin to think about someone or something when they are not present and there is no need to think about them. Our mental energy exhausts itself and we have the sensation that we lack control over our thoughts and feelings.
Each time that we automatically cling (hold on) to something, we invoke (call for or attract) the presence of fear - whether it be of people, position, power, money or even opinion, any form of attachment means that we will fear harm or loss. Fear takes on many faces (worry, anxiety, and tension); it prevents our spiritual growth and frightens us away from or blocks us from love.
Entertainment industries publicize the illusion (false belief) that in order to be happy we must acquire "things" and form relationships of attachment to them; that in order to find love we must possess or be attached to the other person. This confusion between love and attachment has entered into all our relationships in a number of ways.
To our conditioned minds it appears to be a contradiction (error), but it is a basic spiritual truth - to be loving it is necessary to be detached. Attachment is the root of fear and fear and love cannot exist together just as day and night, winter and summer cannot. The idea and the practice of detachment are found in almost all the paths of wisdom, over the centuries. This is so because attachment is one of the deepest habits that we learn to develop, and we do not realize that anything we attach ourselves to turns into a trap for our consciousness, for the self, the being. We know we are attached when we begin to think about someone or something when they are not present and there is no need to think about them. Our mental energy exhausts itself and we have the sensation that we lack control over our thoughts and feelings.
Each time that we automatically cling (hold on) to something, we invoke (call for or attract) the presence of fear - whether it be of people, position, power, money or even opinion, any form of attachment means that we will fear harm or loss. Fear takes on many faces (worry, anxiety, and tension); it prevents our spiritual growth and frightens us away from or blocks us from love.
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