06-14-2014, 08:46 PM
We can get to the very root of it fairly easily. If someone says “I wish to be free from attachment” – then there are two elements to look at: “I” and “attachment”.
Let’s look at “I”. Who is attached, who feels attached? Ask yourself this question. Who is this attachment for? If you get an answer, it would be for “me” – so what is “me”, is it real, is it merely a concept – what is it? Find out.
For attachment to exist, there must surely be two objects that are attached to eachother. The first object that arises is the thought of “I” or “me”, and this object or concept, becomes attached to other objects, such as other people, other thoughts, etc.
So to look at the original “I”, the personal sense of self, is all that need be done. The “I-thought”, the individual, separate sense of self, is the cause of all of the misery we seem to experience in daily life. Without clinging to or believing in or protecting this “I-thought”, who is there to be attached to anything?
If it is seen that the individual sense of self is a creation of thought, and that it arises in a greater, mysterious, unknowable awareness, then all of the things such as attachment begin to drop away. The “I-thought” requires attachments, since it needs other things to support itself. When the individual “I” is upheld, maintained and believed in, attachment is quite inevitable as an experience.
*sniped* from inner peace now
Let’s look at “I”. Who is attached, who feels attached? Ask yourself this question. Who is this attachment for? If you get an answer, it would be for “me” – so what is “me”, is it real, is it merely a concept – what is it? Find out.
For attachment to exist, there must surely be two objects that are attached to eachother. The first object that arises is the thought of “I” or “me”, and this object or concept, becomes attached to other objects, such as other people, other thoughts, etc.
So to look at the original “I”, the personal sense of self, is all that need be done. The “I-thought”, the individual, separate sense of self, is the cause of all of the misery we seem to experience in daily life. Without clinging to or believing in or protecting this “I-thought”, who is there to be attached to anything?
If it is seen that the individual sense of self is a creation of thought, and that it arises in a greater, mysterious, unknowable awareness, then all of the things such as attachment begin to drop away. The “I-thought” requires attachments, since it needs other things to support itself. When the individual “I” is upheld, maintained and believed in, attachment is quite inevitable as an experience.
*sniped* from inner peace now
