Attachment

"Attachment has no nobility. Attachment to knowledge is not different from any other gratifying addiction. Attachment is self-absorption, whether at the lowest or at the highest level. Attachment is self-deception, it is an escape from the hollowness of the self." 

An interesting look at the universal human experience of attachment.  Perhaps we do attach to "things" to avoid our feelings of being hollow/empty within.  The past three years I daily confront this sense of "hollowness of self", and daily I must decide how I wish to fill it.

It can be a struggle to not give into becoming self absorbed.  There are times that I teeter on the edge, and sometimes fall into the feelings of making this all about me.  There is the "poor me" side that takes me toward self pity, and there is the "I am doing so well" side that takes me into a sense of self grandeur.  Both are an attachment to my ego which gives a false sense of self.

If I will live only in each moment appreciating what is taking place I am less likely to fall into the me-isms of me.  Being in the moment it is difficult to fall into self pity or self grandeur because those thoughts occur out of the now.  When I am not in the now I become attached to the "what ifs" of life and indulge in the play of self-deception.

Self-deception is hollow.  It is the creation of self-illusion to which great amounts of time and energy must be applied to sustain the illusion.  If I engage in this deception I then create an illusion for attachment.  An illusion is something that is wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses.  The more ingrained the illusion is to my senses the more tightly I attach to it.  

This image shows an illusion; depending on how you focus your gaze you can see two very different things.   Some see a cup others see two faces and many can discern both.  Once you have recognized both images it is easy to switch your focus back and forth.  I do not attach to either picture because I discern both, but when I first looked at this image I saw the cup; after gazing at it for awhile I discerned two face.  Both exist; depending on your focus.

Attachment is how I believe in my perception and often won't or can't recognize another perception.  I can like my perceptions, enjoy my possessions, and at the same time know that these things do not define who I am.  My car is not me even though others may identify me with my car.  My car is an outer symbol of me but it is not me.  Everything in my life symbolizes me but these things are not me.  Clinging to these things is attachment, and it is this that causes suffering.

Suffering is not caused by these things it is caused by my hanging on and attaching to these things.  If I lock in my perception to these things I attach to them and that will lead to suffering.  If I change my focus, like with the above picture, I learn to relax my grip on my perception and begin to accept that none of this is really me.  I am not my car, my house, my belongings, what I do, etc; these are what others recognize me through but none of this is me.

How I relate to all the existential trappings of my life can become a gratifying addiction for me.  Learning to detach, to realize these are not me, helps me loosen my grip and to move into letting go of my mind/ego hold on these trappings.  It is not about what I have or don't have, it is about how I relate to these things.  Addiction of any kind may be defined by how I relate to the outer trappings in my life.  

Hmm---food for thought. 

Ah Ho, My Friends