Attachment

Q: Is it the all-pervasiveness of attachment that is the obstacle, no matter where one starts self-inquiry?

A: All serious inquiry eventually uncovers the obstacles to realizing the Self.  To examine attachment or its corollary, aversion, is a time-saver; it is ubiquitous, pervasive, and the core element of every obstacle.  We can look at it and ask what is the intention of attachment.  There is an illusion or fantasy associated with all of them–security, survival, success, pleasure, and so on. That pervasive quality of attachment has an origin or root that can be uncovered.  The mind is attached to or identifies with what it values, including its hopes, dreams, and illusions.

Attachment is a very peculiar quality of the ego.  It can be totally undone in all its pervasive and multitudinous forms of clinging by simply letting go of one’s faith in it or belief in its value as a reality.  This one giant step is a confrontation to being unaware of one’s attachments.  The attachment to ‘self’ or ‘me’ or ‘I’ is a basic trap.  One can seek out its fantasy value–the self gets attached to what it values.  We note that attachment requires and is sustained by an energy and an intention.  The mind is attached to the very process of attachment itself as a survival tool.  Letting go of the ego is based on the willingness to surrender attachment to it as a substitute for God and just another illusion.

From I: Reality and Subjectivity, ch. 18,  “No Mind”, pg. 422-423

One thought on “Attachment”

  1. As ever, the doctor’s words are a high-calibrating tonic to give the ego “the old one-two” as I heard him say in one talk. Many thanks for reminding me.

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