Attachment

“ The most dramatic story I know about attachment comes from India and has to do with the way the Indians capture monkeys to use as pets. They attach coconut husks to stumps, and inside the husks they put a nut, with a few other goodies around the husk as bait. The monkey is attracted, eats the bait, then reaches into the husk to get the nut. In doing so he makes a fist, with the result that he can't get his hand out of the husk. His captors come up and take hold of him.”

P.115 Breath by Breath by Rosenberg 

I usually don't use that word, but I've been trying to learn about things that are maybe not as favored in Triratna, like Buddha-nature. 

I have to say I usually don't read Reddit posts that use the word attachment, and I find much of the talk about it rather superficial. It seems to be the go to idea that superficial Buddhist cling to. 

And psychologically, attachment is a good thing, insecure attachment is the thing to avoid. Read Becoming Attached by Robert Karen. So I have a natural aversion for the way Vipassana types blather on about attachment. 

I'm at the stage of my Buddhist journey where I've explored most concepts that are easy. Of course there's complex stuff in the literature that I can explore the rest of my life, and I'm doing that. But I'm also going around a mopping up some of the less favored concepts in Triratna. 

Attachment

I forget where I got that photo and I'm trying not to steal and give credit, get permission, so if anyone knows, please let me know.

If suffering is a cue to turn to the Dharma, then we shall have plenty of cues. One recent article I felt grateful to read was by Robina Courtin, whom I'd never heard of before. Here is a quote:

"Attachment is such a simple word, but it’s multi-faceted. At the most fundamental level it’s that feeling of neediness deep inside us; that belief that somehow I am not enough, I don’t have enough, and no matter what I do or what I get, it’s never enough. Then, of course, because we’re convinced that’s true, we hanker after someone out there, and then when we find the one who triggers our good feelings, attachment manipulates to get him, convinced that he’s the one who will fulfill my needs, make me happy. Then we assume he’s our possession, almost an extension of myself."

I've been reading Montaigne's essay: That to study philosophy is to learn to die. I see Hamlet read it. There's a part in it where I thought of the 6 Element meditation, that Bodhipaksa teaches so well. This essay is pretty hard to read, and I've read a lot about death: How We Die, Denial of Death and When Breath Becomes Air. (I've been reading Montaigne because he was an influence on Shakespeare. I'm currently reading A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is pretty trippy. Quite amazing.) Attachment to life is the ultimate attachment.

One of the things about the TBC is that they don't do some of the modern presentations, they don't use the word attachment that much. That's more of an IMS word.

I'll end with a quote from Jane Eyre:

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

Meanwhile the fear of people listening to themselves and not chasing the twin muses of capitalism and tyranny, was blown up in China.