1 min read

On attachment.

On attachment.
Photo by Erwan Hesry / Unsplash

Attachment is the root of all suffering. The baggage we often don't realize we're carrying.

But attachment to what?

Our strategies, tactics, beliefs about right and wrong, what should or shouldn’t happen.

Our ego. The misplaced belief that we’re the centre of the universe and that things should revolve around us and our desires.

To outcomes. To the future. To the past.

To other people and how they respond to us. How they choose to be vs. how we want them to be.

To wifi internet on our airplanes (I might have been on a flight recently where the wifi wasn't working. OUTRAGEOUS).

We attach to status symbols. To indicators of health, wealth and happiness.

When we allow ourselves to become attached to THE WAY or THE TRUTH or THE VACATION or THE CLOTHES or THE LEXUS, we’re actually creating the conditions for suffering to take hold.

“When I drive a *Lexus, I’ll be successful.” When current self isn’t satisfied with the Honda Civic, we’re delaying our contentment, joy, happiness (whatever it is you're chasing) until we get the Lexus.

And then, as soon as we buy the Lexus, we see our boss driving the Tesla.

Damnit.

*For 15 years I drove an old Dodge Ram truck that runs on vegetable oil and has almost half a million kilometres on it. And guess what? I was as attached to the stupid thing as much as the next person is, including the Lexus owner. How easily we allow ourselves to be identified with the things we own! I take as much pleasure in NOT owning a Lexus, and being the “type of person” who is practical, and frugal, and environmentally conscious, and, and, and… attachment.