Attachment

May 28, 2022 1 By Lance Kelly

Everyone is looking to discover something real in a world where nothing is permanent. The futility of such a venture creates a psychological dependence on whatever has been acquired or achieved. This also applies to concepts, reputations and, most insidious of all, the pain and disappointments of past experience. The overall effect attaches the person to the belief in the world as a permanent structure. But, being unreal, everything eventually disappears from the world, including the person who was just a passing figment in time. What is real, however, is far more enduring than our transitory appearance on the earth.

In the natural world there is no emotional attachment between the species. The instinctual urge for survival and procreation is the unconscious dynamic that, in its pure uncontaminated state, eliminates any distinction between life and death – the two aspects of the living experience. In human beings, our unique self-conscious faculty to reflect on the past short-circuits the unconscious stream of incoming life. As a result, from the moment the infant enters the world, there’s an immediate absorption of the psychic tension in the environment. For the first time since leaving the womb, there is the contrast between hot and cold, being hungry and then satisfied temporarily before the pattern repeats itself. What is subconsciously arising through experience is a psychic body of the human condition of pleasure and pain. This manifests in time as the person, whose greatest attachment in the world will be that which replicates the feeling of effortless embryonic love in the womb.

It’s through the endeavour to love another, or something that represents some meaning to the life, that people become attached to the outer form or inner convictions. This is because whatever is served that disregards the whole of life becomes embedded as a fixed position of mind. Inevitably, this creates opposing forces in existence that will manifest as a conflict of interests between partners, family members, business colleagues, politicians, and ultimately nations that will go to war in the name of peace. Why is this? It’s due to the frustration of not being fulfilled in love. When love is consciously realised there is no movement to hold onto what has happened in the past. Each moment is released, which prevents a build-up of any expectation of another to be something other than being what they are now.

Love is the true nature of human beings; but, as a race, we have forgotten the purpose of love on earth. In real love there are no problems because the man or woman is continually in intimate touch with the source of love within. What has happened is that the person has stepped out as the formal representation of love on earth, and usually wants the other to love them unconditionally. But unless the source of love, the formless divinity within, is put first, the person will soon become demanding, angry and self-doubtful as to why love appears to have deserted them. It’s not love that leaves; it’s the attachment to the object of love that obscures the incoming light of the spirit.

Another name for attachment is fear. In a relationship this fear is often disguised by considering the feelings of others. The fear is that by saying what’s on their mind, the other person will be unable to handle an honest exchange. But unless the man or woman refuses to compromise, they will always be held a prisoner by their own treacherous self. Similarly, detaching from the hold of the world requires courage to break the old pattern of continuity that has become a dull and repetitious way of life. This comes when someone sees, without any doubt, that they no longer need the experience of what previously attached them to the momentum of the world. It doesn’t mean that they make any immediate decision to change; it’s just that there is now the knowledge that they are no longer attached to whether they succeed or fail. The amazing thing is that events and circumstances often then change and introduce the possibility of some new creative phase that brings a new sense of fulfilment to the life.

To begin to eliminate the attachments that stifle the joy of life, it’s to examine the last thing that caused an emotional feeling of discontent, irritation, sadness or despondency. But it’s to do this in a way that the personal element is transcended so that what’s perceived are just the facts of the situation. Attachment is a personal feeling of suppression, which is really an unresolved aspect of the past. The key to it all is that everything unfolds as a direct response of consciousness to the last sequence of life. When someone is willing to accept the adjudication of life in whatever unfolds, the whole dynamic of existence is changed in a spiritually productive way. It’s just a case of being open to the miracle of life and to allow the power of creation to show the way back to our original state of freedom.