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Tuesday, 28 November 2023

How The Root of Suffering is Attachment



Attachment - Suffering begins with  beginning of life. Cause of suffering is reaction of mind. Attachment to seeking  habit of sensual gratification.


Attachment -
 Merely the developed from of the fleeting reactions and due to mental reaction of liking and disliking. 


There are several types of attachment. An addict takes a drug because he wishes to experience the pleasureable sensation that the drug produces in him, even though he knows that by taking the drug he reinforces his addiction. 


In the same way we are addicted to the condition of craving. As soon as one desire is satisfied, we generate another. The object is secondary ,the fact is that we seek to maintain the state of craving continuously, because this very craving produces in us a pleasurable sensation that we wish to prolong.


Craving becomes a habit we can not break, an addiction. And just as an addict gradually develops tolerance towards his chosen drug and requires ever larger doses in order to achieve intoxication, our craving steadily become stronger the more we seek to fulfill them. 


In this way we can never come to the end of craving. And so long as we crave, we can never be happy.

Another great attachment is to the " I " the ego,  the image we have of ourselves. For each of us, the  " I " is the most important person in the world. 


We behave like a magnet surrounded by iron fillings: it will automatically arrange the filings in a pattern centered on itself, and with just as little reflection we all instinctively try to arrange the world according to our liking, seeking to attract the pleasant and to repel the unpleasant.


But none of us is alone in the world, one " I " is bound to come into conflict with another. 


The pattern each seeks to create is disturbed by the magnetic fields of others, and we ourselves become subject to attraction or repulsion. The result can only be unhappiness, suffering.

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Attachment Theory




Attachment Theory


 Nor do we limit attachment to the  " I "we extend it to  " mine " whatever belongs to us. We each develop great attachment to what we possess, because it is associated with us,  it supports the image of  " I ." 


This attachment would cause no problem if what one called " mine " were eternal, and the " I "remained to enjoy it eternally. 


But fact is that sooner or later the " I " is separated from the  " mine ." The parting time is bound to come. 


When it arrives, the greater the clinging to  " mine " the greater the suffering will be.


And attachment extends still further - to our views and our beliefs. No matter what their actual content may be, no matter whether they are right or wrong, if we are attached to them they will certainly make us unhappy. 


We are each convinced that our own views and traditions are the best and become very upset whenever we hear them criticized. 


If we try to explain our views and other do not accept them, again we become upset. We fail to recognize that each person has his or her own beliefs. 


It is futile to argue about which view is correct, more beneficial would be to set aside any preconceived notions and try to see reality. 


But our attachment to views prevents us from doing so, keeping us unhappy.


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Cross The Existence - Buddha Strong solution.



Attachment Avoidance


Finally, there is attachment to religious forms and ceremonies. We tend to emphasize the external expression of religion more than their underlying meaning and to feel that anyone who does not perform such ceremonies can not be a truly religious person. 


We forget that without its essence, the formal aspect of religion is an empty shell. 


Piety in reciting prayers or performing ceremonies is valueless if the mind remains filled with anger, passion, and  ill will. 


To be truly religious we must develop the religious attitudes, purity of heart, love and compassion for all. 


But our attachment to the next external forms of religion leads us to give more importance to the letter of it than the spirit. 


We miss the essence of religion and therefore remain miserable. All our sufferings , whatever they may be, are connected to one or another of these attachments. Attachment and suffering are always found together.


What causes attachment?  How does it arise? 


Analyzing his own nature, the future Buddha found that it develops because of the momentary mental reactions of liking and disliking. 


The brief, unconscious reactions of the mind are repeated and intensified moment after moment, growing into powerful attractions and repulsion into all our attachments. This is the immediate cause of suffering.

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What is the real religion of the householder ?



Attachment Issues


What causes reactions of liking and disliking?


Looking deeper he saw that they occur because of sensation. We feel a pleasant sensation and start liking it, we feel an unpleasant sensation and start disliking it.


Now why these sensations? What causes them? 


Examining still further within himself he saw that they arise of because of contact : Contact of the eye with the vision, contact of the ear with the sound, contact of nose with an odor, contact of tongue with a test, contact of body with something tangible, contact of mind with any thought, emotions, ideas, imagination, or memory.


Whenever an object or phenomenon contacts any of these six base of experience, sensation is produced, pleasant or unpleasant.


And why does contact occur in the first place?  


Because of the existence of the six sensory bases - the five physical senses and the mind - contact is bound to occur. 


The world is full of countless phenomena: sights, sounds, odors, flavors,textures,various thought and emotions.

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Emotional Attachment


And why do the six sensory bases exits?  


Because they are essential aspects of the flow of mind and matter. And why this flow of mind and matter? 


What causes it to occur? The process arises because of consciousness , the act of cognition which separates the world into the knower and the known, subject and object,  " I " and " other ". 


Every moment consciousness arises and assumes a specific mental and physical form. In the next moment, again, consciousness takes a slightly different form.



Then what causes this flow of consciousness? 


It arises because of reaction. The mind is constantly reacting, and every reaction gives impetus to the flow of consciousness so that it continues to the next moment. 


The stronger a reaction, the greater the impetus that it gives. The slight reaction of one moment sustains the flow of consciousness only for a moment. 


But if that momentary reaction of liking and disliking intensifies into craving or aversion, it gains in strength and sustains the flow of consciousness for many moments, for minutes, for hours. 


And if the sustains the flow for days, for months, perhaps for years. And if thoughtful life one keeps repeating and intensifying certain reactions, they develop a strength sufficient to sustains the flow of consciousness not only from one moment to the next, from one day to the next, from one year to the next, but from one life to the next.



And what causes these reactions? 


Observing the deepest level of reality ,he understood that reaction occurs because of ignorance. We are unaware of the fact we react, and unaware of the real nature of what we react to. 


We are ignorant of the impermanent, impersonal nature of our existence and ignorant that attachment to it brings nothing but suffering.


Not knowing our real nature, we react blindly. Not even knowing that we have reacted, we persist in our blind reactions and allow them to intensify. 


Thus we become imprisoned in the habit of reacting ,because of ignorance.




Attachment Is Suffering


At last the truth was clear to him : suffering begins with ignorance about the reality of our true nature, about the phenomenon labelled " I ". 


And the next causes of suffering is " sankhara ", the mental habit of reaction. 


Blinded by ignorance, we generate reactions of craving and aversion  which develop into attachment, leading to all types of unhappiness. 


The habit of reacting is the kamma, the shaper of our future. And the reaction arises only because of ignorance about our real nature. 


Ignorance, craving, and aversion are the three roots from which grow all our suffering in life .


Suffering begins with the beginning of life. The real cause of suffering is the reaction of the mind. 


We are all bound to encounter the sufferings of sickness and old age. Every living creature must face all these sufferings. The root of suffering is attachment.


Suffering begins with the beginning of life. 


We have no conscious recollection of existence within the confines of the womb, but the common experience is that we emerge from it crying. Birth is a great trauma.


Moving started life, we are all bound to encounter the sufferings of sickness and old age. 


Yet no matter how sick we may be, no matter how decayed and decrepit, none of us wants to die, because death is a great misery.


Every living creature must face all these sufferings. And as we pass through life, we are bound to encounter other sufferings, various types of physical or mental pain. 


We become involved with the unpleasant and separated from the pleasant. We fail to get what we want, instead we get what we do not want. All these situations are suffering.


These instances of suffering are readily apparent to anyone who thinks about it deeply. 


But the future Buddha was not to be satisfied with the limited explanations of the intellect. 


He continued probing within himself to experience the real nature of suffering, and he found that "attachment "to the five aggregates is suffering.



At a very deep level, suffering is the inordinate attachment that each one of us has developed toward this body and toward this mind, with its cognitions , perceptions , sensations , and reactions. 


People cling strongly to their identity --their mental and physical being --when actually there are only evolving processes. 


This clinging to an unreal idea of oneself, to something that in fact is constantly changing, is suffering .


But which mental actions determine our fate? 


If the mind consists of nothing but consciousness , perception , sensation , and reaction, then which of these gives rise to suffering? 


Each of them is involved to some degree in the process of suffering. However, the first three are primarily passive. 


Consciousness merely receives the raw data of experience, perception places the data in a category, sensation signals the occurring of the previous steps. The job of these three is only to digest incoming information.


But when the mind starts to react, passivity gives way to attraction or reputation, liking or disliking. This reaction sets in motion a fresh chain of events. 


At the beginning of the chain is reaction , Sankhara. 


This is why the Buddha said,
the whatever suffering arises has a reaction as its cause. If all reactions cease to be n there is no more suffering.


The real kamma, the real cause of suffering is the reaction of the mind. One fleeting reaction of liking or disliking may not be very strong and may not give much result, but it can have a cumulative effect. 


The reaction is repeated moment after moment, intensifying with each repetition, and developing into craving or aversion. 


This is what in his first sermon the Buddha called Tanha, literally "thirst " the mental habit of insatiable longing for what is not, which implies an equal and irremediable dissatisfaction with what is. 


And the stronger longing and dissatisfaction become, the deeper their influence on our thinking, our speech, and our actions --and the more suffering they will cause.


Some reactions , the Buddha said, are like lines drawn on the surface of a pool of water : as soon as they are drawn they are erased. 


Others are like lines traced on a sandy beach : if drawn in the morning they are gone by night, wiped away by the tide or the wind.


Others are like lines cut deeply into rock with chisel and hammer. They too will be obliterated as the rock erodes, but it will take ages for them to disappear.

Throughout each day of our lives the mind keeps generating reactions ,but if at the end of the day we try to remember them, we shall be able to recall only one or two which made a deep impression that day. 


Again, if at the end of a month we try to remember all our reactions , we shall be able to recall only one or two which made the deepest impression that month. 


Again, at the end of year we shall be able to recall only the one or two reactions that left the deepest impression during that year.


Such deep reactions as these are very dangerous and lead to immense suffering.



The first step toward emerging from such suffering is to accept the reality of it, not as a philosophical concept or an artical of faith, but as a fact of existence which affects each one of us in our lives.


With this acceptance and an understanding of what suffering is and why we suffer, we can stop being driven and start to drive. 

Conclusion -

By learning to realize directly our own nature, we can set ourselves on the path leading out of suffering.


In this way in Buddhism says that attachment is always related to suffering due to the many cause and mind. Hence both suffering and attachment be part of Buddhist in the art of living Vipassana meditation.