The Buddha on attachment

“Attachment is the root of all suffering” is one way I’ve seen this famous quote from the Buddha. Here’s another way to phrase it: the Buddha I see this as intimately related to some of what K talked about…though K went into it in great depth…attachment to things, yes, desire and fulfillment, pleasure, goals, yes, but also to ideas, beliefs, conclusions, ideals, and so on. Do we see this as a fact? That the root of suffering is attachment? Personally I feel that it’s an essential truth about our human suffering. Any thoughts or personal insights, into this?
Here is some further clarification from a Zen teacher that I found very helpful. Again, this relates very intimately to a lot that K talked about: On the Buddha again

Reading through the links you posted it became clearer why these ‘religions ‘ are so detrimental. They’re all about ‘getting ‘ somewhere psychologically, some ‘place’ where one will be ‘different’ than ‘what is’…if you are mentally impaired there are people trained to get one back to some sort of normalcy. There are also ‘self help ‘books and teachings to further one’s ambitions or goals…It’s all just more crassness this attaining enlightenment business. Exploitation. But many have a need to be led down this path or that. To be a part of some ‘spiritual’ group or other. As if the truth was out there and not right in front of one’s nose :nose: Look at that ‘attachmentl’, the need to be led…the need to follow someone or something? (Whether it be some ‘Buddha’ or D. Trump!)

forget about the religion, Buddhism for a moment. The quote from the Buddha isn’t a religion. As I see it, it’s a statement of truth. A fact. That’s all. We can agree or disagree, but the fact remains. Do you disagree that attachment is the cause of human suffering? Personally speaking, I see this as fact.

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Well let’s find out why there is ‘attachment ‘ whether it’s to the Buddha or to Trump. And then why or how does that being attached lead to ‘suffering’ if it does and finally how it can be avoided, ended in ourselves. (Thereby avoiding the need for the ‘eightfold path’) :eagle:

OK…let’s do it. You start :slight_smile:

Alright…The fictional self being conditioned to see the world through a veil of good/bad, right/wrong, etc cannot grasp the ‘absolute perfection’ of each moment…it becomes attached to those facets of the world that it has judged as good,right,noble,important, significant,etc and tries to avoid the opposites…when things turn out other than what one wishes, there is ‘suffering’. And the alternative, joy…This back and forth, up and down is the inevitable result of the ‘self’s’ inability to grasp the whole picture, as I’m calling it, the ‘absolute perfection’ of the ‘what is’. Taking sides in the ‘Void’ where there are none.

It’s hard to see perfection when your children are being carried off to death camps as the Jews were during the Holocaust. But you’re saying there’s perfection there too? Perhaps someone else will join the discussion. I’m not clear at all about this perfection.

Well of course not. The Holocaust didn’t come out of nowhere, there had to be poverty, racism, jealousy, greed, nationalism, etc. There had to be that ‘wrong turn ‘ for Man to have gotten to his present state of ignorance and the resulting suffering and brutality. As a German frau told me in Frankfurt years after the war, “Hitler wasn’t so bad, he gave us the Volkswagen and a nice hi way system.”

This is all I’ve been saying. So where does your ‘perfection’ come into the picture? Certainly our daily actions and our violence aren’t an expression of perfection.

It’s not mine or anyone’s…to the degree the self-image is present with its ‘attachments’, as K put it, “the ‘Other’ is not.”

“All is God. All but the self” (Bernadette Roberts)

Different ways to say the same thing. Maybe easier to see the truth of this living very close to nature…but certainly not necessarily.

Here’s a guy I’ve been following recently: Brad Warner, a zen buddhist nerd.

His take on attachment

and the 8 fold path

In my mind, attachment is always linked to the buddhist notion of impermenance

However, attachment, impermenance and the noble 8 fold path form part of the introduction to Buddhism - the baby steps in a way, the obvious basics : life is short, we’re all in this together, don’t be a jerk etc…
The first interesting Buddhist notion that caught my eye was “interdependance” or the more new age “interbeing”
My favorite Story/Teaching is the Huineng biography about innocence, maturity and no self/no effort.
And also Huang Po whom I’ve tried to modernise here