This week's question: "I understand the idea that attachment is the source of suffering, and I know that I have attachments. I do know that it's important to become free of attachments, but cannot seem to tackle that problem. The more things I try to let go of, the more attachments I seem to find or replace them with. Thank you for another year of dharma teaching, Khenpo!"
Peace! You may find that you are closer to the answer than you realise, my friend.
All phenomena are impermanent. Those things which are impermanent are also ultimately insubstantial, and therefore, incapable of helping us to avoid pain or attain happiness.
Let's look at an example of this, before I share with you the way to reduce your experience of attachments:
This afternoon, our landlady reminded us that we are late with the rent. We also received the second cut-off notice from the electric company. Those two experiences gave rise to emotions of unrest, aggitation and fear. None of those emotions gave us any solution to "real question" -- how we were going to come up with $300 immediately -- but the ego-mind didn't care about solutions... it was all about fear.
The fear gave rise to graspingand longing: I found myself considering letting the urgent medical needs to get the surgery on my arm and resolve the neurological issues that are creating so much pain and functional problems, and simply return to work. Then I recognised emotions of aggitation that certain folks, who literally waste hundreds of dollars on trivial entertainment, toys and alcohol each month, have never once offered to help us, despite their constant emails encouraging me to "keep helping the world with my teaching". And finally, my mind settled on "wishing" we could have gotten that grant to rebuild the monastery. The mind settled on the idea that what we needed was a "house".
But what I perceive as a "house" is an impermanent phenomenon. I imagine it is a house, but it is really an "effect" of the interdependent relationship of nails, wood, drywall, wiring, appliances, pipes, and so forth.
An even closer consideration recognises that what I perceived as wood, is actually an impermanent phenomenon arising out of the interdependent relationship between sunlight, water, soil and a seedling, which produced a tree.
Now, the question is whether any of those things, or the combination thereof, are capable of giving me happiness... or causing me pain. And the answer will always ultimately be "no".
If we consider that everything we experience -- things, people, emotions situations, religion, status -- everything -- arises from a complex interplay of impermanent causes and conditions, we discover that there is n real substance... nothing to desire, nothing to fear, nothing to resent, nothing to grasp. When we are mindful of the insubtantiality of phenomena, it is much more difficult for attachments to arise.
As we begin to see more and more of our experiences as the result of interdependent causation, less and less will appeal to us as some sort of panacea.
Therefore, I suggest that you have actually made good progress, because you recognise that you have attachments. That awareness will enable you identify and hone-in on one of those particular attachments, and begin looking at the attachments themselves, and deconstruct them. As we look more deeply and honestly at the interdependent causes and conditions from which those "things" take their illusory appearance, we also begin to notice the attachment dissolve.
Each day, I try to make up my mind to simply be aware of the thoughts that come through my mind. I know that some of those thoughts will be thoughts of attachment, delusion, anger and fear. And I welcome those thoughts... I don't want to get rid of them at all! They are opportunities for personal and spiritual growth!
When they arise, I strive to turn my awareness inward, and "deconstruct" the illusion. Once I have, I don't even have to "work" at "letting go" of it. It dissolves on its own. And there is an indescribable sensation that accompanies that process. I won't even attempt to put it into words. You'll know it, as it occurs.
Congratulations on your willingness to undertake your journey from such an honest and vulnerable place, my friend! And may that journey contribute richly to he elimination of suffering in your life and the lives of others.
Namasté!- dharmacharya gurudas śunyatananda
http://dharmadudeunplugged.com
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