Why attachment is bad

I've spoken once or twice about attachment in previous blogs, so here's a quick overview of what attachment is is Buddhist terms, and why you might want to do away with it.

When I speak of attachment in this case, I'm talking about feeling attached to ideas and objects or circumstances that aren't permanent. And guess what? Everything is impermanent.

Here are a couple of examples of attachment:

Attachment to possessions
Attachment to the way your life is/job is/relationship is

Because nothing ever stays the same - things break, people change, plans get cancelled, and so on - if we are attached to things, it makes us unhappy when we lose them. So if we recognise that the things we have won't be around forever, we'll be less distressed when our car is totalled, we can't find the dress we really want in our size, or we don't get to see our friends when we want to.

And that doesn't mean that we shouldn't ever want anything, or love someone, or that we should expect the worst to happen and be pessimistic. It just means that we should be realistic with the expectations we place on people and objects, and acknowledge that cars don't last forever, having a new dress won't make us happy forever, and people won't necessarily be available every time we want them to be. But just as we should realise good things don't last forever, we should realise that bad things don't last forever, either.

You have just learnt about The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, which are the basics of Buddha's teachings:

1. The truth of suffering - Basically, there is suffering in life.
2. The truth of the cause of suffering - Suffering is caused by attachment.
3. The truth of the end of suffering - We can end suffering by letting go of attachments.
4. The truth of the path that frees us from suffering - This is the eightfold path. More on this tomorrow!