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Quotations on:
Attachment, Gasping & Craving
The Buddha |
I have killed all of you before.
I was chopped up by all of you in previous lives.
We have all killed each other as enemies.
So why should we be attached to each other?
Let me tell you about the middle path. Dressing
in rough and dirty garments, letting your hair grow matted, abstaining
from eating any meat or fish, does not cleanse the one who is
deluded. Mortifying the flesh through excessive hardship does
not lead to a triumph over the senses. All self-inflicted suffering
is useless as long as the feeling of self is dominent.
You should lose your involvement with yourself and then eat and
drink naturally, according to the needs of your body. Attachment
to your appetites - whether you deprive or indulge them - can
lead to slavery, but satisfying the needs of daily life is not
wrong. Indeed, to keep a body in good health is a duty, for otherwise
the mind will not stay strong and clear."
Discourses II
You should lose your involvement with yourself
and then eat and drink naturally, according to the needs of your
body. Attachment to your appetites--whether you deprive or indulge
them--can lead to slavery, but satisfying the needs of daily life
is not wrong. Indeed, to keep a body in good health is a duty,
for otherwise the mind will not stay strong and clear."
Discourses II
What is this laughter, what is this delight, forever burning (with desires)
as
you are?
Enveloped in darkness as you are, will you not look for a lamp?
The Tempter masters the lazy and irresolute man who dwells on the attractive
side of things, ungoverned in his senses, and unrestrained in his food, like
the
wind overcomes a rotten tree.
The Tempter cannot master a man who dwells on the distasteful side of
things,
self-controlled in his senses, moderate in eating, resolute and full of faith,
like the wind cannot move a mountain crag.
In the same way that rain breaks into a house with a bad roof, desire
breaks
into the mind that has not been practising meditation.
Don't indulge in careless behaviour. Don't be the friend of sensual pleasures.
He who meditates attentively attains abundant joy.
'I've got children', 'I've got wealth.' This is the way a fool brings
suffering
on himself.
He does not even own himself, so how can he have children or wealth?
Surely, the path that leads to wordly gain in one, and the path that leads to Nibbana is another; understanding this, the Bhikkhu, the disciple of the Buddha, should not rejoice in worldly favours, but cultivate detachment.
Dhammapada v. 75
A man who gives way to pleasure will be swept away by craving and his thoughts will make him suffer, like waves.
Dhammapada v. 339
A man's joys are always transient, and since men devote themselves to pleasure, seeking after happiness, they undergo birth and decay.
Dhammapada v. 341 |
Just consider...Suppose we came to possess a very expensive object. The
minute that thing comes into our possession our mind changes...'Now, where can
I keep it? If I leave it there somebody might steal it'...We worry ourselves
into a state, trying to find a place to keep it. And when did the mind change?
It changed the minute we obtained that object -- suffering arose right then.
No matter where we leave that object we can't relax, so we're left with trouble.
Whether sitting, walking, or lying down, we are lost in worry.
Ajahn Chah
Question: Wouldn't life be boring without attachment?
Answer: No. In fact it's attachment that makes us restless and prevents us from enjoying
things. For example, suppose we're attached to chocolate cake. Even while we're
eating it, we're not tasting it and enjoying it completely. We're usually either
criticizing ourselves for eating something fattening, comparing the taste of
this chocolate cake to other cakes we've eaten in the past, or planning how
to get another piece. In any case, we're not really experiencing the chocolate
cake in the present.
On the other hand, without attachment, we can think clearly about whether we
want to eat the cake, and if we decide to, we can eat it peacefully, tasting
and enjoying every bite without craving for more or being dissatisfied because
it isn't as good as we expected. As we diminish our attachment, life becomes
more interesting because we're able to open up to what's happening in each moment.
Thubten Chodron, Buddhism for Beginners
Hundreds of stupid flies gather
On a piece of rotten meat,
Enjoying, they think, a delicious feast.
This image fits with the song
Of the myriads of foolish living beings
Who seek happiness in superficial pleasures;
In countless ways they try,
Yet I have never seen them satisfied.
7th Dalai Lama from 'Songs
of spiritual change' translated by Glenn Mullin
His Holiness the Dalai Lama |
The Buddhist notion of attachment is not what people in the West assume.
We say that the love of a mother for her only child is free of attachment.
Attachment increases desire, without producing any satisfaction. There are two
types of desire, unreasonable and reasonable. The first is an affliction founded
on ignorance, but the second is not. To live, you need resources; therefore,
desire for sufficient material things is appropriate. Such feelings as, "This
is good; I want this. This is useful," are not afflictions. It is also
desirable to achieve altruism, wisdom, and liberation. This kind of desire is
suitable; indeed, all human development comes out of desire, and these aspirations
do not have to be an affliction.
...when you have attachment to material things, it is best to desist from those
very activities that promote more attachment. Satisfaction is helpful when it
comes to material things, but not with respect to spiritual practice. Objects
to which we become attached are something to be discarded, whereas spiritual
progress is something to be adopted--it can be developed limitlessly, even in
old age.
How to Expand Love
...several great Kagyu and Sakya masters... have expressed the stages [of sutra and tantra paths] in terms of the tradition known as "parting ourselves from the four forms of clinging."
First we part from clinging to this life. Instead of total involvement with affairs of this life, we involve ourselves with future lives. We accomplish this by thinking about our precious human life with all its freedoms and endowments for spiritual growth, how we lose it because of death and impermanence, and then the karmic laws of behavioral cause and effect that shape our future lives. Next we part from clinging to future lives and involve ourselves, instead, in the quest for liberation. By thinking about all the suffering of uncontrollably recurring rebirth, or samsara, we generate sincere renunciation of it--the strong determination to be free and attain the total liberation that is nirvana.
The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra
The aim of desire is to be satisfied. If it dominates us and we are always craving for more, that goal is never reached and instead of finding happiness we only get suffering. These days we talk a lot about sexual freedom. But when one gives in to sexual desire without any restraint, merely for pleasure, one does not find any lasting satisfaction and creates a host of problems of which the negative consequences – the suffering of an abandoned partner, relationship break-ups, children’s lives turned upside down, venereal diseases, AIDS – are quite disproportionate to the brief moments of pleasure one may have experienced.
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There is pleasure when a sore is scratched,
But to be without sores is more pleasurable still.
Just so, there are pleasures in worldly desires,
But to be without desires is more pleasurable still.
Nagarjuna, from Precious Garland
If the basic project of mainstream Buddhist
practice is to unmask the ego illusion for what it is, one of
the main prongs of attack is directed against desire. Desire gets
a very bad press in the Buddhist scriptures. It is a poison, a
disease, a madness. There is no living in a body that is subject
to desire, for it is like a blazing house.
Now, desire lives and grows by being indulged. When not indulged
by the application of ethical restraint and awareness, on the
other hand, it stabilizes and begins to diminish, though this
is not an easy or comfortable process, for the old urges clamor
for satisfaction for a long time.
This kind of practice cuts directly against the main currents
of modern consumer society, where desire is energetically encouraged
and refined to new pitches and variations by the powerful agencies
of marketing and publicity. But it also cuts against the more
moderate desires-for family, wealth, sense-pleasures and so on
sanctioned in simpler, more traditional societies, including the
one into which the Buddha was born. We can never be at peace while
desire is nagging at us.
John Snelling, from 'Elements
of Buddhism'
Desire can be compared to fire. If we grasp
fire, what happens? Does it lead to happiness?
If we say: "Oh, look at that beautiful fire! Look at the
beautiful colors! I love red and orange; they're my favorite colors,"
and then grasp it, we would find a certain amount of suffering
entering the body. And then if we were to contemplate the cause
of that suffering we would discover it was the result of having
grasped that fire. On that information, we would hopefully, then
let the fire go. Once we let fire go then we know that it is something
not to be attached to.
This does not mean we have to hate it, or put it out. We can enjoy
fire, can't we? It's nice having a fire, it keeps the room warm,
but we do not have to burn ourselves in it.
Ajahn Sumedho, in 'Teachings
of a Buddhist Monk'
Our desires are not limited to the things we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Our mind runs after ideas as greedily as our tongue hungers for tastes.
Lama Thubten Yeshe
Lama Zopa Rinpoche |
Less desire means less pain, more satisfaction, more freedom in your life, more inner peace and happiness.
Make the total dedication right now in your heart and mind, because death can come any day or minute. The moment you think this, the painful mind of attachment goes away from your heart, so your mind is total peace and happiness. It is like an apple a day keeping the doctor away!
No desire means no disturbing emotions, pain of attachment, pain of anger, pain of jealousy and there is tranquillity, peace, openness, no barriers, space for sincere love and compassion.
The dissatisfied mind of desire is one of the main causes of stress. Letting go of attachment is not a loss; you are not losing anything. Truly, when you let go of suffering you gain inner peace and deep satisfaction.
You follow desire with the aim of getting satisfaction. Your aim is worthwhile and you are right to wish to obtain it-- but the method is wrong and results only in dissatisfaction.
From How to Be Happy |
Last
updated:
December 11, 2016
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