ATTACHMENT

Related States & Conditions | Syntonic | Dystonic

Avoid attachment to both what is pleasant
And what is unpleasant.
Losing the pleasant causes grief.
Dwelling on the unpleasant also causes grief.
Do not cling to the pleasant.
Let it pass,
So that the separation will not diminish you.
Clinging to what is dear brings sorrow.
Clinging to what is dear brings fear.
To one who is entirely free from endearment
There is no sorrow or fear.
Buddha
c. 563-483 BCE, Indian Prince, Mystic, Founder of Buddhism
Dhammapada

The thoughtful exert themselves; they do not relish attachment. Like swans leaving a lake, they abandon one attachment after another.
Ibid.

Those in whom the mind is correctly cultivated in the limbs of perfect enlightenment, who have no attachments and enjoy being free from grasping, and who have stopped all compulsion, attain perfect nirvana here in this world.
Ibid.

Pitiful are those who, acting,
are attached to their action's fruits.
The wise man lets go of all
results, whether good or bad,
and is focused on the action alone.
Bhagavad Gita
c. 400 BCE, Hindu Sacred Text
2:49-50, Stephen Mitchell, tr., 2000

The essential nature of bondage is nothing other than desire, and its elimination is known as liberation. It is simply by not being attached to changing things that the everlasting joy of attainment is reached.
Ashtavakra Gita
Hindu Sacred Text
10.4, John Richards, tr.

Clinging cannot be limited;
even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment
is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way
and there will be neither coming nor going.
Jianzhi Sengcan
526-606, Chinese Chan Master, 3rd Zen Patriarch
"On Believing in Mind"

It is just because people themselves give rise to vain and arbitrary attachments that they create so many kinds of understanding, produce so many kinds of opinion, and give rise to many various likes and fears. Just understand that things do not originate of themselves.All of them come into existence from your own single mental impulse of imagination mistakenly clinging to appearances.
Baizhang Huaihai
749-814, Chinese Chan Master
in The Pocket Zen Reader , Thomas Cleary, ed., 1999

Wherever there is attachment
Association with it
Brings endless misery.
Gampopa
1079-1153, Tibetan Physician, Buddhist Patriarch
The Jewel Ornament of Liberation

If you forget your feelings
about things of the world,
they become enlightening teachings.
If you get emotional
about enlightening teaching,
it becomes a worldly thing.
Muso Kokushi
1275-1351, Japanese Zen Master, Calligrapher, Poet

The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of the divine.
John of the Cross
1542-1591, Spanish Carmelite Monk, Mystic, Poet, Saint

The fonder you are of your ideals, the greater your heart breaks.
Lin Yutang
1895-1976, Chinese Writer, Dramatist, Translator
Between Tears and Laughter

Attachment is a manufacturer of illusions and whoever wants reality ought to be detached.
Simone Weil
1909-1943, French Philosopher, Essayist, Mystic
Gravity & Grace , 1972

Love without attachment is light.
Norman O. Brown
1913-, American Philosopher

When one has nothing to lose, one becomes courageous. We are timid only when there is something we can cling to.
Carlos Castaneda
1931-1998, Brazilian/American Anthropologist, Writer

Our ultimate goal is to find ways to embrace both attachment and resistance to attachment, and the only way to that reconciliation of opposites is to dig deeply into the nature of each.
Thomas Moore
1940-, American Psychologist, Writer
Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship , 1994

A mature human being is someone who is purified of the motives towards grasping, greed, attachment.
Lee Lozowick
1943-, American Writer, Lyricist

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Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, © 2004