Attachment as in Yoga and Buddhism

"What is attachment?"

Due to ignorance, the mind is functioning/operating under the influence of egoism, where there's egoistic attachment towards the mind perception of names and forms through the senses.

 

Attachment gives rise to multiple identifications identifying with impermanent and selfless names and forms that the mind thinks and believes is 'I' and 'my life' and 'my relationships with everyone and everything in my life', which is not 'the truth' or which doesn't 'exist' (there's neither 'I' nor 'not I' in selflessness).

 

From all kinds of identifications, there's boundless passionate worldly desires of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, which leads to all kinds of action and reaction and the fruit/consequences of action and reaction, activating the loop of endless births and deaths, and the consequence of all that - Restlessness of dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, hatred, jealousy, hurts, aggressiveness, defensiveness, offensiveness, fear, worry, stress, regret, guilt, grief, painful sorrow, or suffering, exist within the modification of the mind, which is also subject to impermanence and selflessness, governs by the law of nature - cause and effect, action and the fruit/consequence of action.

The fundamental attachments that exist in most minds are the attachment towards :-

- Worldly life existence

- Individual being existence ('I am existing as an individual being with certain quality of name and form', identifying as 'this is I/this is not I', or 'I am this/I am not that')

- Physical body - Gender, sexual orientation, genetic inheritance, appearance, ability, performance, disability/limitation, health and fitness condition, pleasant/unpleasant sensation, the thinking faculty

- The modification of the mind, of the mind perception of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, thoughts, feelings, emotions and all kinds of impurities

- The intellect and the ego

- Mental ability and disability

- Past memories and future imaginations

- Actions/reactions and the consequences of actions/reactions

- Desire of craving and aversion

- Personality, self-worth, self-esteem, confidence, habits, behavior and temperament

- Family/friends/relative/ancestry/ethnicity/community/nationality

- Relationship/companionship

- Material/object/possession

- Desirable/undesirable life experiences

- Social/cultural/spiritual/religious/educational/political thinking, belief, values and practice

- Personal and/or group likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements

- Worldly connection/networking/interaction/activity

- Success and failure

- Achievement/non-achievement

- Contribution/non-contribution

- Education, learning, knowledge, talent, skill, linguistic

- Ambition, aspiration, inspiration

- Expression, idea, creativity, productivity

- Jobs/career/profession/business/livelihood

- The sense of belonging

- The sense of pride

- The sense of meaningfulness/positiveness/goodness/righteousness/happiness

- Environment/living condition/standard of living

- Worldly affair, condition and situation

- Status, title, name, fame, wealth, position, class, power

- The judgment and expectation from oneself/others towards oneself

- Guilt and regret

- Impermanent changes

When there's attachment, the mind is unwittingly being determined and disturbed by all the impermanent and selfless perception/experience of names and forms.

 

There's craving/clinging/longing towards the names and forms or experiences or conditions that the mind desires, likes and agrees with, and there's aversion towards the names and forms or experiences or conditions that the mind doesn't desire, dislikes and disagrees with. The mind is being restless due to endless boundless desires waiting to be fulfilled/gratified, trying to satisfy not only the inevitable physical hunger and thirst, but also the endless mental hunger and thirst towards the sense of satisfaction, meaningfulness, positiveness, righteousness, goodness, togetherness, connection, happiness, accomplishment, confidence, well-deserving, well-loved and well-lived.

When there's absence of attachment, all the mind perception of names and forms of all the impermanent and selfless desirable/undesirable, pleasant/unpleasant, agreeable/disagreeable worldly life experiences are just what they are, neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, neither right nor wrong, neither meaningful nor meaningless, neither enjoyable nor suffering, neither peaceful nor peaceless. Dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, hatred, jealousy, hurts, aggressiveness, defensiveness, offensiveness, fear, worry, stress, regret, guilt, grief, painful sorrow or suffering don't exist upon the void/absence of attachment.

The Yoga and Buddhism practice is all about silencing this restless modification of the mind, annihilating ignorance and egoism, of endless desire and attachment, and the consequences of that. And this is nothing to do with the different condition, situation, experience, learning, practicing, ability, disability, qualification, certification, limitation, strength, flexibility, stamina, fitness level, performance, intelligence, knowledge, talent, skill, title, status, skin colour, race, nationality, gender, spirituality, religion, culture, belief and disbelief, intellectual thinking and analysis. It transcends all the names and forms, qualities, time, space and causation of duality, separateness, past/present/future, condition/situation, cause and effect, good or bad karma, birth and death.

The selfless yogis can either renounce and retreat from the world of worldly life, relationships, affairs and activities that fed on egoism and feeding egoism, or, they can be performing actions in the world while living among the worldly society, but without attachment. It's neither selfish nor unselfish. All are impermanent and selfless.

If there is attachment, identification, desire and expectation, there will be hurts, disturbs, anger, disappointment, fear or regret upon coming in contact with undesirable/unpleasant/undeserving experiences/situations that are "not the way that I would like it to be, or not the way that I think how it should be."

If attachment, identification, desire and expectation are absent, there's no hurts, disturbs, anger, disappointment, fear or regret upon coming in contact with undesirable/unpleasant/undeserving experiences/situations that are "not the way that I would like it to be, or not the way that I think how it should be."