There Is Nothing to Hold on To

In this world we live in, one of the primary causes of suffering is attachment, attachment to our views, attachment to our ego, and to anything it cherishes. All the things and people of this world have a nature of being lovable, meaning you can offer love to them or love them. What the world truly does not have a basis in reality for is attachment. When we love something or someone we enact a bond with that person or thing that resonates with its relative nature; that love itself is in a relationship with that thing or person. Attachment, however, is not really in a state of relationship. In fact, it requires a sense of separation and solidity of ourselves as well as the object or person being attached to, one which does not have any basis in reality. The objects or people being attached to actually lack that separation, solidity, stuckness, and independence from everything else. In short, even though we become attached to these things, there is absolutely nothing to hold on to in reality. We are a continuation, a flow, and a radiance of body, heart, and consciousness. At no point are we or anything else a stuck ego to become attach to. Therefore we have nothing to attach to, but everything to love.

Attachment is like the evil twin of love, since both apprehend something that is of value. However, where love only loves what it sees and wants it to be free and full, attachment neurotically and emotionally holds onto that thing and calls it its own, all based in fear, feelings of insufficiency, craving, and ultimately ego. In love you apprehend the nature of the thing or person as being a radiance, ever new, as a relative existence because you are always in relationship with it and it is always in relationship with you and the world. Whereas in attachment you apprehend the thing or person as unchanging and separate, solid object. The only solidity you grasp at in reality is your own projection of solidity on the object or person, something that is always upset by the fact that everything changes.

In meditation we aspire to let go of all negative attachment and allow for its better expression, Love, to take its place. In Love we realize that there is nothing to hold on to, and that we only wish for ourselves and others and all things to be free and full. May you come to know the difference between attachment and Love, that you may realize there is nothing to hold on to, and that you may be free and full.