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| We can get greedy: "I just want to live in the
state of non-attachment and emptiness." We attach to the idea of emptiness and to the
memories we've had of those moments, but that doesn't work. This is because, as far as our
kamma goes, we're like "this", we're at that point of intersection, where the
world, the conditioned realm, is a very strong experience for us; having a physical body,
having sense organs and so on. This is what we have to accept: the conditioned realm as it
is. Rather than try to escape from it because we don't like it and don't want to suffer,
to recognise it, realise it, and also to recognise, realise non-attachment to it. When
there's attachment it's like "this", when there's non-attachment it's like
"this." With meditation too there are so many theories and views and types that we often make it sound so difficult, as if it would take years and years of hard work and sacrifice. If that's what we think then that's probably what we'll experience. That's the world we create, so that's what we tend to experience. |
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But it's not about getting enlightened quickly, either. Any position you take, you can be aware of. We can even attach to the view of not being attached: "you shouldn't be attached to anything." Or to all the views about meditation: "you have to get this samatha first, and then do vipassana"; or: "just do the pure vipassana." The views aren't necessarily the problem, it's the attachment, the taking refuge in views that blind us. Even attachment to the view of non-attachment will blind you. So I’ve tried deliberately being attached to things just so I could realise and know what attachment is like rather than deny attachment and live my life in a furtive way. I used to experiment with my attachments and really watch and feel them, feel what it's like to really be attached to things or people or ideas. If you do that, you realise the suffering that comes through attachment; so your non-attachment isn't coming from some idea that "you shouldn't be attached", but through understanding. You know when you grasp fire it hurts. In the actual experience of it, you naturally let go. Naturally you don't attach to things when you know that it hurts. So attachment to Buddhism, attachment to monasteries, attachment to traditions, methods: it’s not the things that are a problem, it's the blinding attachment to them. |
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