Understanding Attachment

Entertainment industries publicize the illusion (false belief) that in order
to be happy we must acquire "things" and form relationships of attachment to
them; that in order to find love we must possess or be attached to the other
person. This confusion between love and attachment has entered into all our
relationships in a number of ways.

To our conditioned minds it appears to be a contradiction (error), but it is
a basic spiritual truth - to be loving it is necessary to be detached.
Attachment is the root of fear and fear and love cannot exist together just
as day and night, winter and summer cannot. The idea and the practice of
detachment are found in almost all the paths of wisdom, over the centuries.
This is so because attachment is one of the deepest habits that we learn to
develop, and we do not realize that anything we attach ourselves to turns
into a trap for our consciousness, for the self, the being. We know we are
attached when we begin to think about someone or something when they are not
present and there is no need to think about them. Our mental energy exhausts
itself and we have the sensation that we lack control over our thoughts and
feelings.
*
*Each time that we automatically cling (hold on) to something, we invoke
(call for or attract) the presence of fear - whether it be of people,
position, power, money or even opinion, any form of attachment means that we
will fear harm or loss. Fear takes on many faces (worry, anxiety, and
tension); it prevents our spiritual growth and frightens us away from or
blocks us from love.