The Buddha teaches that the root of all suffering is attachment. This is deep & practically useful wisdom that is often interpreted incorrectly in practice. On a surface level, it sort of makes it sound like the Buddha is suggesting that in order to avoid suffering, we should not endeavor to want anything more than what we have, or that we should find ways to content ourselves with a lower quality of life instead of reaching for the best of what life has to offer.
This is a very different interpretation than what the Buddha meant for us to understand. This interpretation comes from looking at the concept from a lower level of consciousness: one of fear and lack. It assumes that the world will not provide for us by delivering a steady stream of miracles to nourish our highest spiritual needs. It goes like this: "I guess we'll just have to make do with what we have," and that is the end of it. From this level of consciousness, there is no expansion into greater love, greater fulfillment, and greater understanding.
What the Buddha actually meant by saying "the root of all suffering is attachment," is that it would behoove us to let go of the attachment part, because that is the exact moment when all of our desires will come toward us. The world will become soft. It will empty itself of obstacles, and it will begin to chase us for the purpose of bestowing its blessings, because as we let go of our strong longing to have the goal fulfilled, the goal is fulfilled automatically. The elevated importance and the fulfillment of the goal cannot exist simultaneously!
The interpretation is entirely different from a higher level of consciousness - an inner awareness that we are being led by divine intelligence to the sector of reality where our goals are already fulfilled. If it isn't easy to grasp how letting go of attachments allows your desires to be fulfilled automatically, we can break it down further using a handy formula!
With the attachment formula, we can earn some applied wisdom that we can use in our every day lives, and we can also rid ourselves of confusion.
Let's first examine what attachment really is. The attachment formula goes like this:
Desire + artificially elevated importance = an inner state of attachment.
The consequence of an inner state of attachment is that we are vibrationally tuned in to the absence of our goal. If we were tuned into the presence of the goal, the inner state of attachment would have no grip on us, because we would already have the subject of our desire in the palm of our hands. Instead of the importance being elevated, we are then simply in a state of appreciation for what we have.
Artificially elevated importance creates an excess potential, which is the energy basis by which human beings block the fulfillment of their goals. Because nature will automatically work to restore balance in any area, creating an excess potential means we work against nature, inviting the manifestation of obstacles. So why does nature put obstacles on our path when we do this?
On the spiritual/metaphysical plane, all subjects are made up of both everything and nothing at the same time. Since all subjects have equal importance on the energy plane, then from nature's perspective, if we place any one subject up on a pedestal in comparison to all the others, we have artificially elevated its importance. This is why if we idolize or worship another individual who we wish was our romantic partner, this will only serve to push the person further away. We can cherish and love a romantic partner without any issues, but if we make an idol of them in comparison to other sentient beings, it will result in pitting the balancing forces against us.
This can happen with any subject, as the balancing forces have various ways to work through polarization and restore the balance. If we worship our job to the point that we become a workaholic, the balancing forces will see to it that we get sick (so that we begin to prioritize our health again), or our perhaps our partner leaves us due to the workaholism (so that we begin to prioritize our relationships again), until there is no artificially inflated importance concerning the job.
Desiring something or cherishing someone will not create an excess potential by itself. It only becomes a block to the goal when the importance is artificially high. At this point, the effects of the balancing forces will knock the dream or person out of your reach, delay its arrival, or throw obstacles in the way. This is what Buddha warned would cause suffering - the excessive potential that makes up attachment - not simply the fact that desires arise within us.
There is no dream that's too much for the divine intelligence to fulfill. It only seems that way because humans are constantly raising the level of importance of the goals that are nearest and dearest to their heart, unknowingly triggering obstacles to manifest out of a resulting energy imbalance. Because most people are unaware of how the balancing forces work, they do not bother to watch out for the accidental creation of excess potentials and eliminate the root of their problems. Thus, they have no strategy to keep obstacles out of their life path on the way to their goals, although it can be done successfully and systematically with awareness.
If we keep importance low every time a desire comes up, then the goal we had in mind realizes on its own, smoothly and without obstacles. This is how we successfully let go of attachment - (which is what Buddha was suggesting), not because we think we should go without, but rather because we can simply choose to have our dreams fulfilled via divine intelligence. That's a much higher understanding than thinking the Buddha was trying to get us to give up the things that we were dreaming about.
There are some situations where it's extremely difficult to keep importance at lower levels, such as subjects that have to do with our livelihood or the safety of our loved ones. For those topics, it's crucial to have a backup plan in place in order to get the balancing forces to leave you in peace. The back up plan is a method of allowing the mind to let go of its attachment to one way of doing something by letting it know that if something goes wrong, everyone will still be ok. In this way, the mind is willing to allow for a different pathway to the goal than it originally envisioned without thinking we are deviating from the only success pathway.
If you want to learn more strategies so that you are able to coach yourself to keep importance at zero under different situations, this blog post will walk you through an every day example, and this exercise will walk you through lowering importance for your Sun sign (and for your other personal planetary archetypes).
This is a very different interpretation than what the Buddha meant for us to understand. This interpretation comes from looking at the concept from a lower level of consciousness: one of fear and lack. It assumes that the world will not provide for us by delivering a steady stream of miracles to nourish our highest spiritual needs. It goes like this: "I guess we'll just have to make do with what we have," and that is the end of it. From this level of consciousness, there is no expansion into greater love, greater fulfillment, and greater understanding.
What the Buddha actually meant by saying "the root of all suffering is attachment," is that it would behoove us to let go of the attachment part, because that is the exact moment when all of our desires will come toward us. The world will become soft. It will empty itself of obstacles, and it will begin to chase us for the purpose of bestowing its blessings, because as we let go of our strong longing to have the goal fulfilled, the goal is fulfilled automatically. The elevated importance and the fulfillment of the goal cannot exist simultaneously!
The interpretation is entirely different from a higher level of consciousness - an inner awareness that we are being led by divine intelligence to the sector of reality where our goals are already fulfilled. If it isn't easy to grasp how letting go of attachments allows your desires to be fulfilled automatically, we can break it down further using a handy formula!
With the attachment formula, we can earn some applied wisdom that we can use in our every day lives, and we can also rid ourselves of confusion.
Let's first examine what attachment really is. The attachment formula goes like this:
Desire + artificially elevated importance = an inner state of attachment.
The consequence of an inner state of attachment is that we are vibrationally tuned in to the absence of our goal. If we were tuned into the presence of the goal, the inner state of attachment would have no grip on us, because we would already have the subject of our desire in the palm of our hands. Instead of the importance being elevated, we are then simply in a state of appreciation for what we have.
Artificially elevated importance creates an excess potential, which is the energy basis by which human beings block the fulfillment of their goals. Because nature will automatically work to restore balance in any area, creating an excess potential means we work against nature, inviting the manifestation of obstacles. So why does nature put obstacles on our path when we do this?
On the spiritual/metaphysical plane, all subjects are made up of both everything and nothing at the same time. Since all subjects have equal importance on the energy plane, then from nature's perspective, if we place any one subject up on a pedestal in comparison to all the others, we have artificially elevated its importance. This is why if we idolize or worship another individual who we wish was our romantic partner, this will only serve to push the person further away. We can cherish and love a romantic partner without any issues, but if we make an idol of them in comparison to other sentient beings, it will result in pitting the balancing forces against us.
This can happen with any subject, as the balancing forces have various ways to work through polarization and restore the balance. If we worship our job to the point that we become a workaholic, the balancing forces will see to it that we get sick (so that we begin to prioritize our health again), or our perhaps our partner leaves us due to the workaholism (so that we begin to prioritize our relationships again), until there is no artificially inflated importance concerning the job.
Desiring something or cherishing someone will not create an excess potential by itself. It only becomes a block to the goal when the importance is artificially high. At this point, the effects of the balancing forces will knock the dream or person out of your reach, delay its arrival, or throw obstacles in the way. This is what Buddha warned would cause suffering - the excessive potential that makes up attachment - not simply the fact that desires arise within us.
There is no dream that's too much for the divine intelligence to fulfill. It only seems that way because humans are constantly raising the level of importance of the goals that are nearest and dearest to their heart, unknowingly triggering obstacles to manifest out of a resulting energy imbalance. Because most people are unaware of how the balancing forces work, they do not bother to watch out for the accidental creation of excess potentials and eliminate the root of their problems. Thus, they have no strategy to keep obstacles out of their life path on the way to their goals, although it can be done successfully and systematically with awareness.
If we keep importance low every time a desire comes up, then the goal we had in mind realizes on its own, smoothly and without obstacles. This is how we successfully let go of attachment - (which is what Buddha was suggesting), not because we think we should go without, but rather because we can simply choose to have our dreams fulfilled via divine intelligence. That's a much higher understanding than thinking the Buddha was trying to get us to give up the things that we were dreaming about.
There are some situations where it's extremely difficult to keep importance at lower levels, such as subjects that have to do with our livelihood or the safety of our loved ones. For those topics, it's crucial to have a backup plan in place in order to get the balancing forces to leave you in peace. The back up plan is a method of allowing the mind to let go of its attachment to one way of doing something by letting it know that if something goes wrong, everyone will still be ok. In this way, the mind is willing to allow for a different pathway to the goal than it originally envisioned without thinking we are deviating from the only success pathway.
If you want to learn more strategies so that you are able to coach yourself to keep importance at zero under different situations, this blog post will walk you through an every day example, and this exercise will walk you through lowering importance for your Sun sign (and for your other personal planetary archetypes).
If you get good at identifying the most common pitfalls in this process, you'll be giving yourself a chance at finding smoothest pathway to any goal, whether the mind labels it big or small.
If you want to dive even deeper within Transurfing principles because you want to learn how to tune into the success sectors that belong to your unique soul's fulfillment in this incarnation, learn more about our Level One course here.
If you want to dive even deeper within Transurfing principles because you want to learn how to tune into the success sectors that belong to your unique soul's fulfillment in this incarnation, learn more about our Level One course here.
Enjoy the process!
Love,
Phoenix
