Attachments

I love the practice of Buddhism. Their definition of attachment is "the inability to practice or embrace detachment, and is viewed as the main obstacle towards a serene and fulfilled life." Buddha said "The root of suffering is attachment." Ali ibn abi Talib, who was an Islamic leader said "Detachment is not that you should own nothing. But that nothing should own you." 

I believe this is what many therapists relate to as the baggage of emotional garbage people are carrying around. We all carry these "attachments". Unless we have figured out how to get rid of them. What is the secret to getting rid of these attachments? I don't know. I'm asking you. That's why I'm here asking that question. 

I do know that when I went back in my thoughts and memories as I'm venting on this blog that it was almost as if the feeling of those events reattached to me. I felt as if I was there again. I had to think about them. Read them. Cry over them. Listen to myself talk about them, until I literally felt disconnected from it and it became only a story. I can read the posts now with no feeling to them. I haven't become numb to them and I don't even know if this is healthy or not, but I felt as if my emotions were no longer controlled by them. I took back my emotions and didn't give them away to my past. 

I am aware of physical objects being attachments. Like a child's pacifier or their favorite blanket that soothes them as they sleep. Joe introduced me to road biking, mountain biking, and fat biking. I prefer to road bike because I like covering a lot of ground in a fast amount of time. Mountain biking takes a lot of patience because your legs are constantly spinning as you climb a mountain or on a flat but rocky surface. I'm not patient, remember? Joe took me on a long mountain bike trail and he was so happy. We were hours into this ride and I had been starring at the same mountain view throughout that ride. I swear we were at least 3 hours in and the view changed very little. Joe turned around to me and said "Isn't this beautiful?" My response was something like this "Eh? Sure. I've been looking at this same view for hours now. My legs are just spinning in circles and I'm over it." Joe has a way to see beauty in patience. I'm learning a lot from him. In this moment I was attached to the truck where we unloaded our bikes and where we would load them up again when we were done. I wanted to be done with this ride and I no longer saw beauty in the 'now'. What if I could live my life without attachments? Is this possible? I believe it is a constant practice of awareness of your now. I'm on this journey of finding my emotional baggage whether painful or not and dumping it where it belongs. In the past. I don't know why I have to dig into my past to do that. Can't you just "let it go"? I don't know. Again, I'm asking you. I'm sure this is where the atonement steps in. How can the atonement even be active in your life unless you bring it to God and ask for the atoning sacrifice of the Savior? We wouldn't appreciate nor understand it's power unless we really know what we are wanting lifted from us. I'm spinning my mind as I did my legs on that ride with Joe. The view isn't changing much, but a little is better than nothing. It's a beautiful experience and I don't want to miss a thing.