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The less things you own, the more free you are?

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Froya
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14 Jul 2016, 5:52 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
^
Frankly I think the Buddhist view of attachment to objects can be taken too far. I guess it was mainly designed for folks who want to be monks. If a possession gives pleasure, I don't see it as all that wrong, or even humanly avoidable, to feel sorrow at its loss and to fear losing it, to some extent, though obviously excessive attachment to things can become unhealthy. I think your strong reluctance to attach to your new art work shows how dropping this attachment thing doesn't really solve the attachment "problem." Rather like a war veteran whose close friends have been killed in front of him ceases to want to make new friends, or a person with bad experiences of relationships loses the motivation to try again. The hope is that such folks eventually find the strength to invest themselves again and to take the risk of it going wrong, knowing that if it does, it will hurt.

I totally agree with you!
But not being able to attach to my art work was not a conscious choise, it felt like I had no control over it. But maybe if I had tried hard to get attached to them, I could have. But how do you do that?



Froya
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14 Jul 2016, 5:57 pm

Yes maybe I could get attached to things again if I really tried, but as I said earlier I'm not really motivated for that now. Maybe that makes me a coward.



ToughDiamond
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14 Jul 2016, 6:25 pm

^
I don't think you're a coward. Hope I didn't come over as criticizing you, I didn't mean to do that at all. And I'm sure that when attachment fails, it's not a conscious thing. I've often known myself to lose interest in things, it just happens, I work out the reason later, it's often to do with my developing an aversion to the pain of loss, or something similar. Sometimes the mind just won't take a particular risk, and all we can do is try to look at why it's happened that way, and hope to work something out. Sometimes it's just a matter of waiting for the mind to heal itself.



Froya
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14 Jul 2016, 6:40 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
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I don't think you're a coward. Hope I didn't come over as criticizing you, I didn't mean to do that at all.

no no, not at all! And as I said, I do agree with you.



slave
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14 Jul 2016, 7:22 pm

Froya wrote:
slave wrote:
Attachment in the Buddhist sense is the issue of highest importance here(as it relates to feeling free or bound about objects)

The number of object you have around you is irrelevant....the core issue is whether or not you have an attachment to those objects.

Even a mendicant monk can suffer with an attachment to her/his begging bowl.

Attachment to any object(or idea or person etc....i digress) always creates grounds for mental suffering (eg. the fear of losing it, mistrust of others, and many many more).

I struggle a lot with this issue.

Hope an Eastern perspective is of some value. :)

I think not being able to attach to things is the reason why I'm like this. I don't think it's a postive thing for me, and I think it's the fear of loss that lies underneath.

A few years back I decided to try and sell some of my art, and it was very hard to make that decision. It felt like something died inside or something, and I haven't been able to attach to the paintings/drawings ever since.

I wouldn't say it bothers me that much though, and I'm not going to try and change it. In fact I hope I'll find something more I can get rid of! he he


:D