09 Nov ‘He who isn’t busy being born is busy dying.’ (Bob Dylan)
Buddhists teach the futility of attachments of any kind and see them as being at the root of all suffering. They say that as long as we remain attached we will live despairingly. They speak of three types of attachment states — attached, unattached and nonattached. They tell a beautiful tale which illustrates their meaning. They ask us to visualize ourselves in a very isolated situation where the only fresh water available must be carried from a great distance (a common situation in many Asian towns and monasteries). Water is therefore treated as a most precious commodity. It is placed in a large pot, used sparingly, and kept shaded under trees, guarded and carefully covered.
After having worked hard all day in the blazing sun —we look forward to that refreshing stop at the water pot. We lift the lid carefully, take the scooper in hand and dip into the precious liquid. As we are about to drink we notice an ant has somehow settled into our pot and onto our scooper. We are furious! How dare the ant be on our island, under our trees, in our water pot, on our scooper. We immediately crush it under our thumb.
Attached.
Or we might stop a moment to consider that it is a hot day even for ants. The ant has done what is instinctively right for it—it took refuge in the only cool, damp and comfortable place it could find. We see that the ant is not really harming our water, our trees, our scooper or our pot. After deep, moral consideration, we drink around it, replace the scooper in the cool pot and cover it carefully.
Unattached.
Or, when we see the ant in our pot we stop neither to consider what is the ant’s or what is ours, nor what is moral or immoral. We respond above morality. We naturally feed it a lump of sugar!
Nonattached.
Death teaches us that in the long run nothing belongs to us. Even if we desire to form permanent attachments or possess, we in truth cannot. Things will break in spite of us. People will depart when it is their time no matter how loudly we protest. Ants will invade our water pots with no regard to our barriers. A knowledge of death can give one a deep feeling of freedom — both from attachment to self, as well as attachment to others and to things. The less we are attached to, the less we have to worry about.
Personhood: the art of being fully human
Leo Buscaglia
