“Attachment is the most powerful force in the universe. We are meant to learn in the context of attachment about what we are attached to, and the things that serve our attachment needs.”
The Keys to Well-being in Students, Presentation to the X NIS International Conference, Astana, Kazakhstan, 26 October 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8hG_p7sujU)
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Gordon Neufeld 4
Canadian psychologist 1947Related quotes
Source: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
Source: Silence Speaks, from the chalkboard of Baba Hari Dass (1977), p.39
Context: Q: What can I do to overcome my fear of death?
“Attachment to spiritual things is… just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else.”
Thomas Merton, in New Seeds of Contemplation (1961)
Misattributed
[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 9, 978-1-93659700-0]
God, Reverential fear and love
“To enjoy anything, we cannot be attached to it.”
Context: To enjoy anything, we cannot be attached to it. William Blake understood this beautifully: He who binds to himself a Joy, Doth the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the Joy as it flies / Lives in Eternity's sunrise. What we usually try to do is capture any joy that comes our way before it can escape. We have our butterfly net and go after the joy like a hunter stalking his prey. We hide and wait, pounce on it, catch it, and take it home to put on our wall. When our friends come to visit, we say, "Hey, Stu, would you like to see my joy?" There it is on the wall - dead. We try to cling to pleasure, but all we succeed in doing is making ourselves frustrated because, whatever it promises, pleasure simply cannot last. But if I am willing to kiss the joy as it flies, I say, 'Yes, this moment is beautiful. I won't grab it. I'll let it go.'
“We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there.”
Book I, Ch. 25
Essais (1595), Book I
“The only thing necessary is to understand attachment”
Everyday Peace: Letters for Life, 2000
Context: You have everything and you want more. It's natural in human beings. You don't need to give away your house, money, and car, and leave your family to find God. The only thing necessary is to understand attachment. (p.17)