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The fulfillment of desires causes further desire. Unfulfilled desires cause further births.
The only way out is to offer all acts to God. (SSB)
Attachment
Desiring objects leads to attachment to outer objects, imprisoning the mind like the jaws of a crocodile. Aachment becomes addiction, like that to alcohol or heroin. When we struggle to free ourselves, we suffer similar to an alcoholic with delirium tremens (a life threatening convulsive disorder that can occur in rapid withdrawal from alcohol). We suffer from separation anxiety, depression, and terrifying fears.
Aachments and addictions are many: food, sensuality, homes, cars, comforts, and luxuries, as well as the more fundamental attachments to name, fame, form, family, friends, health, wealth, power, prestige, position, property, and possessions. The truth is that we don’t own anything. At the time of death, we realize that all has been a gi, and in the final analysis, we must leave all aachments behind. We don’t own objects; quite the contrary, they own us. Aachments hold us in bondage.
As life rolls on, many panic over the demise of mental powers and the death of the physical body. In Spirit And The Mind, I discussed how we experience mortal fear, an intense sense of possible annihilation when faced with having to give up our aachments. We fear giving up false concepts and ideas about who we are. This fear of imminent nothingness makes us tremble in terror. So we hold tightly to temporary objects and false identities. The only way to deal with this fear is either to blindfold ourselves and deny the impermanence of the outer world or to find eternity within.
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