The other day I went to the cash machine to take out some money. I pressed £40 because I knew I had some things to buy the following morning. It was an ATM machine with a £1.60 charge. Sadly, that night I lost £41.60.
I was completely gutted when I realized that I had stupidly left the money in the machine. I was angry with myself and also at the machine for not beeping loudly enough as I walked away.
At the moment I realized the money was gone, I felt like the money had been STOLEN out from under me. When I went to pay for my ticket to see a friend’s gig I told the woman my story. She replied, “Education is expensive. Literally.”
What a great lesson that woman tried to teach me. She is right; education is expensive. Yet, the real lesson for me was more about my ATTACHMENT to money, and in the end, material things.
Contemporary society spends so much of its time worrying about our “stuff” – we have insurance for just about EVERYTHING and overdramatize loss by comparing it to death.
We are dependent and attached. It’s quite simple really.
If someone were to burn down your house, what would you be upset to lose?
o Clothing?
o Photographs?
o Everything?
Take a moment right now to think about these questions:
What do I value most?
What are my greatest needs?
What (or even who) am I attached to?
Now take a look at your list of values, needs and attachments – how many of them are material or related to something material? You see, even the basic need for shelter is something we become attached to. We don’t just value the roof over our head, but rather how big the garage is so that it can fit in all the cars.
I find that the power of attachment can manifest in a variety of ways – anger, sadness, anxiousness and in some ways, happiness. For when we GET something, we often feel a sense of satisfaction, joy and fulfillment. That is, until we lose it. Then the cycle persists.
There is a level of anxiety and chaos that attachment creates – just think about the wars that have been fought due to our attachment to land.
From my point of view, it’s simply time to smarten up. We as a society need to lose this attachment in order to truly be at peace with ourselves.
We must be able to simply ‘let go’ – both physically and metaphorically of the ‘stuff’ in our lives.
Lose the attachment, GAIN MORE.
