Eckhart Tolle: Giving up attachment seems to be an overwhelming thought for many of us. It seems impossible to some while others refuse the simple thought of it.
Why give up the things that seem to make your life more convenient and valuable or yourself more happy? Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth has some great thoughts on attachment, which I’ll quote from below.
Giving up attachment seems to be an overwhelming thought for many of us. It seems impossible to some while others refuse the simple thought of it.
Why give up the things that seem to make your life more convenient and valuable or yourself more happy? Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth has some great thoughts on attachment, which I’ll quote from below.
The thought of ownership gives people confidence. Most people tend to collect all kinds of things throughout their life. The more time and room you have or create, the more things you will own in life. A good example is the moment you move houses and need to clean up the mess you have created over months or years and make decisions on whether certain items are valuable to you and what is only clutter. But does any of this stuff really matter? Eckhart Tolle thinks that many of us realize that it doesn’t matter until it’s too late: “The moment a person comes to know of their proximity of death, the whole concept of ownership stands revealed as ultimately meaningless.”
Have you ever purchased something you thought would bring you joy and then shortly after had no more interest in it? Having ownership is short-lived satisfaction, created through dissatisfaction and incompleteness. Purchasing things for joy is often a vicious cycle. From my own experience, I can confirm that it’s easy to go shopping when you’re bored instead of finding more creative or productive ways to spend your time. (Imagine the amount of money you would save if your mind wouldn’t tell you how bored you are!)
Tolle says that people will “look for something else that promises greater fulfilment, that promises to make your incomplete sense of self complete and fill that sense of lack you feel within.” I believe that once you realize that the feeling of ownership and attachment only provides short-term satisfaction, you’ll let go of attachments and begin to live a happier and healthier life.
