Attachment

Pupil: Desires would have a bearing on attachment.

Abdullah: A big bearing. Desires, as you know, are fed into you through your body from the Earth, so they are very strong indeed. In trying to become nonattached in this area you are doing very important work on yourself, changing yourself completely. In this battle against attachment, which goes on for years, Abdullah has found that you lose some and win some – you become less attached to one thing and then may become more attached to another. Abdullah sees that he has nonattachment, but not nonidentification.

Pupil: To work on attachment would we start with things like food, sex, warmth, comfort . . .?

Abdullah: You can start in any area you like. The idea of fasting on a Monday is to show you some nonattachment. To see attachment you have to watch yourself operating, because each person will be attached in different areas. Unless you can relate it to yourself you are dealing only with words. You must understand it from yourself, learn about your own attachments. Know thyself.

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Abdullah: The Hindu teachings tell us that all our attachments come from living in maya or illusion. We try to make this clearer by saying our bodies exist in the third dimension which is real to the body, but not to the spirit which lives in the fifth dimension. If we understand that our attachment to the body as the self is illusion, we then know something of maya and of the necessity to become nonattached to other bodies or any sense objects. We also understand that while becoming attached to the spirit inwardly is a step in the right direction because it can lead to attachment to God, in the end even this attachment must be given up when we lose ourselves in God.