The Buddha, The Dharma, The Sangha

"Spiritual powers and their wondrous functioning--hauling water and carrying firewood." --Layman Pang, upon his realization

Friday, October 5, 2012

Positive Attachment--from HH Dalai Lama



If your engagement with others is tainted by strong attachment, craving, aversion, anger and so forth, then that form of grasping is undesirable.  But on the other hand, when you are interacting with other living beings and become aware of their needs or suffering or pain, then you need to fully engage with that and be compassionate.  So there can be positive attachment in this sense of active engagement.

Buddhist masters have long used the term attachment to describe the quality of compassion for others.  For example, a verse from Haribhadra's Clear Meaning Commentary refers to compassion that is attached to other living beings. As as we have seen, Nagarjuna teaches that attachment for other living beings will arise spontaneously in the the person who realizes emptiness.

--from From Here To Enlightenment: An Introduction to Tsong-kha-pa's Classic Text The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, by HH Dalai Lama


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