In the teachings, the analogy for attachment is honey on a razor blade. The honey tastes so sweet and delicious as you are licking it off the blade, but you are also cutting your tongue and hurting yourself. This is the deceptive quality of attachment, which lures us into thinking that it brings happiness because generally there is a happy feeling in the mind when attachment is present. We are so addicted to the low-grade happiness of this life that we do not realise we are inflicting suffering. It is not enough to remember the disadvantages of attachment intellectually; we need to examine our lives and find many examples of what happens after we become attached to something.

The things we have done out of attachment probably have brought us sense pleasures, a feeling that we were loved and being special, or that we belonged, and people appreciated us. But did that attachment bring ultimate happiness, or were we eventually left feeling disillusioned and disappointed with our hopes and expectations unmet? What kind of negative actions have we done under the influence of attachment?

In the long-term, isn’t attachment to the body at the time of death propels us to take another rebirth and all the suffering this entails? When we realise attachment is an enemy that is afflicting us instead of a sweet friend, we will want to destroy it instead of cooperating with it. This takes some work on our part, but thinking about the effects of attachment in a personal way can be very effective.

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