Attachment to Life

Our attachment to money, possessions, power or recognition weakens without much resistance when we face our mortality. Everything we value pales when it comes to a choice between something external to us or our lives. Being alive is our strongest attachment. One of the Desert Fathers, Abba Zosimas says that a “person eagerly overlooks everything for the sake of gaining even a little more of this temporary life.”* It is a humbling remark to those who might feel smug about how much indifference they claim to have toward worldly possessions and achievements, because no matter how much they feel that they have transcended the world, it is unlikely that they are ready to give up their lives. It is hard to deny that the hearts of even the wisest of us might sink if they were diagnosed with a terminal illness. Those who are truly composed about the transience of life in this world are probably few and far in between. 

 If it is so difficult for us as a living species driven by a survival instinct to completely let go of our attachments to our lives, then the next best attempt we can make might be to recognize this attachment and let that recognition loosen the grip that our attachment has on us. When we believe that our bodies and breaths are not our own but have only been lent to us and that at any time we may need to return them, then we understand how foolish our feeling of entitlement toward being alive has been. We will still feel terrified at the prospect of losing our lives, losing the possibilities that the future might have held for us. But the struggle against the prospect of loss will be tempered by an acceptance that what we are doing is struggling to keep what is not ours. 

*Chryssavgis, J. (2008). In the Heart of the Desert. World Wisdom, Inc.