On attachment

Raga is attachment and is one of the impediments to enlightenment that one should strive to weaken through the yoga of action (from the Yoga Sutras). Attachment to self, to loved ones, to possessions, to pleasant memories of times past.

This became a poem of sorts after I experienced intense longing for past recently and wrote down some reflections.

I'm in my yard,
My chickens and my boys are digging
through some fresh, black soil I just uncovered.
Two hawks fly over head.
I miss you.

Many of our positive and negative emotions stem from longing and desire. We wish to feel again the bliss of joyous memories. We feel pained that those times have passed.

I felt strong attachment to my twins when they were born. It took several months for the feeling that we were one being to pass. I looked at the little ones suckling at my breast and felt that we were one being, the three of us. I would gaze at them and marvel that i had this piece of me that was so clearly me but still other. It was not until they were several months old that the feeling began to subside, and it was painful, not unlike losing a real physical part of myself. I grieved the loss. My twins are nearly six and a half now, and I still grieve that they are no longer part of me, though the feelings of loss have weakened now. With every milestone they achieve, they become less a part of me and more fully realized others. Each lost milk tooth is a celebration for them but it is also experienced as a loss for me.

They will grow up and move away, even though they say now that they will live with me forever.

Attachment. Longing. Desire. Letting things go so that we can be liberated. Letting them go.