Should we seek to overcome attachment and to what extent can it be achieved? Whether or not one adopts these worldviews, we can ask whether attachment is a problem and, should we seek to overcome our attachments at all? — Jack Cummins
I think that attachment is linked to desire — Jack Cummins
However, I would argue that it is supremely difficult, for better or worse, to live without attachments and desires. — Jack Cummins
If we simply stayed in bed most of the time rather than pursue grander desires, it would still involve an attachment to the comfort of being in bed. — Jack Cummins
Should we seek to overcome attachment, to what extent, and can it be achieved ? Whether or not one adopts these worldviews, we can ask whether attachment is a problem and, should we seek to overcome our attachments at all? — Jack Cummins
However, I would argue that it is supremely difficult, for better or worse, to live without attachments and desires. I am not sure that, as living human beings, we are able to achieve it. If we simply stayed in bed most of the time rather than pursue grander desires, it would still involve an attachment to the comfort of being in bed. — Jack Cummins
Purpose meaning here to desire or want certain things to happen, which is another way of saying that living things have (emotion) attachments to certain things or outcomes — ChatteringMonkey
You focus on playing every game as good as you can, and try to care only insofar you played well or not. — ChatteringMonkey
I don't think those two things are the same at all. Attachment is different from desire. — khaled
This would mean that you would be put down by a bad performance. But athletes are pushed to to not care even about that. Take volleyball for example, it often happens that a player single handedly loses a game or a set for his team because of the nature of the game making it very clear who messed up (fast paced, highly structured and a single mistake by a player puts down the whole team). But top players shrug off mistakes, worse players are put down by bad performances leading to even worse performances. Does that mean that top players have a weaker desire to win? I think they want it just as badly, but they're not attached. — khaled
at different degrees of what is essential one psychological process. It seems a matter of degree rather than discrete things — ChatteringMonkey
Maybe they can shrug it off more easily, I could buy that. — ChatteringMonkey
If I don't get what I want, I'm disappointed. If I don't get what I'm attached to, I'm very disappointed… — ChatteringMonkey
Also I find there is a world of difference between getting the thing I'm attached to vs the thing I want. When I get something I want I'm happy, when I get something I am attached to I don't feel anything. And sometimes I'm attached to things I don't even want (bad habits). — khaled
If desiring to win and failing to do so is disappointing, then those who desire to win the most should be devastated the most. We can agree that top athletes probably do desire to win the most. However they are not devastated the most (ideally, they are not affected by a bad performance at all). Suggesting that maybe there is something extra that is the actual cause of disappointment, something other than desire to win. — khaled
If you are talking about addictions I would agree, but do you think that is what is meant with attachments here? Maybe, I'd need to think about it some more. — ChatteringMonkey
I'd say this is more a question of a lack of confidence. — ChatteringMonkey
It's sort of a psychological downward spiral that compounds the mistakes that other non-top players get stuck in. How do you see the relation to attachments here? — ChatteringMonkey
There is supposedly a sort of mental "Sweet spot" where you want things but at the same time are not distraught at failing to get them. — khaled
I don't have any major addictions but sometimes I notice that I feel the need to get something I don't even really want. If you've been on a losing streak in a videogame you'd know what I mean. — khaled
It's also a common trait of mediocre athletes to be OVERconfident, not lacking confidence. — khaled
I do believe in the importance of enjoying ourselves and being one's best. I don't believe that life is meant to be miserable.
Hope you are have a good Christmas. I am busy reading and writing but having an enjoyable time. I am also being DJ with my mum, giving her an assortment of music.
Let's hope that 2021 brings more enjoyable times for everyone! — Jack Cummins
OK, your kid's getting treatment for childhood leukemia. You want your kid to live.How attatched you are to something is answered by asking yourself "How big of a problem would it be if I didn't have this/this didn't happen?" The answer to that is usually different from what we desire. There is supposedly a sort of mental "Sweet spot" where you want things but at the same time are not distraught at failing to get them. — khaled
You guys seem to be equating attachment with desire. They are very different things. As you say, if the Buddha hadn't desired anything, he wouldn't have got out of bed to eat. But he did. So that suggests that they're not the same thing. — khaled
Buddhism views attachment as something to be overcome. — Jack Cummins
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