ATTACHMENTS

The extent to which we are attached to this existence is the extent to which we remain bound to it.

Most notable among the attachments, chains that bind, or fetters as they are known in Buddhism, is attachment to the self, as if the self were real.  The self is an illusion.

Another common shackle is possessions.  What we own is who we are, we feel.  Without our possessions we are nothing.  Possessions define us. 

We are attached to our loved ones and to our friends.  We can't imagine living without them.

Other ways we are bound to this world, assuring our rebirth, is food, alcohol, drugs, and sex, i.e. things that give us physical pleasure, and to which we become attached.

The Buddha taught that the way we break free of these attachments is to understand that they are not permanent.  They are fleeting, a moving target.  As long as we are attached to them, he said, we will suffer (dukkha) and be reborn to them.