No Attachment?

My mom’s on the phone right now with my aunt, rambling away on the idea of no emotional attachments. The idea goes like this – Things in this world are impermant, we’re all gonna die, we might as well strip away our attachments so we can leave the cycle of reincarnation.

So just say we do have no attachments. Where does that leave us? Do we not become people living only for their own self-absorbed bubble ways?  Did it occur to them how it would make people around them feel? Is life not meant to be precisely for forming meaningful relationships? Cultivating the self is good, but when it becomes the only thing you do, it seems not only impratical, but very selfish. 

The fact that attachments often lead to pain is not a very strong argument supporting it either.  Working and studying pains me even more. Does it follow then, that I should also avoid those?  Whatever happened to the idea that we do most our learning in times of trouble and chaos? 

I think the whole idea of no attachment is a big load of bull for people too afraid to get hurt and hence choose to forfeit the experience of truly loving people. 

Uh oh… she’s off the phone…. time for designated-mom-day to start!!!