Firstly, I had my email address, noah_ekerman@hotmail.com stolen from me a few weeks back, and it has come to my knowledge that emails have been sent out to all my contacts, begging for money and stating that I would have been mugged in London etc. For more information on this well known scam, see; http://consumerist.com/2010/05/just-for-the-record-your-friend-wasnt-mugged-in-london.html
To clarify, I have neither been in London lately, nor have I been mugged or the like. I am in no acute need of money either (unless you feel like frivolously giving gifts away, then by all means, go ahead.). My condolences go to anyone who was fooled by the impostors. I now have a new email address; ekermannoah@gmail.com , but have lost all contacts, so if you enjoy my blogposts please send me an email with subject: blogsubscribe and I will add you to a new list. Also, if anyone knows of a program that can collect contacts for newsletter purposes then I would gratefully accept information about it.
Attachment, suffering, and heartbreaks.
Attachment means that something we perceive becomes emotionalized due to the minds tendency to cling to objects of our liking. The very process of clinging, (which in physical terms can be likened with leaning with our bodies towards an object, thus becoming imbalanced) generates emotion. Either positive, when the object is of our liking and we lean towards, or negative, if the object is one we harbor dislike towards and thus lean away from, creating aversion. Whether attachment to, or aversion from, we are bound to suffer. Naturally, as the object we have grown attached to leaves us, we feel a great void within, like an avocado with it’s seed plucked out. We then try to fill this void with this and that, most often creating a corrosive effect in our already sore being, exchanging temporary relief for prolonged suffering.
Likewise, when the object of our aversion enters our vicinity, we feel awful and miserable.
Oh no, Í got kicked out from my apartment, and now I have to move back to my parents. Misery, misery misery, lol. Or on my birthday party night out, they start playing that song that I can’t stand, and my best friend makes out with the girl I have a crush on, my birthday is ruined.
So, to summarize, attachment is bound to sting sooner or later, thus part of our task to stay out of misery equals staying out of attachment.
How? This formula makes sense to me; Serve, love, give, purify, meditate, realize.
What then, is this phenomenon we so commonly refer to as heartbreak?
It is the experience of loss of an object we have grown tremendously attached to, and identified with on many levels, constructed a mental web of identifications around this object. My girlfriend, my mother in law, my brother in law, my this, my that. Our apartment, our dog, our insurance, our plans, our time together. And then all of a sudden the hour of our is over. BOOM.
The very core of this mental web of ideas and attachments, the girlfriend or boyfriend, the spider itself, is ripped out, and there is a great void. What once reflected our energy back to us is no longer available, so our energy is leaking big time. It literally feels as if part of us is dying, which in a sense it truly is. Part of the self image has been shattered, so in fact, rather then heartbreak, it could properly be termed egobreak, or selfbreak, as in mental idea of self, as opposed to witnessing entity of Self. Everything has to be re-arranged, reshaped, forgotten, and energy has to be re-distributed into new sources. This inner turmoil we call a Heartbreak, with understanding, perhaps it may become a tad more bearable.
Don’t take my words for the truth, find out for yourself. What I write is only true from my current, limited point of view, which changes daily, and most certainly is a million miles away from ultimate truth. Tomorrow I head back to Dhammaland to serve a 3 day course. The journey continues...
Au revoir,
Namaste, blessings
Noah
