Are Eternal Imaginary Things Better? – Dialectic Two-Step

Question:  Instead of Attachment to Material Things, Isn’t It Better to Attach to Eternal Imaginary Things?

Response: From a Buddhist perspective, you’ve used two loaded terms – attachment and eternal.   There is specific meaning around attachment that denotes clinging and the delusion that anything we attach ourselves to will provide final and complete (eternal) contentment.  It’s also curious to suggest that an idea is eternal.  Ideas are the product of minds.  Minds change and as part of the human experience, are subject to death. I’d challenge you to identify an idea that is eternal.

If you can get past these little quirks of human nature (attachment and eternalism)  you’ll recognize that all these “things” – material or imaginary – are cool, intriguing, and temporary.  Then you’re good. Go for it; take it all in while you can.

Dialectic Two-Step  is an ongoing series of my thoughts on questions that come my way.

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio

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