Understanding Attachment The confusion between love & attachment has entered into all our relationships in a number of ways. To our conditioned minds it appears to be a contradiction (error), but it is a basic spiritual truth - to be loving it is necessary to be detached. Attachment is the root of fear and fear & love cannot exist together just as day & night, winter & summer cannot. The idea & the practice of detachment are found in almost all the paths of wisdom, over the centuries. This is so because attachment is one of the deepest habits that we learn to develop & we do not realize that anything we attach ourselves to turns into a trap for our consciousness, for the self, the being. We know we are attached when we begin to think about someone or something when they are not present & there is no need to think about them. Our mental energy exhausts itself & we have the sensation that we lack control over our thoughts & feelings. Each time that we automatically cling (hold on) to something, we invoke (call for or attract) the presence of fear - whether it be of people, position, power, money or even opinion, any form of attachment means that we will fear harm or loss. Fear takes on many faces (worry, anxiety & tension); it prevents our spiritual growth & frightens us away from or blocks us from love.