347. Connected Intentions

A single desire does not exist in isolation. It is connected to a vast web of other intentions — all of the desires, aversions, and beliefs that we hold. Each of these intentions helps to reinforce the others. Desiring something usually means having an aversion to anything that might prevent the desire from being satisfied and having a belief that the desired object is important and good.

Even when connected intentions do not yet exist, a strong enough desire will give rise to secondary intentions as we attempt to fulfill it. As a result, attachment to even one desire will cause further attachments to form. Trying to break free from attachment to a particular desire cannot usually be accomplished without also freeing ourselves from an array of other attachments.

We are rarely able to remain free from a single attachment for very long. A temporarily usurped attachment will quickly return to power because it is reinforced by related attachments that also manipulate our attention and actions. This means that freedom from a specific attachment cannot be reliably attained without freedom from all attachment.

To achieve liberation from attachment, we need to see both the specific attachments we have and the general way that attachment operates. We need to see how the suffering we feel is both unique to each particular attachment and also similar to that which is produced by other attachments. It is through this process of noticing and generalizing our experience that we eventually learn to recognize attachment and how we can break free of it.

But seeing all of this takes time. Our awareness will not immediately be broad and deep enough to liberate us from suffering for very long. We will again become fixated on attachments that remain strong. It is only by dissolving the entire network of attachment that our freedom can be sustained, and this is also when our self-produced suffering will come to an end.