Question
In our Western society, accumulating and collecting are valued and well regarded. Collections generally cost a fortune, and there are even collectors’ competitions with major prizes in prestige and money. I understand that Buddhism promotes detachment as one of the steps toward well-being.
Could you share your view, then, on collecting and
detachment?
Are they opposites?
Why would detachment lead to happiness?
Does it apply to emotional things as well as material things?
Could you give examples?
Why do you think our society places so much importance on
collecting and having?
How does one achieve detachment?
Lorena Lopez
ELLE magazine, Argentina
Answer from Master Kosen
You should collect chicks, so that every time you get a new one, you have to let go of the old one…
You can also collect lives. How many lives have you spent going around in circles without ever realizing your Buddha nature, remaining just as stupid?
If material detachment were the solution, all the poor people living on the streets of Buenos Aires would have satori.
In truth, you must neither detach yourself nor attach yourself. You need do nothing at all except love life…
The only thing you need to detach yourself from is drugs, and the worst drug is distilled by our own bodies and our own emotions. Tormentor, victim, guilt, redemption produce chemical substances our bodies depend on, and we repeat the same neurotic patterns without ever being able to detach ourselves from them. Detachment is simply changing your point of view.
Seeing things from a higher perspective puts them in proportion. That is what zazen offers.
There is a minimum that everyone should be entitled to: housing, a role in society that gives you enough to feed yourself, and above all, respect and love.
Kosen