Addiction and attachment

Modern culture has no problem with wallowing in the flesh.  In Buddhist terms this is the life that is addicted to the material world, sensations, ideations, choices and a dualizing consciousness.  In short, these are the five aggregates that belong to the Buddhist devil Māra.  I hasten to add that being addicted to something is different than being attached to something. Modern man is certainly addicted to his passions which comprise the five aggregates. 

An addiction is much more difficult to give up than an attachment; in fact, the majority of people who try to give up their addiction or addictions fail.  A relapse is often the case.  Even moderation of an addiction is difficult to achieve for the addict.  For those addicted to the flesh they want to save the flesh.  Ultimately, they have no real intention on giving up their strong addiction to the emotions which the flesh arouses. 

Having a passion for Buddhism is really the antidote for our addiction to the five aggregates.  With this kind of passion we see the aggregates as foreign to our true nature.  This nature or essence prompts us to attain gnosis of it, which is a sudden and direct intuition of this essence.

This is like the difference between a teenager who is addicted to drugs and sex versus a teenager who has a passion to become a pilot.  As we come to see, an addiction brings us down while a passion, in the higher sense, can elevate us above the need for an addiction which leads to a downturn.

But not all who take up Buddhism or its variants have this kind of passion and will likely not succeed.  Such practitioners still harbor a deep addiction for the life of the five aggregates which includes the ways of the world.  By comparison, giving up an attachment is relatively easy we do it every day.  We don't eat the same food day in and day out or wear the same clothes day in and day out.  If someone cuts in front of us on the freeway our anger is short-lived.  We detach from it.  So we roughly understand what detachment means.  But a life of addiction to the five aggregates is far different.