The Five Levels of Attachment: Toltec Wisdom for the Modern World

Most of us have an ideal version of how we think the world should be. I have to. You must. They should. It has to be. When we hear these words, we are listening to the voices of our narrators expressing an agreement that is at a higher level of attachment.

Remember to proceed with self-love and self-acceptance at all times, as this is the only path to real and lasting change. In the next chapter, we will continue with the exploration of how being unaware of our attachments can cause suffering in our lives, especially when dealing with others.

In other words, rather than having confidence in what we know, we have confidence in who we are. Instead of defending or debating a belief with all our might, we look and listen to what is going on around us. Questioning ourselves and being open to changing our minds about something does not mean that we must question our core being.

Things in our world go beyond reason and logic. But to believe—in the mystical, or in the scientific—without being skeptical is letting knowledge take control. The fantasy then becomes more real than life itself, to the point where we spend so much time looking for the spectacular that we don't realize joy can be found in the everyday occurrences happening all around us.

The stories that we tell about ourselves to make us feel comfortable and safe are simply history. We can choose to believe because we want to, keeping in mind that the stories do not describe the truth of who we really are. And we must be careful, as the very act of wanting to believe in these stories blinds us to the truth. Believing the stories without question or scrutiny ultimately leads to disillusionment, as we become attached to the identity we have created for ourselves through the telling of the story.

The quest to be right is about self-importance: we need to be right in order to accept ourselves; this is a condition we place on our self-acceptance and our acceptance of others. The quest for truth, on the other hand, is the desire to discover—regardless of whether our beliefs are supported in the process.

Each person fills in their version of the story with the familiar lines of what they assume to be true based on their attachments. We are attached to creating a story about every action from our own point of view, describing, explaining, and fitting it into our own belief system. This is what we have been taught to do.

Be impeccable with your word
Don't take anything personally
Don't make assumptions
Always do your best
Be skeptical, but learn to listen

There is no need to chase love, when we are love. We simply release our attachment to what we expect to see so that we can see beyond it. We turn off the volume on our narrators, the voice of our knowledge, and simply engage the present, and the true image of love will appear.

love is the biggest demon. Instead of simply experiencing love, being love, narrators explain how love should feel: what makes us worthy of love; who should love us, and how they should express it; what we need to do or achieve to love ourselves, and what others need to do in order to receive our love in return.