Is attachment really the enemy? No. It is the struggling to let go that hurts.

I smoked for the best part of thirty years. I am attached to pleasure, to hope, to feeling well. The Western version of this is that you must give everything up, and that is not it. Try pushing a bird off your hand and telling it to go. It leaves and it comes back. My council put a new kitchen in and I hated going in there for weeks, and then I did not. Stop chasing the carrot and it stops running. Just let the hour pass without the cigarette.

One thing to try: Do not fight the craving. Let this one hour go by without it, then start another hour.

In this episode

• (2:43) Thirty years of smoking, near enough
• (3:53) Pleasure, hope and the subtle attachments
• (5:35) The four truths, quickly and plainly
• (6:42) Push the bird away and watch it come back
• (12:48) Embrace change by simply accepting it
• (14:20) The new kitchen I did not want
• (15:26) The carrot, the stick and running for nothing
• (17:40) Another thirty seconds, then another
• (20:04) Do not get into the argument with it

With gratitude to

Senga, Michael, Dominique, Ulysses, Nick, Julie and Anne

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Thank you for listening.

Steven

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