..續本文上一頁ht of anguish was felt even in ancient India has found a moving expression in words that were once addressed to the Buddha:

　　 "The heart is always in a state of fear,

　　And is always full of anguish drear,

　　Concerning things that now have taken place

　　And things that shortly I shall have to face. If there”s a place that”s free from ev”ry fear, That fear-free place will thou to me make clear

　　"

　　Samyutta Nikaya, 17. Trans. Soma Thera

　　Attachment, via "states born of attachment" (vanathaja), leads to entanglements in the thicket (vanatha) of life. These entanglements through attachment are of many kinds and they throw over man the widespread "catch-net" of craving (Sn., v.527). Apart from those that are openly seductive, others appear in an innocuous or respectable guise, or are rationalized in more or less convincing ways. Attachments can be pursued actively or enjoyed passively. Of the innumerable forms they may take, only a very few will be mentioned here.

　　There is the whole scale of five-sense enjoyment, with sex as its strongest; sex in all its varieties, coarse and refined, with all its trappings and subservient arts and enticements.

　　There is the enchantment of beauty, in nature and art with man”s creative or receptive response. There is the insatiable craze to get and to grasp, the fierce determination to hold and hoard; thirst for power and domination, in the smallest circle and on a world-wide scale.

　　On the passive side, there is the felt need and the inner satisfaction to obey and submit; the gregarious instinct, and the wish to creep under the protective shelter of this or that personal or group relationship; the comfortable feeling of following habits and custom; hero worship and leader cult.

　　And there is also the mystic”s loving surrender to his god, which, of course, can have an ennobling effect on the mind, and yet is an "intoxication of the soul," just like the attachment to the bliss of meditation (jhana-nikanti) for its own sake.

　　"States born of attachment" are at the root of the entire life process, on all its levels. Hence their variety is inexhaustible. Some may show man at his lowest and others at his most refined level. There are attachments that can inspire man to noble virtues, such as loyalty or self-sacrificing love, and to sublime creativity in many fields. But even the most lofty heights reached by refined attachment are no safeguard against a plunge into the lowest depths if one unwarily entrusts oneself to the dangerous gradient of attachment. Therefore, the wise will strive to detach themselves from the high as well as the low, from the here of earthly attachments and from the beyond of their "pine" and subtle forms. The Master said: "Do you see, my disciples, any fetter, coarse or fine, which I have not asked you to discard

　　" Anxiety (fear) and attachment (craving) produce each other, but they also set limits to each other. "Craving breeds anxiety; craving breeds fear," says the Dhammapada. And fear and anxiety on their part give rise to an intensified attachment to what is threatened and to a craving for the means to attain security. On the other hand, greed may sometimes be restrained by fear, both in inpiduals and in nations. But greed may also put shackles on fear: thus, disregarding fear”s warnings, a person may set out on a perilous course to satisfy his desires.

　　Anxiety and attachment — these two well up from an unfathomable past, and again and again become, as our text says, conditions for renewed existence, here and beyond. For "anxiety," our text specifies a rebirth here (oram), in this human existence. Anxiety, in all the aspects we have mentioned, is so deeply embedded in the human situation that it may sometimes "drag to rebirth" as strongly as craving does. For that typical human mood o…

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