The Five Levels of Attachment

Few readers will know anything about Toltec wisdom, and this informative book will fill the gap, helping one to understand how attachments create our reality and belief systems determine many of our decisions; beliefs are closely related to identity and provide filters through which we interpret reality. A key episode was a conversation with the author's grandmother when he was translating her talks Spanish into English. She remarked that 'when you translate, you try to express my work through what you already know, what you think is true. You do not hear me; you hear yourself.' This becomes a warning not to let one's existing knowledge translate everything one experiences. The author shows how identity interweaves with imperfection, suggesting that we view our lives as artists where everything is a work in progress. We have to become aware of and let go of our attachments and beliefs in order to see beyond them. These levels of attachment are described as the authentic self, preference, identity, internalisation and fanaticism. The book shows how to move through these levels towards greater freedom and engagement with life. At the end of the book, it is moving to read how the author helped his grandmother let go of fear and pass into the next life.