5.22 To Overcome Attachment, Cultivate Curiosity

Have you ever tried to detach yourself from a guilty pleasure,

only to relapse again?

Surprisingly, the most effective way

to fight attachment isn’t detachment—

it’s curiosity.

Look back curiously at your last indulgence.

Suppose you overate.

Don’t judge yourself—just observe.

Before overeating came craving.

During it, one part of you enjoyed,

another worried if you’d get more.

Afterward came heaviness, laziness, guilt.

Where was the happiness in all that?

When we observe with curiosity,

we realize that the pleasure is not worth the pain.

If we give it up, what we will be losing is not pleasure—but trouble.

Thus the spell of attachment breaks.

Then we don’t struggle to give it up, even though it feels good—

we give it up because we see for ourselves that it doesn’t feel good.

The Bhagavad Gita (5.22) says:

by such observation of pleasure’s nature,

the wise learn to stay free from it.

Why not join them—by becoming curious?