{"id":22483,"date":"2025-01-22T16:57:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T15:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=22483"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:53:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:53:58","slug":"attachments-emotional-obstacles-to-spiritual-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/attachments-emotional-obstacles-to-spiritual-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Attachments: Emotional Obstacles To Spiritual Development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Transforming attachment into freedom: Assagioli’s four methods of detachment and the heavy weights that bind the soul<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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By Dr. Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Meeting III of La Psicosintesi Spirituale<\/em>, March 19, 1938
Assagioli Archives, Florence, Doc. #23760
Original title: La Psicosintesi Spirituale, Meeting III \u2014 1. Gli Ostacoli Emotivi \u2014 2. Gli Attaccamenti<\/em>Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm [i]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth Sorensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In this lecture, Roberto Assagioli examines emotional attachments as central obstacles to spiritual development, comparing them to heavy lead balls tied to the feet of the wayfarer who would ascend to spiritual consciousness. He distinguishes active attachments such as instincts, desires, and affections from passive attachments such as inertia and habit, and argues that even seemingly virtuous attachments can be the most insidious because they appear justified. He sets out four methods for implementing detachment: the painful tearing away that life often imposes, the sublimation of possessive love into spiritual love, the cultivation of humor and a more impersonal perspective on the human comedy, and the inner independence rooted in communion with the Self. True detachment, he concludes, is the freedom to love more deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In our examination of the difficulties and obstacles that make man’s ascent to the heights of spiritual consciousness difficult and painful, we have mentioned fear, which may be compared to a paralysis that stops the wayfarer’s steps, taking away his strength and spirit to proceed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we are going to talk about the multiple attachments to people, to things, to ways of life, which can be compared to heavy lead balls tied to the feet of the man who would like to proceed, that are like laces that trip his steps and sometimes even cause him to go back.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man who “lets himself live,” who lets himself be carried along by the current [of life], who does not pause to study himself, does not realize how bound and enslaved he is, at least until serious events arise. But whoever tries to leave his usual abodes, the beaten paths of the plain, and begins to climb, soon realizes how numerous and tenacious are the attachments that hold him captive.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attachments are of two kinds:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Active <\/span><\/span><\/em> attachments: instincts, passions, desires, and affections that bind one to people and possessions; that absorb energy and demand time, intention, care; that distracts in various ways from the high goal to which one aspires.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n