group, there are also manifestations of egoism, but there is an
additional component, that now there is implicit a greater knowledge
of what feelings are.
Could you define what each of these ego-feelings consists of so that I
can get more of an exact idea?
Yes. We shall begin with greed and attachment. We will analyse them
jointly because, as we will see, attachment is an advanced derivation
of greed.
Avarice (Greed) - Attachment
Avarice, (also named greed), is the excessive eagerness to
accumulate material goods. Avaricious (or greedy) people have a lot
to give, materially speaking, but refuse to share what they consider to
be theirs with others. When spirits advance in the knowledge of feelings
but are still unable to share, material greed transforms into spiritual
greed. Spiritual greed is attachment, or the difficulty of sharing the
affection of those people whom they incorrectly consider to be their
own property, for example children, partner etc. Whoever suffers from
attachment only wants to love a few and usually demands that others
do the same. There are many people who wrongly think that they love,
and say that they suffer greatly because they love so much, when in
fact what is actually happening to them is that they are suffering from
attachment and through attachment. Only when spirits advance
enough, can they begin to recognise the difference between love
and attachment.
Can you explain the difference between love and attachment?
Yes. When we love we try to respect the free will of the loved person
and our own free will. We try to do everything possible so that the
loved person is free and happy even though this may imply
renouncing being with that person. In the case of attachment, people
suffering from this thinks more about satisfying their own egoism than
about the wellbeing of the loved person. For this reason people with
attachment tend to harm the free will of the person whom they
supposedly love, keeping them by their side against their will or
compelling them to do what they want, preventing, as far as possible,
relationships with other beings, whom they consider their
“competition”. Whoever truly loves is not possessive of their beloved,
nor are they upset because their beloved also loves other people.
Most probably attachment will fizzle out, but true love, genuine love,
never dies. Loving more and more people does not mean that we love
others any less. However, attachment makes us think that this is the