have to be open to sharing, to extending the concept of family,
considering all spiritual beings to be part of it. Look, it is impossible for
there to be an authentic brotherhood in humanity if we establish
categories for loving: those of my family first, those of my town first,
those of my country first, those of my race, culture and religion first.
And if there is anything left over, for others. This is a disguised form of
egoism, because what is given is always given in exchange for
receiving something, not given without expecting anything in return.
For this reason, at the time of giving a scale is established, which puts
first those who can give us the most, second, those who can give us
less, and leaves out those who cannot give us anything. This egoistic
behaviour harms the law of love, no matter that there are certain
people who try to justify solidarity as being only for those who
subscribe. The moment you exclude somebody from the right to
solidarity, this word stops having meaning. You have an example of
how far it is possible to go with this type of collective egoism in Nazism,
which preached the supposed solidarity of race, and which was
established at the cost of suppressing and eliminating the rights of
other races and beliefs, and the free will of each individual.
You mentioned that attachment is present in the vanity and pride
stages. It seems that it is an ego-feeling that is quite difficult to
overcome.
Of course it is. Attachment begins in the vanity stage and is not
overcome until the end of the arrogance stage.
So there is no advance with regard to attachment as spiritual
advancement progresses, from vanity to arrogance, passing through
pride?
Of course there is. But the advances are always gradual. Neither is it of
the same intensity nor does attachment feed in the same way in the
vain spirit, the proud spirit or the arrogant spirit. In the vain spirit the
attachment is much more intense, less respectful towards the free will
of others, due to the sparse development of feeling, and it feeds on
the desire to be pleased and to be taken care of, and on the
weakness of the vain spirit to progress. In pride and arrogance the
attachment is less strong, since it is being replaced gradually by love,
(there is a mixture of both, love and attachment) and it feeds on the
fear of not being loved or on the fear of losing loved ones.
How do we overcome greed and attachment?
The opposite of greed, is generosity. Therefore, in order to overcome
greed it is necessary to develop generosity, both material and spiritual.