Mary Magdalene: Part III: Page 8 Lines #1-10
“Attachments to matter
Gives rise to passion against nature.
Thus trouble arises in the whole body;
This is why I tell you:
Be in harmony…
If you are out of balance
Take inspiration from manifestations
Of your true nature.
Those who have ears
Let them hear.”
Commentary:
Attachments to matter, to the manifested, gives rise to passion, pain and suffering. Part of the Four Noble Truths that the Buddha revealed shortly after his enlightenment talks explicitly about this. The traditional truths are:
1. The truth of suffering, anxiety (not being at ease), and being out of balance (standing unstable). Human life is full of suffering and pain.
2. The truth of the cause of these sufferings are craving, thirst, misplaced desires and attachments. Human life is full of these causes.
3. The truth of suffering can be ended, or contained, by the letting go of the causes as written from number two above.
4. The truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering: this path has been traditionally known as the Noble Eight-Fold Path.
For example, money is not intrinsically bad or evil, but rather it is our attachments to it that can be problematic. Same holds true for anything else in the material-manifested world, including our vices, addictions, ideologies, beliefs, viewpoints and opinions, possessions, and yes even our own lives.
Our true nature, at least part of it, is to be as free as possible from these attachments and other causes of suffering, and thereby end or confine the cause of our sufferings.