Thinking about what detachment is, I came across this writing on what attachment is, and why it brings unhappiness:
"What is an attachment? An emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy. ...Now the tragedy of an attachment is that if its object is not attained it causes unhappiness. But if it is attained, it does not cause happiness - it merely causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness; and it is always followed, of course, by the anxiety that you may well lose the object of your attachment....
You may avoid the situation or the person; or you may try to change them; or you may insist on your rights or the rights of others being respected; you may even resort to the use of force. But only after you have got rid of your emotional upsets, for then your action will spring from peace and love..."
