Attachment to things (Buddhism)

Tsung-mi, a chronicler of Ch'an (Zen), indicated the process whereby, in the unenlightened aspect of alaya-vijnana, intrinsic enlightenment is gradually overlaid by delusion and, in the enlightened aspect, the delusion systematically removed. One becomes attached to things as the sixth stage in the downward process, corresponding to the first (discrimination) and second (continuation) of six coarse phenomenal appearances. This is comparable to clinging to the things one sees in dreams and believing them to be real. It is counteracted by awareness of the emptiness of things.