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A person can harness a great deal of energy and power by becoming hyper-attached to something. It can cause immunity to much of one's emotional and physical suffering, it can allow a person to bulldoze over opponents and perceived enemies. and it can enable a person to do seemingly superhuman feats. However, there are many downsides, including for someone who is strictly self-interested.

In 1981, I tried to harness the power that comes with hyper-attachment. Hyper attachment was one of many contributing factors to becoming mentally ill at the beginning of my adulthood.

(There were a number of other problems, not of my making, that contributed to becoming ill. I am not going to dredge them up.) 

In the short term, I was able to be successful at an entry level job. I was able to become physically brave and help a family member in need, by using this bravery. This bravery helped me withstand incredibly hard circumstances that followed. 

Having schizophrenia caused me to act on delusional beliefs, and it made me unable to accept an obvious loss that I encountered. The hyper-attachment was part of the problem. 

(A psychiatrist would have an opinion that I became ill for strictly biological reasons. Many who ascribe to the medical model do not credit life circumstances as being a cause of the illness. They would say the illness came first and caused the inability to deal with basic life challenges. This is a real possibility, and it would let me off the hook.) 

Hyper attachment is where you've decided to make getting something to be of absolute importance, and it brings the inability to let go. Do you see where this is headed? 

Our President, and I'm not speaking of Joe Biden who is not yet President until January 20th, is hyper-attached. I'm speaking of Trump. Trump is clinging so hard to the Presidency that it is clear he is hyper-attached. That is the source of his power, the inappropriate power, that allowed him to perform at a level that enabled him to win the Presidency through a questionable election in 2016. 

Buddhism teaches the opposite. Socially engaged Buddhism especially, teaches kindness above all else. Biden is a very kind man, and had he lost the election, he would not be showing the ugliness we are now seeing from the outgoing President. 

When I was very young, before computers could beat humans in chess, I'd play chess with my father now and then. My father studied the game intently, had read books about chess, and had won second place in a couple of chess tournaments. I never won a game against Dad. I played one game in which he complimented me on a good effort. 

I'd play chess against my brother, also young, and I would usually win. When that happened, he would react by knocking over all of the chess pieces, because of his anger. 

Now, we are seeing a President who says essentially, 'I lost the election so I'm going to do away with democracy and wreck the country in the process.' It is the same reaction of a twelve-year-old. But this is not chess--this is the lives of everyone in the country, and potentially the continuation of life as we know it on Earth. 

In young adulthood, life circumstances forced me to learn the skill of letting go of a person, place, or thing. This is an ability that any adult should have, as a normal consequence of maturing. Mr. Trump has not learned this. We will all pay dearly for Trump's inability to accept losing. 

I am quoting the work of the late Ken Keyes Jr.: "...We win some and we lose some." This supported his stance of merely "preferring" and not "demanding" to have things go your way. This is as opposed to forcing your way on others, through perceived need, and, I will add, perceived entitlement. 

At nineteen, I took refuge in Keyes' version of Buddhism, to deal with the pain I was living with and to meet kind and nice people. I objected to some parts of Keyes' philosophy that seemed incorrect and even cultlike. Yet it was a step in the right direction, and it led me to read and study Buddhism and mindfulness. This pursuit has saved my life a hundred times over. 

The world doesn't owe Mr. Trump the Presidency. The fact that he is able to convince so many people to support him in his attempted takeover, bespeaks a basic flaw in human nature. 

This must not be "everyone out for themself." This has to be loyalty to the U.S. Constitution and to basic decency. 

If the election was rigged, what is the connection between that and the firing of the Defense Secretary? Go figure. The Defense Secretary supervises our armed forces throughout the globe, something Trump lacks the expertise to do. The proposed replacement is completely inadequate to do the job. 

As a young man, I learned that I had to let go of persons, places and things. At first this was very difficult. As I got older, it came easier. Trump, because of a lifetime of privilege, has not been forced through life circumstances to realize that he cannot have whatever he wants. And now, the American people will pay the price.