Are you trying to say that it should work similarly to a desensitization therapy? But then, there might exist the reversed mode, where you get attached to things even more, as you meditate on why are they good to have. Which of these modes dominates is not clear to me.
I think you make a good point. I feel I was gesturing at something at something real when I wrote down the comparison notion, but didn’t express it quite right. Here’s how I would express it now:
The key thing I failed to point out in the post is that just visualizing a good thing you have or what’s nice about it is not the same as being grateful for it. Gratitude includes an acknowledgement. When you thank an acquaintance for, say, having given you helpful advice, you’re acknowledging that they didn’t necessarily have to go out of their way to do that. Even if you’re grateful for something a specific person didn’t give you, and you don’t believe in a god, the same feeling of acknowledgment is present. I suspect this acknowledgement is what pushes things out of the need-set.
And indeed, as you point out, just meditating on why something is good to have might increase attachment (or it might not, the model doesn’t make a claim about which effect would be stronger).
I think you make a good point. I feel I was gesturing at something at something real when I wrote down the comparison notion, but didn’t express it quite right. Here’s how I would express it now:
The key thing I failed to point out in the post is that just visualizing a good thing you have or what’s nice about it is not the same as being grateful for it. Gratitude includes an acknowledgement. When you thank an acquaintance for, say, having given you helpful advice, you’re acknowledging that they didn’t necessarily have to go out of their way to do that. Even if you’re grateful for something a specific person didn’t give you, and you don’t believe in a god, the same feeling of acknowledgment is present. I suspect this acknowledgement is what pushes things out of the need-set.
And indeed, as you point out, just meditating on why something is good to have might increase attachment (or it might not, the model doesn’t make a claim about which effect would be stronger).