The late Dzogchen master Chagdud Tulku made a powerful statement about the
relationship between attachment and nonattachment. He said, “People often ask
me do Lamas have attachments? I don’t know how other Lamas might answer
this, but I must say yes. I recognize that my students, my family, my country
have no inherent reality... [Here he’s speaking absolute truth.} Yet, I remain
deeply attached to them. [Here he’s speaking relative truth.] I recognize that my
attachment has no inherent reality. [absolute truth]. Yet I cannot deny the
experience of it” [relative truth]. And he ends by saying, “Still, knowing the
empty nature of attachment, I know my motivation to benefit sentient beings
must supersede it.”