y not asked: “One thing where I am stuck is emotional attachments. What is more, I cannot see myself letting go of those. Is this a very subtle form of greed?”
The best way to resolve this is to understand the meanings of Pali words for “greed”. There are very different levels of “greed.”
– Lobha is the highest form of greed. One can do “apayagami deeds” with lobha.
– Strength from lobha reduced to raga (kama raga, rupa raga, arupa raga) at the Sotapanna Anugami stage.
– All three levels of raga will gradually decrease as one makes progress. This is where there will be many different levels of loss of cravings for sensory pleasures.
– In particular, kama raga (craving for sensory pleasures) will be significantly lessened at the Sakadagami stage, and disappear at the Anagami stage.
– Rupa raga (loosely, cravings for sights and sounds) and arupa raga disappear only at the Arahant stage.
Therefore, there are different levels of “emotional attachments” corresponding to those levels of greed (loosely speaking.)
– For example, there is a Tipitaka account of a person who became an Anagami. He had four wives.
– After attaining the Anagami stage, he told the wives that he would consider them only as sisters and that they are free to find suitable husbands if they so desire. One wife left and married another man. The other wives told him that they will stay with him and consider him to be their older brother.
– The point is that he did not abandon the other three wives.
– But if he attained the Arahant stage, then it would be impossible to live with other women or even to stay a “layperson.” An Arahant needs to become a bhikkhu. An Arahant has no emotional attachments to ANYTHING in this world.