Attachments are our desires for people, things, pleasures, wrong views, life, the idea of the self as an individual, etc.
Attachments arise from delusion and lead inevitably to suffering. In our delusion, we do not understand cause and effect. Our past thoughts and behavior determine what we will receive in this lifetime. What we are destined to obtain will naturally come to us. What we are not destined to obtain, will either elude us or quickly slip through our fingers if we do manage to grasp it.
In our delusion, we do not understand the true nature of everything in our world, that all conditioned phenomena are impermanent and without an individual self. So, we cannot truly possess anything because all is impermanent: everything is in a state of change.
Our attachments lead us to have expectations, to see the world through rose-colored glasses. We then attribute qualities to people or things that they do not have. It is inevitable that these exaggerated expectations will not be met and when this happens, we become disillusioned and blame the person, object, and so on for our frustration, unhappiness, and suffering.
We can eliminate attachments by living simply and only asking for what we need. This will also enable us to conserve our good fortune. We can eliminate attachments through giving. When we can let go or give something away and do not think of it again, we have severed an attachment. We will begin to feel lighter and more contented. As our expectations are reduced, we will feel calmer and less subject to the whims of our emotions. Gradually, our purity of mind will increase.