I don't know much about Buddhism but to answer your question about what Attachment/non-attachment means to me I thought i would share that the quote under my username expresses my hope that I might attain a certain degree of non-attachment to things. I suspect that there will come a time in my life that we as a family start to live even more materialistically comfortably that we are now. I have a strong urge to curb the desire to create a perfect material world around me. Being a very visual person i love beautiful objects but i do feel guilty about this. Intuitively i feel that materialism is a very charismatic thing... and something that will never be satisfied... you can so easily get so attached to stuff that it can become the whole reason for living... I know this but...

Anyhow when i read this quote (the Aboriginal one) in a magazine recently (Frankie) it struck a deep and resonate chord. I really do want to seek knowledge over and above 'stuff'. I want to value it more than stuff and spend more money on acquiring knowldege than stuff... how many people do this?

Ideally I want to maintain the (i think) more innocent mindset that I had as a child... not having any other resources than art supplies, I had to MAKE something beautiful if i wanted it.... instead of buying it. And in making something of beauty you engage in a journey of knowledge... the end product (the drawing etc) is good... but the process was just as valuable. To me it seems that these days people are attaching themselves to objects without undertaking the journey... a bit like a teenager who is given a Porche for his 18th birthday... I think there is something to be said for the process of striving and problem solving that comes with acquisition... the end product is good but the journey that it took to get there is actually what's important to the soul. So... I don't know maybe Buddhism advises that you detach from "stuff" in favour of focussing on the journey? In Christianity you might compare this to "don't worship false gods"... too many people in Western society worship stuff and in the process lose sight of what is truly valuable. I think the Buddhist message is a very important one.

This is just my thoughts on Attachment to material things... I have some less formed ones about attachment to people but I'll have to organise my thoughts about that a bit better i think.