What are referred to in the Mahayana Buddhist literature as the “eight mundane concerns” or the “eight worldly dharmas” are, in fact, simply primordial levels of attachment that exist virtually as assumptions in our minds. This assumption is that I must get what I want every second, thus causing us to constantly crave happy feelings, getting nice things, hearing pleasant words with our name in them, and having people approve of us. Attachment can’t stand it when we get the opposite!