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Overcoming Addictions
By Deepak Chopra, MD
Most human behavior is nothing other than the avoidance of pain and the
pursuit of pleasure. Whenever we experience an event, whether it’s a
visit to the dentist or going on a joyride at the carnival, our
consciousness registers that experience internally on a spectrum with
great pain at one end and extreme pleasure at the other. Once
completed, the memory of that experience is tagged to either pain or
pleasure, and it continues to exist in our body-mind.
Memory is useful because it gives us a sense of continuity. But memory
is also imprisoning because it conditions us in predictable ways. The
great yogi Lord Shiva said, “I use memories, but I do not allow
memories to use me.” We have to use memories; otherwise we wouldn’t
find our way home. When we use memories, we are creators. But when our
memories use us, we become victims.
Are you ready to step out of the prison of memory and conditioned
responses into the experience of freedom? If so, then observe your
addictive behaviors without judgment. Addiction is the number one
disease of civilization, and it’s directly and indirectly related to
all other diseases. Besides physical addictions, such as the addiction
to food, tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, there are psychological
addictions, such as the addiction to work, sex, television, shopping,
appearing young, suffering, anxiety, melodrama, perfection.
Why are we addicted to all these things? We are addicted because we are
not living from our source; we have lost our connection to our soul.
The use of food, alcohol, or drugs is essentially a material response
to a need that is not really physical at its foundation. Drunkenness,
for example, is really a forgetting of personal memory so we can
experience the joy of the non-personal, the universe. What we are
looking for is pure joy rather than mere sensation, or even oblivion of
sensation. Self-destructive behavior is unrecognized spiritual craving.
All addictions are really a search for the exultation of spirit, and
this search has to do with the expansion of consciousness, the
intoxication of love, which is pure consciousness.
Over and over, people have tried to overcome their addictions through
psychological and behavioral methods or through medication. None of
these offers a permanent cure. The only cure for addiction is
spiritual. We hunger for the ecstatic experience, which is a need as
basic as the need for food, water, or shelter. Ecstasy, or ek-tasis,
literally means stepping out. True ecstasy is stepping out of the
bondage of the time-bound, space-bound world of materialism. We long to
step out of the limitations of the body. We long to be free of fear and
limitation. We hunger for the oblivion of our ego so that we can
experience our infinite Being.
When the ego or the image of the self overshadows the unbounded Self,
we feel cut off or disconnected from infinite consciousness, our
source. This is the beginning of fear, the onset of suffering, and all
of the problems of humanity, from our minor insecurities to our major
catastrophes, such as war.
Start today to transcend your addictive behaviors by observing them
without judgment. Wake every day with a prayer: “Thank you, God, for
making me just as I am,” and then observe yourself. Be a witness to
your thoughts, your moods, your reactions, your behaviors. They
represent your memories of the past, and by witnessing them in the
present, you liberate yourself of the past. By observing your addictive
behaviors, you observe your conditioning. And when you observe your
conditioning, you are free of it, because you are not your
conditioning; you are the observer of your conditioning.
Observe the silence between your thoughts, actions, reactions, and you
will feel the presence of spirit in the stillness of those spaces. In
the mere observation of yourself, you begin the process of healing and
transformation. And if you keep practicing ever-present awareness of
your own self, then insight, intuition, and imagination will begin to
blossom.
People have asked me, “If the universe is so elegantly organized and we
are born with all this human potential and creativity, then why are we
so ignorant?” Well, if we were already enlightened, there would be
nothing to do. It’s a process. If we occasionally succumb to our
addictive behavior, understand that this, too, is part of the process.
We may keep falling, but we can always get up and continue on our
journey.
No matter how hysterical your environment appears to be, remain alert
and sober in your ever-present witnessing awareness. Resolve not to get
drawn into the melodrama around you. Remind yourself, I am neither
superior nor inferior to anyone who exists. Saint or sinner, the spirit
that resides within me is the divine spirit. It has taken on a certain
role in this lifetime; it has taken on other roles in other lifetimes.
I honor the divine spirit in myself and in all beings as holy and
sacred no matter what role it is playing.
None of us are the roles we play. By recognizing this truth, it is
easier to forgive all perceived transgressions. We don’t feel compelled
to label, evaluate, analyze, or judge ourselves or others. When we have
no need to label or judge, it’s easier to relinquish the desire to
control and manipulate others.
In this very moment, we are all surrounded by a field of pure
consciousness. Pure consciousness illuminates and animates our mind and
body, and it is powerful, nourishing, invincible, unbounded, and free.
By knowing our true nature, it is possible to go beyond suffering. When
we go beyond suffering, we help others go beyond suffering. As we
continue on our journey of healing, we help others to heal. And we can
start to heal by observing our addictive behaviors without judgment.
Once we find our true self, once we become whole, the only intoxication
we have is the intoxication of pure consciousness, pure Being.
Published by Permission of Amber-Allen Publishing, Inc., San Rafael, California
Deepak Chopra, author and world
lecturer is a world renowned leader in the fields of holistic health
and human potential. Chopra is the Founder and Executive Director for
The Chopra Center at La Costa Resort and Spa. Visit his website at: www.chopra.com
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