[Continued from yesterday]
FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 11 Feb 2007] “You mentioned today that 95% or more are addicted to something. Is it possible that Realization can treat addiction? I’ve tried off and on for years to cut back on my drinking, and a lot of what you talk about is what I’ve heard in treatment. Of course, a lot of it is different cause I’ve been told only a higher power can help me and you don’t seem to believe in Him.”
F.: Now, to expand on your comment that “of course, a lot of it is different cause I’ve been told only a higher power can help me and you don’t seem to believe in Him.” Yes, in the early chapters of the book which serves as the primary source for many treatment options, it is suggested that persons come up with their own concept of “the power” whereas Advaita suggests being free of all concepts. If you read to the end, though, that same source book reports that (even though words such as “Him” were used) most of the founders of that program considered “the higher power” to be an “inner resource.”
That "inner resource" is no different from what Advaita teachers call “the inner guru.” And what is that “inner resource / inner guru”? It is the consciousness which had been pure, which has been corrupted via programming and conditioning, and which can be re-purified if one completes all seven steps of the Advaita “journey” from (a) identification with the false “I” to (b) abiding as the Absolute. Of course the consciousness, if fully re-purified, sees "higher" and "power" as nothing more than concepts as well.
Have some who have completed that seven-step “journey” reported that they no longer use substances to escape since they no longer have anything to escape and since there is no longer an “escaper”? Yes. Have some who have completed that seven-step “journey” reported that they no longer use substances to try to cope since there is no longer any persona, any “one,” that is trying to cope? Yes. Those who are trapped in the addictive personality want to control; therefore, they seek power so that they can control. Have some who have completed that seven-step “journey” been freed of all of their illusions about “power” and “control,” which are nothing more than concepts rooted in myth and egoism and delusion? Yes.
So, can Realization treat addiction? Full Realization certainly frees personas from the master addiction of the planet (to control) and from the secondary addiction of the planet (to have power in order to be able to control). It certainly removes all identification with personality, including the false concepts that are rooted in the addictive personality. Since you have “tried off and on for years to cut back on” your drinking—and have evidently failed—you might be interested in taking the seven steps from the “I” to the Absolute and then find out for yourself/YourSelf what the result is. Or, you might not. So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Have some who have completed that seven-step “journey” reported that they no longer use substances to escape since they no longer have anything to escape and since there is no longer an “escaper”? Yes. Have some who have completed that seven-step “journey” reported that they no longer use substances to try to cope since there is no longer any persona, any “one,” that is trying to cope? Yes. Those who are trapped in the addictive personality want to control; therefore, they seek power so that they can control. Have some who have completed that seven-step “journey” been freed of all of their illusions about “power” and “control,” which are nothing more than concepts rooted in myth and egoism and delusion? Yes.
So, can Realization treat addiction? Full Realization certainly frees personas from the master addiction of the planet (to control) and from the secondary addiction of the planet (to have power in order to be able to control). It certainly removes all identification with personality, including the false concepts that are rooted in the addictive personality. Since you have “tried off and on for years to cut back on” your drinking—and have evidently failed—you might be interested in taking the seven steps from the “I” to the Absolute and then find out for yourself/YourSelf what the result is. Or, you might not. So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
