REALIZATION AND ADDICTIONS, Part Two

[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.

REALIZATION AND ADDICTIONS, Part One

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.: First, thanks for writing. Next, it should be no surprise that some estimates suggest that close to 100% of all people on the planet suffer from the addictive personality to some degree, considering everything that persons can become addicted to—including alcohol, drugs, sex, shopping, spiritual programs, crack, computer games, gambling, eating, “love,” heroin, gurus, nicotine, work, power, religion, control, ad infinitum. The addictive personality is multi-faceted, and treatment often requires a plan that is holistic in its approach. Recent research proves that childhood trauma almost always precedes adult addiction, so treatment for PTSD is now included in the more comprehensive treatment approaches.

As for “Realization treating addictions,” the pointers offered on this site are not presented as a treatment for any illness or disease other than “The Disease of the Planet”: the corrupted consciousness. (Is the corrupted consciousness a major element of the addictive personality? Definitely.) That said, the content of many treatment plans for the addictive personality share some commonalities with the Advaita message. Why? Because addicts—trapped as they are in their particular personality—are exactly like the other persons on the planet who are also trapped in personality: all of them are almost always mistaken but never uncertain. In fact, all of them are quite sure that their thinking is "right" and that their beliefs are true and that their perspectives are clear when nothing could be farther from the truth.

So first, see that personality—including the addictive personality—is at the root of all personal problems. Furthermore, getting in touch with reality and being restored to sanity is common to both the Advaita teachings and to the treatment of the addictive personality (and the sane would never suggest that sanity can be restored merely by the asking). Also, both speak of regaining the ability to differentiate true from false; both speak of casting aside ideas, emotions and attitudes/beliefs; and both concur with the Advaitan poet’s advice, “To thine own Self be true.”

Also, the teachings contained in treatment plans and in the Advaita teachings are being offered to a similar audience, namely, those who lack awareness, those who have lost reason, and those who are staggering through this existence as a result of corrupted consciousness while (1) thinking they know exactly what they are doing and while (2) convinced that their perspective is totally accurate (when, in reality, it is totally inaccurate, twisted, warped, and distorted).

Furthermore, as with the Advaita teachings, many treatment plans for the addictive personality point out that ego / the false self / the phony “I,” is at the root of the selfishness, the self-pity, the self-destruction, the self-centeredness, and the self-absorption that typifies persons trapped in the addictive personality (which, again, includes almost every person on the planet). All of that attachment to self prevents being restored to sanity—to being in touch with reality—and prevents knowing the True Self and that which is beyond. Of course, “personality” is also common to those assuming false roles as well as to those ensnared in the addictive personality. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]