| There is a time and place in which the soul begins | | | | takes place through the ability of addiction to |
| to seek a path of return to its lost home, and, | | | | grant a temporary feeling of satisfaction, then the |
| finding the way blocked or invisible, yearns once | | | | original impetus to find a spiritual solution to a |
| again for the sense of peace and love that it | | | | basically spiritual dilemma is lessened. In such |
| remembers as having been part of its deepest | | | | instances the soul must often wander far down |
| longing. In that moment of time, when the soul | | | | the pathways of illusion before it discovers that |
| turns toward the sun of its longing seeking | | | | the promise of peace and of satisfaction that an |
| remembrance and reunion, seeking the sense of | | | | addictive substance or process seems to give is |
| peace and completion that it believes is possible, a | | | | an illusion. It discovers that there is often more |
| significant step toward the light of Spirit is taken | | | | pain involved than satisfaction, and that the |
| and the soul will never be the same again. | | | | emptiness, in any case, never really goes away. |
| At the same time, if the yearning for home is not | | | | Some who choose this alternate route for easing |
| realized by fulfillment, if the spiritual longing finds, | | | | a hunger of the soul continue a very long time in |
| instead, an emptiness of heart and a lack of | | | | a state of illusion, until broken, desperate, and |
| response to its prayer for reunion, it can become | | | | despairing, they return with empty hands and an |
| disconsolate and greatly sorrowful, so much so | | | | empty heart to face the source of the problem. |
| that it gives up that which it has set its heart | | | | Others, who see more clearly or who are able to |
| upon, and instead turns to other means by which | | | | bear pain with greater courage, find that the path |
| to fulfill its desire for peace and for the essence | | | | of addiction is a path of illusion and seek a change |
| of tranquility which can only be produced by the | | | | of direction and movement shortly after having |
| light. | | | | embarked upon it. |
| These are the conditions under which addictive | | | | The problem for many who embark on this road |
| processes take place within the human psyche. | | | | out of spiritual longing and out of a nameless pain |
| They emerge from the condition of perceived | | | | that seems impossible to ease by any other |
| separation from one's point of origin and spiritual | | | | route, is that there is no easing of the underlying |
| home, and arise when the deeper longing of the | | | | cause of the pain except by continuing to |
| soul still struggling to emerge within the human | | | | incorporate more and more of the addictive |
| self, seeks its way back to the point of its | | | | substance, relationship, or process. This is true not |
| Source and origin. | | | | only because the physiology of addiction prompts |
| They do not arise before this, because before | | | | this kind of accelerated usage in order to maintain |
| this the embodied soul is fully engaged with life on | | | | the same effect upon consciousness, but also |
| the material plane. It is engaged both from the | | | | because underneath it all, the awareness of one's |
| standpoint of seeking mastery and a sense of | | | | own emptiness still and always remains. Addiction |
| physical comfort and fulfillment, and in the sense | | | | represents the desperation of the hopeless and |
| of fascination with the many arenas of earthly | | | | the yearning who, with a sense of desiring to |
| learning and pleasure that are both sensory and | | | | save themselves, seek a way out of their |
| spiritual - though the latter quality may be | | | | dilemma by turning to a source which seems to |
| unknown to the self that pursues them. When the | | | | offer a possible way. |
| soul begins to find these pleasures and this | | | | In the end, all addictive process whose origin is |
| mastery no longer sufficient to quiet the yearning | | | | the state of separation that the embodied self |
| that grows within the heart and the deeper levels | | | | experiences from God and from its true self, |
| of being, then the soul begins to lose hope that | | | | must be healed by finding its way back to the |
| the life of the physical plane will be able to grant | | | | center of this dilemma - to the source of its own |
| the satisfaction that it longs for. Instead, it may | | | | pain. When this can occur in a more authentic |
| seek a substitute gratification that it hopes will | | | | way, that is, when it is recognized that it is |
| steadfastly and surely be able to grant the kind | | | | spiritual hunger that is fueling the craving for a |
| of peace and soul-fulfillment that is desired. | | | | substitute and illusory peace rather than a real |
| Fundamentally, turning toward addiction is a | | | | peace, then, and only then, can the spiritual |
| spiritual act. However much it may be fueled by | | | | enlightenment of the embodied self begin in an |
| conditions of poverty, need, emotional instability, | | | | authentic way. |
| immaturity, or any other psychological variable, | | | | Today, the problem of addiction and its spiritual |
| the replacement of the soul's yearning for | | | | underpinnings can be viewed in a new light. |
| completion and peace with a substitute is an act | | | | Because it is the time now of increased spiritual |
| of spiritual seeking that has taken a turn away | | | | light upon the earth, the underlying truth of |
| from its true destination toward an alternative | | | | addictive process can more easily come to the |
| destination. This is an act that is both an effort to | | | | embodied soul, bringing with it greater clarity |
| resolve a spiritual dilemma, as well as an effort to | | | | concerning inner motivations, longings, and |
| grant immediate release from the pain of having | | | | formerly unconscious states. As a result, it is now |
| to wait for a more authentic source of realization. | | | | more possible for the healing of addiction to rise |
| The difficulty in waiting for what one longs for but | | | | beyond the level of psychological and physical |
| cannot yet have, and the emptiness that occurs | | | | forms of treatment that have proven effective in |
| in the presence of the heart's longing that neither | | | | recent decades, but only to a certain degree, to a |
| mind nor senses can satisfy - these are the | | | | new and higher level of healing. |
| dilemmas of the embodied self that seeks relief | | | | Now, it becomes possible for all addiction to be |
| from longing and a way of resolving the problems | | | | revealed in its true essence as a spiritual action |
| of time and of waiting. If the process of choice | | | | designed to answer a need that it was believed |
| were engaged in more consciously, with greater | | | | could not be answered in any other way. With |
| awareness of what truly was being sought, it is | | | | this longing exposed to the light of awakened |
| likely that many more who turn to addictive | | | | consciousness, there is hope, today, that what |
| substitutes could find within themselves the | | | | has been a widespread and pervasive problem in |
| courage to wait through a period of pain and of | | | | both advanced and underdeveloped nations will |
| emptiness. But the choice before the embodied | | | | have the chance of being healed in an equally |
| self is rarely that conscious. And although a | | | | widespread way at a core level. This new |
| spiritual longing exists at its foundation, this longing | | | | possibility comes out of the increased capacity of |
| is often not even dimly recognized by the | | | | the human body and psyche to touch its own |
| conscious, experiencing self which only seeks an | | | | spiritual depths in ways that were not possible |
| end to its pain - the pain of emptiness and the | | | | before. With this contact, the phenomenon of |
| pain of loss. | | | | addiction can, in time, disappear as a solution to |
| When it is discovered through use of addictive | | | | the problem of the soul's longing, and a new step |
| substances, relationships, or habits of any kind | | | | can be taken toward the soul's true destination - |
| that a kind of numbing of pain and of distress | | | | the path of return toward its spiritual home. |