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Article #197: Addiction And Spirituality - The Way Home

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






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