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