Leaving addiction as a spiritual path

Another way of looking at addiction is as a spiritual path.

This one is obviously not for everybody, and you need no openness to spirituality at all to get past an addiction. It is simply one more helpful way of seeing things, for those who respond to it.

To illustrate it, there is a parable attributed to Hinduism.

There was a time when men were gods, but they abused their divinity so badly that Brahma decided to take that power away and hide it. The gods gathered to decide where.

One god suggested: "Let us hide divinity deep inside the Earth." Brahma answered: "No, because man will dig and find it." Another said: "Let us sink it to the bottom of the deepest ocean." Brahma answered: "No, because man will end up exploring the sea floor and bringing it back up."

After long deliberation Brahma announced: "Let us hide divinity in the one place man will never think to look: right at the bottom of himself, in the depths of his own heart."

And ever since, the legend says, man has gone on digging the earth, diving the ocean and exploring space, searching for what is already hidden inside him.

That invitation to look inward is hardly unique to Hindu culture. It turns up everywhere:

• In the Christian gospels: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." — Luke 17:20-21
• In Buddhist philosophy: "Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without." — the Buddha
• In Islam: "The entire universe is contained within a single human being: you." — Rumi, Sufi poet
• In Stoic philosophy, going back to antiquity: "Men seek retreats for themselves — houses in the country, seashores, mountains — and you too are used to longing for such things. Yet this is the mark of an unlearned and unskilled man, when it is in your power at any hour you wish to retire into yourself." — Marcus Aurelius, emperor and Stoic philosopher
• Or in Taoism: "Without going out of your door, you can know the whole world. Without looking out of your window, you can see the way of heaven. The further one travels, the less one knows. Thus the sage knows without moving, recognises without seeing, accomplishes without doing." — Lao Tzu

Addiction, or compulsion, is exactly that human experience of searching outside — through a substance (sugar, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, medication) or a behaviour (gambling, sex, overwork, bingeing) — for a state of peace, wellbeing, freedom or confidence.

But once our addictions have worn thin, once they carry too many negative consequences for our lives, our state, our health, our days or our relationships, we are strongly invited — at least if we want a happy, healthy, fulfilled life back — to look inward.

As though the addiction had backed us into a corner precisely so we would finally turn towards our intuition, our felt sense, and everything that makes up that inner world. Some call it the soul; others call it the heart.

You could sum it up as our deepest truth, which can only surface if we listen carefully and patiently to whatever we feel — the only viable road, once we have thoroughly tasted the suffering that comes from avoiding ourselves.