Everything in life is addiction. Man needs addictions. Man needs to be addicted to something in order to continue to live in his world of fantasies. If he is not addicted to something his dream will be broken. His addictions are just distractions from the cold reality. His addictions are helping him to live his fake, unaware, asleep life in a more bearable way.
As I travel around the world I can clearly see that man is always associating alcohol with having a good time. Every time when people are going out for partying they are literally obligated to drink alcohol. If you don’t drink you will look like a fool to them. Man is incapable to have a really good time without alcohol. He is not capable because alcohol is taking you to a different state of mind with some kind of blurriness of thoughts and actions, he is giving you a different perspective on things around you and without alcohol you can’t have that, or you think that you can’t.
It is the same with the cigarettes. They falsely calm you down and distract you from your daily thoughts. What about drugs. They have exactly the same effects just with more intensity. There is no basic difference between all toxicants, or the only deference is their intensity. Someone is smoking cigarettes, someone is drinking alcohol, someone is smoking cannabis, someone hashish, someone is injecting heroin, someone is taking cocaine, someone is swallowing ecstasies, etc. People are doing everything to stay unconscious, to stay asleep, and to stay unaware. All that junk is the same and there is no difference.
What if you are not taking any of these toxicants? Are you drinking coffee than? Or tee? What about chocolates? But these are not as bad as the previous ones. No, but as we said everything is in degrees or intensity. They are just very lighter form of the previous ones. (Do not take me literally here. Chemical components and the effects, on the body and mind, of these substances are totally different but here I am just correlating man’s attitude towards addictions).
Let say you are vegan and everything you eat is extremely healthy. You are in perfect health. There are no addictive substances in your body (which is not possible, because every substance in one way or another is addictive, only the intensity is different). What than? Are you jogging? Watching television? Playing games? Surfing on the Internet, writing on forums? Yes, for sure you are doing something. You have to do something. Well in that case you are addicted to something.
What about the emotions? Are you often angry? Than probably you are addicted to anger. For sure you are addicted to some type of emotion, or combination of emotions and you are doing everything that is in your power to provoke those emotions in you on a daily bases. You are just creating situations in your life to have some glimpse of those emotions.
The newest science discoveries are telling us that even the emotions are chemicals. When you are angry hypothalamus is producing a unique type of neuropeptide and every cell in your body is receiving that substance with their receptors. If you are angry to often, over years, your cells will modify them selves and they will have more of those receptors for that particular “angry neuropeptide”. That means your cells will become addicted to that particular “angry neuropeptide” in the similar way they become addicted to heroin. That means, subconsciously, you love to be angry.
So the final question is can you be free from addictions or is it important to be free from addictions? That is very debatable. In order to be free from addictions you have to be free from everything. You have to be aware in every single moment in your life. You have to be free from all limitations, free from all bondages, not asleep. You have to be enlighten (here by enlighten I refer to the eastern connotation of the word “enlighten”).
I am thinking of an experiment. What will happen if an enlighten man starts to take drugs? What will happen if some eastern guru, for the sake of the experiment, starts to take cocaine? We know that he is the master of his mind. He sees the ultimate reality, he lives his life with full awareness, he is the master of the masters and his life is meditation. His conciseness is like a mirror, reflecting back everything that receives.
So what will happen if this man starts to take cocaine??? He can’t escape the physiological process that will take place in his body. It is really scientifically known how this drug is taking effect on the nerve cells in the brain. His brain will be immediately polluted. And that will change his state of mind for sure and his consciousness will be changed or reduced. If that is the case that means enlightenment can be easily erased with a simple chemical substance.
The other outcome is that the brain will be polluted; mind will be shifted but enlighten one will be still aware about the process that is taking place in his body-mind. His outer appearance will be like he is on drugs, because he can’t escape the nature of the physiological process, but deep down he remains aware, he observes his state, the watcher is there.
What about taking drugs for years? He will become addicted and now the receptors of the nerve cells of this guru’s brain will be heavily damaged. He can’t escape that. His cells will become the most receptive for that particular drug. They will adapt. So what will happen with his enlightenment than? For that one we’ll have to ask an addicted enlighten man on drugs, if there is one.
Finally, it seems to me that in a one way or another, we are, for sure, addicted to something, even when we think that we are not. The question, whether is possible or not to stay alive, without any addictions, stays open for now.
