All people who compulsively drink, use drugs, or engage in dangerous activities do so to obtain some relief from the continuous background fear, lack, or emptiness that is a direct result of life as a thought-based identity (the ego).
An egoic identity is a false one because it is based on thought instead of consciousness, our natural state of mind. The egoic personality requires constant compulsive thinking to sustain itself.
Any life based on compulsive thinking will be dysfunctional and unmanageable. Such a life is characterized by recurring feelings of emptiness, lack, and fear. People often describe this condition as having “a hole inside me that can never be filled.”
As Eckhart Tolle puts it:
"When the thought forms of 'me' and 'mine', of 'more than,' of 'I want,' 'I need,' 'I must have,' and of 'not enough' operate, no possession, place, person, or condition will ever satisfy you. No content will satisfy you as long as your egoic identity remains in place. No matter what you have or get, you won't be happy. You will always be looking for something else that promises greater fulfillment, that promises to make your incomplete sense of self complete and fill that sense of lack you feel within. "
"The ego always wants something from other people or situations. There is always a hidden agenda, always a of "not enough yet," of insufficiency and lack that needs to be filled. It uses people and situations to get what it wants, and even when it succeeds it is never satisfied for long. Often it is thwarted in its aims, and for the most part the gap between "I want" and "what is" becomes a constant source of upset and anguish."
"The underlying emotion that governs all of the activity of the ego is fear. The fear of being nobody, the fear of nonexistence, the fear of death. All its activities are ultimately designed to eliminate this fear but the most the ego can ever do is to cover it up temporarily with an intimate relationship, a new possession, or winning at this or that. Illusion will never satisfy you. Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free."
The fact that almost everyone suffers from this condition makes it seem normal and allows it to go unquestioned.
Consuming drugs or alcohol or obtaining things in order to relieve this unhappy condition may bring temporary relief, but the activity must be continuously repeated. This sometimes leads to addiction.
Substance addiction is a direct result of compulsive thinking, which is itself an addiction. That's why any solution to the addiction problem must focus on the underlying thinking addiction. The “compulsion to use,” not the substance itself, is the cunning, powerful, and baffling engine that drives addiction.
This blog applies the insights concerning the true nature of thinking, as presented by Eckhart Tolle in his books The Power of Now and A New Earth, to the 12-step program as presented in the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous.
I think Tolle’s work sheds new light on the underlying forces of addiction. This understanding points the way toward new approaches to gaining relief--and new ways to prevent addiction from taking hold in the first place.
The 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous has brought about a spiritual renaissance in many individuals--myself included--leading them to a happy, joyous, and free existence. But many more alcoholics and other addicts have turned away from this solution because it is veiled in mystery and language that is sometimes obscure or religious.
Tolle's work has unraveled for me the 75-year-old mystery of how and why the 12-step program really works. I believe an accurate and clear description of the 12-step process and its results can only broaden the acceptance and increase the effectiveness of the 12-step program.
Showing posts with label Alcoholism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alcoholism. Show all posts
Friday, January 8, 2010
New Insight Into the 12 Steps
Early cultures learned to use certain plants for medicinal purposes without knowing the reason these particular plants were helpful or what active ingredients or compounds made them useful. Similarly, the 12 steps were collected and ordered over time, having been found to sometimes solve the alcohol problem.
Until recently, however, just how or why they work was unknown. Metaphorically speaking, when we rubbed them on the alcoholic wound, we sometimes found relief.
The teachings of Eckhart Tolle, as presented in his books The Power of Now and A New Earth, provide the wisdom to understand the alcoholic mind and why the 12 steps can provide a measure of relief from the alcoholism. With this new understanding, we propose to isolate the "active ingredients" in the 12-step program--and thereby increase its effectiveness.
The authors of the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous had no idea how or why it worked. Their attempts at explanation (see Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions) are largely deistic in nature a reflection of their deep fundamentalists Christian backgrounds. As a result, the program has often proved to be a difficult sell to non-Christians.
Given one additional piece of wisdom, I have no doubt the authors would have written a different--and more effective--book. That wisdom is simply this: that consciousness and thought are not synonymous. Thought, in fact, is a physical attribute and only a small part of our true selves.
At the time the Big Book of AA was written, it was generally held that thought was sacred and comprised our personalities. Most people were certain they were defined by their thoughts. The Big Book refers to the alcoholic as a person whose God-given instincts (thought and emotions) have gotten out of control. The authors believed that the application of the 12 steps corrected this defect.. They also believed that the elimination of the compulsion to take the first drink was miraculous.
We are not our thoughts, and the alcoholic personality (or any false, thought-based identity) cannot be repaired--only weakened by observation, meditation, acceptance, and presence in the moment. Any solution to the alcoholic problem that provides long-term relief from the compulsion to take the first drink is not a miracle, but rather the simple result of a reduction in compulsive thinking.
Until recently, however, just how or why they work was unknown. Metaphorically speaking, when we rubbed them on the alcoholic wound, we sometimes found relief.
The teachings of Eckhart Tolle, as presented in his books The Power of Now and A New Earth, provide the wisdom to understand the alcoholic mind and why the 12 steps can provide a measure of relief from the alcoholism. With this new understanding, we propose to isolate the "active ingredients" in the 12-step program--and thereby increase its effectiveness.
The authors of the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous had no idea how or why it worked. Their attempts at explanation (see Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions) are largely deistic in nature a reflection of their deep fundamentalists Christian backgrounds. As a result, the program has often proved to be a difficult sell to non-Christians.
Given one additional piece of wisdom, I have no doubt the authors would have written a different--and more effective--book. That wisdom is simply this: that consciousness and thought are not synonymous. Thought, in fact, is a physical attribute and only a small part of our true selves.
At the time the Big Book of AA was written, it was generally held that thought was sacred and comprised our personalities. Most people were certain they were defined by their thoughts. The Big Book refers to the alcoholic as a person whose God-given instincts (thought and emotions) have gotten out of control. The authors believed that the application of the 12 steps corrected this defect.. They also believed that the elimination of the compulsion to take the first drink was miraculous.
We are not our thoughts, and the alcoholic personality (or any false, thought-based identity) cannot be repaired--only weakened by observation, meditation, acceptance, and presence in the moment. Any solution to the alcoholic problem that provides long-term relief from the compulsion to take the first drink is not a miracle, but rather the simple result of a reduction in compulsive thinking.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)