Be fully aware and get rid of addictions

ADDICTION to anything is an unconscious or mechanical process. It is not just addiction to drinks or tobacco. It is addiction to even religion. People, who pray unconsciously and mechanically, following a routine, will find it very hard if they miss even one day’s prayer. For them, it is an addiction and so it causes anxiety when missed.

If we analyse the habit of drinking, we will understand how self-contradictory we are in this habit. Let me try to explain. We drink to feel joyful, but we end up becoming miserable. We drink so that we can be called sociable, so that society will accept us, but we end up becoming argumentative! We drink so that we will look sophisticated, but we end up looking insufferable. We drink so that we can sleep, forgetting all our worries, but we wake up feeling more exhausted than ever! We drink to experience ecstasy and end up feeling depressed! We drink to feel confident, but end up becoming afraid of ourselves. We drink to maintain the conversation, but end up becoming incoherent. We drink to see our problems dissolve, but end up seeing them multiply!

This is the truth and you know it better than I do! Now tell me honestly, is it really worth drinking?
Every time you drink, drink with complete awareness. Every time you drink, drink consciously, slowly, watching every movement of yours, tasting every drop of the drink, and watching the reaction of your body to it.

I assure you, if you do this every time you decide to drink, very soon, you do not have to drop the habit, the habit will leave you forever. Understand, I am not giving you the licence to drink. I am only saying, if you are struggling to drop the addiction, start your next drink with total awareness of every moment of drinking, and the habit will leave you forever.

The key is to understand the difference between doing things with awareness and doing things mechanically and out of fear. Doing things with awareness will never bring you under any sort of binding. It will not bind you in space and time. You will be a master. Doing things mechanically will bind you and cause you misery. You will be a slave.

To drop an addiction, flood it with awareness. It will transform in the right way. Never think that you need to drop an addiction, because anything that you resist will persist. You simply need to transform it through deep awareness.

Be Blissful!