The root cause of addiction

The root cause of addiction is the refusal to face pain.

The root cause of addiction is the feeling that something is missing.

Addiction begins with the desire to escape from pain. To escape from boredom. To escape from the mundane. To escape from the present reality. To escape from the void. And this escape takes many forms. From eating to drinking to gossiping to alcohol to social media checking to porn to masturbation to drugs, each with a differing intensity. An escape from the present reality into a fantasy world or a pleasure sensation. And with each escape, a neural pathway is formed. And as this behavior is repeated, these pathways get stronger and deeper. And the brain stops producing its natural feel good hormones. And the feedback loop continues. This makes it even more painful to face the present reality and requires a larger dose of the addicting item to feel the same pleasure intensity.

To avoid falling into the trap of addiction, the only way is to refuse to escape from the present reality, no matter how painful it may be. Willingness to accept the painful reality and take refuge within is the only way out. In fact, treat suffering as a blessing in disguise. Do not try to escape the pain. Do not try to escape from your self.

Remain as you are enduring the present moment, no matter how painful. The only refuge is within. Stop seeking pleasurable sensations to kill the pain.

Yes, life is painful and filled with suffering and despair. No matter what your circumstance, suffering cannot be escaped from. Pain cannot be escaped from. Pleasure seeking is not the purpose of life.

Life can sometimes seem dull, boring, mundane, serious and lacking excitement. Sometimes, all that you desire is to escape the dullness and monotony. And this escape can take many forms. But invariably, the dullness returns. No matter how many times you try to escape it through pleasure and fantasy, the dullness always returns. And this can be depressing. And you might cry out in despair from the very pits of your soul. But this despair and dullness has depth. A depth that when followed through will lead you deep inside your self. Escaping into fantasy will not accomplish anything. It will only bring more misery.

Meaninglessness, despair and dullness may not be easy to endure. But the alternative route of escaping into fantasy is not a better option. In fact, in the long term, it only makes your misery worse.

Hence whenever despair strikes, just be with it. Look into it. Do not escape into fantasy.

If nothing, remember this. Mental health and sanity is the most valuable treasure. Sanity lies in facing reality head on. Mental health is freedom from fantasy. A pure mind is one with no fantasies. And this my friend is your best friend. It will never fail you.

Its strange but the way out of addiction is to seek pain instead of pleasure.

The Infinite

Let us consider a concept closest to the ultimate truth. It could be either of these words:

Infinite
Absolute
Unlimited
Final/Ultimate truth
God

The above could be considered as synonyms. We will use the term infinite. And begin with the existence of the infinite.

Infinite is that which is not finite. Hence, it is that which has no measure. It is that which liberates us from the finite and limited. It cannot be imagined, since imagination is finite. The infinite cannot be limited or finite. In fact, there is no scope for the existence of the finite within the infinite. Just like darkness cannot exist in the light. That which we experience as love here is but a shadow of the infinite love.

Can the infinite have a form?
The infinite can have no form, since any form is a limitation and finite. So, if the infinite has no form, how are we to know it or grasp it? And if it cannot be known, how then can it be of any benefit?

Although the infinite cannot be known as a form, its existence can only be absolute. The nature of the infinite must be that it is inescapable. Whether there is form or no form, the infinite remains as the infinite. So, is there that which is forever present? That which is unquestionable? That, by virtue of not being formed into anything remains forever untouched and absolute?

And who am I in regards to the infinite? What is my relationship to the infinite? Imagine that there is the form-less infinite and the innumerable finite forms. What is the relationship between them? Can the infinite have any relationship to the finite? Can the infinite give rise to the finite?

The infinite cannot give rise to the finite. Nothing finite can give rise to the infinite. And there cannot be two infinities. Thus, the infinite is self caused or self existent and cannot arise from something other than itself. Being self existent and uncaused, the infinite cannot give rise to the non-infinite or finite.

This leads to the conclusion that the infinite cannot co-exist with the finite. So, either there is no infinite or there is no finite. But it is absurd that there be no infinite, since the very starting point of our analysis was the existence of the infinite. Thus, it must be that there is no finite. Which brings us to the conclusion that there is only the infinite. And it has no form. So all forms are not real, but merely a reflection of the form-less infinite. And that infinite is God. Amen.

Goodness

It takes courage to be good. A fundamental goodness of heart is key to a trouble free life. Without goodness of heart, sharpness of intellect and depth of insight are of no use. In fact, it is preferable to have a good heart instead of a sharp intellect. Kindness trumps intelligence in the end. A good heart coupled with sharp intellect leads to clarity.

Gratitude

The biggest gratitude is just in being alive and experiencing life. Nothing else actually needs to be added to this. The simple fact of existence and being conscious is enough to be grateful Nothing else is needed. This is the holy realization.

Excerpt ~ Sam Sara

What an enlightened individual basically realises is that there is something fundamentally delusional about the way that most human beings think, and, by extension, experience themselves. This delusion is not intrinsic to our nature, but almost invariably seems to occur when human beings come together to form a community or society. This delusion, therefore, is basically ubiquitous among our species.

Before explaining the nature of this delusion, in order to give some foundation, I first want to describe as best as possible what reality looks like from the 'enlightened' point of view, which is how it is from the natural awareness of the human being, prior to the distortions created by thought. From the enlightened point of view, it is vividly apparent that existence is all one process. Now, the modern analytic philosopher would say that this is a meaningless statement, because we can only speak meaningfully about interactions between objects, not about what is common to all objects, but this is kind of the point.

What the enlightened individual realises is that there are no separate objects or entities, so we cannot actually speak meaningfully about the true state of affairs of the cosmos. What we call the universe is actually a single, integrated field of behaviour that cannot be fundamentally divided. What the individual previously believed to be a universe of discreet entities or separate events that, as it were, shove each other about, is seen to be one unified 'happening', which manifests itself as unique, but interdependent aspects. In other words, there is absolutely no real division between you and the tree outside your window. Both are merely different aspects of one seamless process, without other. When this is seen clearly, very basic and seemingly undeniable human axioms such as causality, determinism, and even individual free will, completely collapse.

The whole premise of causality is that this universe is divided up into discreet entities or events that act upon each other in a similar way that billiard balls do (the Newtonion model of the cosmos). If, however, we see that all phenomena are in fact different aspects of the same, unified process, then we also see that the universe is really just one big event, without prior cause, or ultimate effect. What appear to be discreet entities are really like waves on the same ocean, where each wave is an expression of the whole ocean. Similarly, the illusion of individual free will is founded upon the assumption that we are all independent islands of behaviour. Not so. In reality, every single one of us are unique aspects of one universal will, and our relationship to each other is rather like branches on the same tree. This is not, however, to say that we are all the puppets of an underlying will, as fatalists assume. This is still perceiving in terms of an illusory division between me 'in here' and the universe 'out there'. There is absolutely no real division anywhere. It's all one process.

What makes spiritual enlightenment (we could really use a new term; I nominate 'truth realisation') the ultimate and final insight is the realisation that, because everything is one, existence is, and always was, a done deal. It's all already complete, and there never was anything fundamentally to know, pursue, control, or hold on to, because these assumptions rest upon the delusion that there exists a knower or an agent separate from that which they are attempting to know or manipulate. All of existence, however, is really just the dynamic energy patterns of a single underlying principle, the purpose of which is simply to experience itself. The whole universe is really something like the symphony of one composer, or the dream of a single dreamer, that is fulfilled simply by the very fact of its own existence.

So, the delusion that human beings fall into is that, when we form communities, we confuse the world of language and symbols, which we use to communicate, with the universe as it is experienced directly, prior to thought. In our complete identification with language, which is really a way of dividing experience into cognizable chunks for purposes of control, we lose sight of the fact that experience isn't actually divided up in this way at all. Thus, what is actually a single field of behaviour, that all goes together, appears to us as a constant battle between fundamentally conflicting parts. For the most part, all that human beings are really doing in life is struggling to uphold the delusion of separateness at all costs, because the essence of power, of any kind, is the belief that what you're doing is something fundamentally distinct from what I'm doing. If we were to come clean on the fact that we are all actually just different aspects of one process, all our power structures would fall apart, because we could not legitimately praise or blame anybody for living the 'right' way, or the 'wrong' way. In short, civilisation as we know it would collapse. This is why the insight we call enlightenment has always historically been esoteric, and many have been chastised or even killed for trying to spread it. Nothing could be more undermining to authority than the realisation that we are all one process. It's the dirty, great elephant in the room of humanity.

If we see things in the correct way, however, we see that the idea of having power over the environment, or other people, is not only delusional, but completely absurd. What the fact that we are all one process really means is that your own deepest, unconditioned will is absolutely one and the same as the will of all other living things, because it all fits together, like pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle. If one individual tries to resist the dynamic of the whole, or beat the the rest of life into submission to his own personal ideas as to how things should be, he is not only in conflict with the world, but also with himself, which, of course, are really the same thing. Just like if one member of an orchestra tries to play louder than all the other members, through fear of not being heard, he ruins the whole orchestra, if one aspect of the universal whole tries to bend the whole to its own will, this only really serves to destroy everything. Yet, many human beings alive today are intent on doing precisely this, and it is for this reason that the species, and the planet as a whole, increasingly finds itself in such trouble.

In short, the enlightened individual is really only someone who has come clean about the truth which basically all of us spend our lives unwittingly trying to avoid. He doesn't learn some new, obscure truth, only 'unsees' everything that was already untrue. In other words, there is the falling away of what was always false, not the acquisition of something new. The truth is that this whole universe is one will, and so therefore all our individual attempts to control it, pin it, resist, or hold onto it, are not only futile, but magnificently absurd, like a dog chasing its own tail. We are a planet full to the brim of lunatics desperately trying to stick pins into their own ends, because we cannot stand the fact that we are all one process. Why can't we stand it? Because it means that we can't hold on to each other, or the world, because there is no 'I' that is fundamentally separate from that which I am attempting to hold on to. It is somewhat ironic, then, that in the end, it will be our attempts to control or save the world that will be what destroys it.

Fear of judgement

We fear social stigma more than even death. Fear of being inappropriately labelled by society is a deep fear. Fear of being perceived in negative light.

Thus, we are bound by the perceived judgement of society. We fear being negatively judged, no matter the reason, as though our survival depends on it.

Is it because we think that our survival depends on being positively perceived by others? Any thoughts? 

The invisible self (excerpt)

The outside world is a visible reflection of the invisible processes that defines a being. What defines a being comes from the invisible side of things, and what a being ultimately seeks is the one who is doing the definitions. It is only when the being will focus its attention upon the invisible within itself, that the being will nourish the one who is doing the definitions. Otherwise, the being only nourishes the definitions themselves, and thus gets caught up into their temporal states, rather than remaining one with it’s natural and eternal state as that which remains forever invisible.

To nourish the invisible side of ourselves is to nourish the eternal side of ourselves, for the invisible side is always present wherever and whenever we are. When we nourish the visible side of ourselves, we feed that which is temporal, not eternal. To do so constantly within a repeating pattern, generates mental vortices which sucks the attention of the being within temporal manifestations of itself, thereby placing the attention of the being upon that which will forever remain unstable. Those temporal manifestations are manifestations in the visible domain, of the constant interactions that exists between the visible and the invisible, in the macro and micro perspectives of the universe. Those interactions generates movement which is a direct manifestation of change for nothing visible can remain the same forever - the visible being forever modified by the invisible!!!

The same relationship is true in the human side of things as well, for it is true that for a human being, the constant interactions between the visible/sensed and the invisible/unsensed domains, generates the movement which is responsible for the experience of life itself. The constant cycle going from one state (invisible/unsensed) to the other (visible/sensed) and back into the one state (invisible/unsensed) again - repeat ad infinitum -, will generate the movement that is responsible for the vibrations of light/energy itself. For the goal of light/energy is to return to it’s invisible/unsensed state, to which it does cyclically at the rate of the plank unit of time, or at the smallest possible unit of time. At each time it returns to it’s invisible/unsensed state, light/energy releases the light/energy that it carried while on the visible/sensed state, into the invisible/unsensed domain. Through the release of that light/energy within the “invisible/unsensed domain”, that light/energy instantly dissapears from our 3d space-time continuum, and enters the realm of the invisible/unsensed continuum, so as to “pick” the information found within that realm and bring it back to the visible/sensed continuum.

Within the invisible realm, the light/energy gets impregnated with wathever information that is to be found at that specific moment within it. The light/energy returns to the visible/sensed domain - after the smallest possible unit of time possible, known as the plank time -, fully charged with what it has brought back from the invisible/unsensed domain. The light/energy releases that charge instantly within the visible/sensed domain, thus releasing the total expressions of the total impressions it has brought back from the invisible/unsensed domain. The invisible/unsensed domain imprints the light/energy with content/information that will be released within the visible/sensed domain at the next plank unit of time, or at the next “flash of light/energy” within the visible/sensed domain. Each time the light/energy flashes it’s contents/informations - coming from the invisible/unsensed domain - within the visible/sensed domain, the visible/sensed domain is updated. After this moment, the light/energy returns back into the invisible/unsensed domain in order to generate the next generation/iteration of the visible/sensed domain for the being to experience. This process is never ending but to resume, the visible/sensed domain is the space where the imprints received from the invisible/unsensed domain, carried within light/energy, are released, while the invisible/unsensed domain is the space where the packets of light/energy are imprinted and charged by the contents/informations found within the invisible/unsensed domain.

The visible is made true when we perceive ourselves through the senses, which doesn’t specifically equate to our sight. Our senses gives us specific information about specific wavelengts of the light/energy. Those specific wavelengths of the light/energy, gives specific information to those specific areas of the brain which can detect those specific wavelength of the light/energy. For some areas of the brain, those differenciated wavelengths are detected as sight. For others, they are detected as sound, as smell, as taste or as touch. The common denominator within them all, is that they are all different interpretations of the same light/energy. A light/energy which exists, forever in a constant relationship with the invisible.

It is at the moment where the invisible meets the visible side of things, that the present is made true. The Now is the constant manifestation of this process throughout eternity. It is only in the Now that the invisible side of things comes into direct contact with the visible side of things, for it is only in the forever changing Now, that the invisible is made true.

What a being seeks, is to reunite itself with the invisible side of things, for the eternal being EXISTS within the invisible side of things, not the visible. This is demonstrated through the simple fact that the one who is doing the thinking remains forever invisible - the “visible being”, being only temporal manifestations of the “invisible being”. The invisible, in and as itself, can never be demonstrated, for as soon as it is, it’s essence changes into something new. Every new other things will forever come and replace every demonstrations of the invisible as a thing, thus rendering every demonstrations of the invisible as a thing to be forever false witnesses of the invisible as no thing.

The only true witness of the invisible is the invisible itself in action. And that invisible is the subjective side of a being.

To seek ourselves into the visible, is to seek the source of ourselves within what we are not. We are not the visible, for the visible is a temporal manifestation of the intemporal being that we seek, and is thus not the being that we are. That being is the eternal being of which we are truly and forever one with - we are forever one with it for we are forever one with the invisible side of things -, for we are the invisible being which forever processes the visible into something new. The being that we seek exists as the invisible side of a being, and the invisible side exists as the inner subjectivity of a being. However, the paradox is that the invisible side of a being is and cannot be limited or expressed through words for what it truly is, and therefore, cannot truly be expressed through words, for as soon as it is, it loses it’s attribute of invisibility, thus it loses it’s true nature/meaning as it is expressed. A word or a series of words can only point into the direction where the invisible exists within a being, but can never portray what the invisible is in and of itself.

We process the visible through us constantly changing it within the invisible side of ourselves. For it is within our invisible side that the processes of evolution, or the processes of change through transformations, occurs. These transformations are absolutely necessary, for the invisible is absolutely necessary, and for the invisible to be forever true, change has to be forever true. If change was somewhere, somewhat not true, then it wouldn’t even be possible to entertain any ideas upon existence. We wouldn’t exist. The only way for this absolute necessity to be true, is for the visible to change constantly through a process of evolution/”equilateral additions” that operates in the visible and invisible side of things. Everything changes constantly, but only at different rates. The invisible is the space within a being where the visible transforms itself into something new. It is the invisible space where the invisible creator as ourselves, modify the visible universe by transforming it so as to change, evolve and create the ever changing visible universe that we experience.

To try to put it more bluntly, the "invisible" that is referred to here is the aspect of a being which remains forever "invisible" to the being itself. It is the part of a being which is forever observant of the being and it's many manifestations - yet never to be observed. It is the part of a being that is never able to be seized, for it is the observer who forever observes that which the being expresses and receives. It is the inner realm from within which a being is placed and observes reality. It is the mental bubble that shields the sense of self from anything which surrounds it. In other words, it simply is the domain from within which the "presence" of a being operates. A domain which can never be fully seen or fully realised.

As an example, I, on one hand, cannot fully express all that I am within myself to any "observer" who "observes" the words that are being presented of me here. For whatever I am in full, cannot be completely expressed through the limiting constructs of the words that I choose. For who I am truly, is unlimited, and the unlimited cannot, in any circumstances whatsoever, be limited to a construct which is limited within and as itself (a construct such as a word). What I am and what I try to express of my being here, is the "observer" who will forever be found within the stance of the "observer", and not the stance of the "actor". Hence, whatever is seen of my expression here is related to the "actor" aspect of my being for the "observer" - you - who observes the words that I express. This is so simply because of the fact that my expression is "observed" through the words that I express or "act" out, whereas the "observer" can only be inferred within those words and not actually expressed as those words. Those words are the expressions of the "observer" acting itself out, thus they are the "actions" of the "observer" and not the "observer" itself. The words that I express here are not to be identified with the "actor" figure, for it is not the "actor" that I am trying to convey, but the "observer" who remains forever invisible behind the actions of the actor.

The "observer" is the permanent aspect of ourselves, as it will forever be a witness to all that will happen to ourselves, as well as to all that we will create and destroy. It is the invisible part of ourselves that remains forever permanent as the source and recipient of all of our experiences. It is the unchangeable, unmoved and forever observant aspect of ourselves which forever processes the informations that the senses brings back to it's awareness. It is invisible for otherwise, it would stop being what it is, which is "the observer" - or the "universe itself" experimenting itself through each and every one of us, yet never to be contained within any one of it's expressions. The "invisible" is only such from our limited perspective of all of reality, for whatever is now seen as being "invisible" is in fact "full of information", just as the "invisible observer" is "full of information" from the perspective of the one doing the observations ( for example: I as the observer of these words, am full of information, related or not to the subject at hand - either it being the information of what I did yerterday or the information of what I learned when I was in college -, even if I as the observer remains forever invisible).

It is not because something is invisible that it lacks information or content, for even the notion of invisibility itself contains a complete set of information that seeks to be discovered. That which is invisible contains information that is seeking to be known, just as the observer seeks to know itself through the information that it contains.

In simpler terms, the « invisible self » here is the « self » which is simply « forever present » just as the « forever present self » which is « currently present within you » as you read these words ! That self which is "currently present" within you, is that same self that I am talking about here, and not the self that you « perceive » yourself to be from within the self-limiting constraints/prisons of your thoughts. For you see, those selves (thoughts) are created out of the « temporal visions of self » that you have constructed as parts of your self within your minds. Yet, the true self is never to be found within them, for they are it’s temporal manifestations, not it's intemporal and all permeating one. The true self that is sought is intemporal in nature, thus it can only be found within the intemporal in itself.

That intemporal is that part of yourself which is forever invisible, for it is only the invisible self that has the ability to permeate all parts of existence. If that self were to be visible, it wouldn’t be able to « permeate all of existence », or all "moments of time", for it would be limited to the « visions/memories » it had of itself. Whatever the self is truly, is « not a vision » whatsoever, for it is that part of self which is forever « present » throughout all images/moments (visions/memories) that are reflected back to self in the Now moment. For it is the only part of self, which is never attached to any of those passing moments. Being « forever present » as your true self, such as the one who is reading these words at this very moment ! The self that i am « suggesting », wheter you are thinking about it or not, is « forever present » as your true self, and that « forever present self » can only be so through complete invisibility, such as the « invisible self » that is to be found within you as you read these words.

Wheter you want to or not, there is no escaping that « invisible self » for it is the « forever part » of you ! It is the part which never separates from you, for it being forever present such as the « present self » that you are at this particular moment in time… and this one… and this one… and the next one after that one… ad infinitum !!! Even when the last « images of self » will have dissapeared, the "invisible/present" self, will still be present. There is no escaping the invisible self since nothing can become it - nothing can become the invisible self - and you cannot escape that which hasn’t yet begun to become something, for such a thing is simply not there to begin with. It can never become something thus it can never end, for it has never even begun being something (what has an ending MUST have a beginning. Since the invisible self has no beginning, for if it had it wouldn’t be invisible, than it implies that it has no end as well – being thus the eternal and intemporal « you » which forever experiences your reality as you go along in all and every "Now" moments that you experience).

Since nothing can become the invisible self, and by « nothing » i mean « absolutely everything » that the « mind » can conceive of in place of that « nothing », and since the invisible self is « Now true » (it is in fact true that you have « Now » an invisible self within you, which is the invisible self who is narrating these words in your invisible mind at this invisible moment within you), it thus means that the only thing which is true across all times and epochs, is the invisible self !!! For the invisible self is forever true if it is « Now » true (the "visible-self" is "Now" "forever-false" because of being the "forever-dead/past-image-of-Now" relative to what the "Now" is at this particular moment in time, as experienced by the "invisible-self", while the "invisible-self" is "Now" "forever-true" because of being the « forever-alive/present-expressions-of-Now » in all of the "Now" experienced by the "invisible-self")!!! The invisible self is the only true part of self, for it permeates all times and epochs that is experienced by self. It is the only aspect about the « Now » which is forever true in all manifestations of the « Now » (the "invisible-self" is "forever-true" Now, because the "invisible-self" is true for every Now experienced by the "invisible-self" !).