YOGA AND HEALING ADDICTION

Over the 20 years of practicing Yoga, the river's momentum of this profound science had taken over my life and has been picking up speed the closer I get to God ("Source/Divinity/Consciousness") within. Unveiling the shadows of the past, Yoga has and continues to transform the density of this level of darkness by lightening it for me on this journey of awakening and enlightenment. Addictions, that rule almost all of us, have been deconstructed and dissolved as they've transformed into my deep yearning for God and my willingness to surrender my attachments that have presented as the obstacles on this path to getting there, which is really within the embodiment of the moment - the now.

All addictions that are outwardly manifested as symptoms are symbolic representations of the inner struggle that we all face. It's just that some of us find outer means to satisfy an urge and deep longing that comes from a seemingly unending void. This void, or feeling of missing something or lack of completion, is the story that the ego tells itself in order to perpetuate its own existence as separate from God. It lives on suffering because it can not imagine being without it. Yet, once we discover this storyteller and "master of lies", we can begin to uproot it and become the phoenix that comes about through its ashes of transformation. For me, the outer addictions are no longer really as I have been contending with and observing the storyteller by challenging its belief system with the knowledge of that which is actually true, but can not be limited to words for its expression. These outer addictive patterns are being observed as returning to the source. Addictions aren't solely restricted to drugs, alcohol, food, or sex. They can also be simply an addiction to certain thoughts themselves which promote suffering and keep itself alive. This is how it progresses from gross to subtle and vice versa, in the sense that the thoughts we contain that build up too much inner pressure spills over into the outer versions of itself. In cleaning up the mess, because it can get messy (we all know it can) we have to return back to its source of where the drip began from.

In my process, following a 12 Step Program of sorts has resigned itself naturally as the path of Yoga had taken hold of me many years ago; in order to be delivered to following and living as close as I'm capable to the 10 Steps of the Yamas and Niyamas, the first one being most important which is Ahimsa (non-violence.) As I meander through the meadows of time and space, slowly witnessing the unraveling of consciousness that has never slept, I may encounter these aspects of thoughts that are struggling to survive and keep me separate from my true Self but compassionately I will offer even these untruths into the fires of consciousness where they can be dissolved and from their dissolution, they will emerge with lightness and light.

A feeling of wholeness has always been within this vessel and attached as roots to the beyond. There is no void here. There has never been. I simply had to forget for some time, only to come full circle to remember again. From here forth I continue to affirm the unspoken promise of my awakening that will lead towards my enlightenment. As the path of light increases with light it also picks up more speed but it never dissolves darkness, just the density of it. The path may still be filled with trials and tribulations, as this is just a necessary aspect of life, but/and I know that as long as I have my co-pilot of inner wisdom become the driver I will navigate more easily on this path. I may get tricked by this ego during its last breaths that are gasping for its survival but with compassion and forgiveness, this too shall pass. Everything does and everything passes more swiftly the more willing we are to let it go. It must all go, all the stories that we tell ourselves because none of it is real and none of it really stays permanently. This is the truth. Impermanence is truth and within this is where we sit in stillness like the eye of a hurricane.

I am humbled by this miraculous but obvious process that the universe so coyly slipped into this life. I can't help to know that on some deeper level that I, not my ego, called it in knowing this would be that which was designed to encourage Self-Realization (being that Yoga is known as the Science of Self-Realization.) I am grateful and humbled by life. Om Shanti