Book person

I'm such a book person. In fact I've even visualized myself in an Earth School for subtle spirits, accessing books in the library that show moving pictures, which are alarmingly similar to books in Harry Potter movies.

I've even made a list of life changing books, in the order that I read them, to capture my progress through time. I'll post that later. My favourite is Celestine Prophecy of course. I also like the Seat of the Soul, written by Gary Zukav. This uncommon literature shows us why and how addictions start.

It also shows us how we can use our internal power and knowledge to rise above the addiction.

Combined with Chakra Handbook knowledge, and information from the book Getting the Love You Want, by Harvielle Hendrix, this makes for a huge piece of insider information. The whole world needs this now - including me. If we have this knowledge of how addictions start and can be stopped it would change everything.

Let me try to capture the essence:

1. Even a constant need to eat sugar or sweet things is an addiction.

comments: I have almost gotten rid of my sugar cravings. Prabhupada has quoted several times that excess sugar is an intoxicant. If anyone needs proof - I can email the list of bona fide comments. He kept mentioning how ants love sugar and can literally go to great heights to obtain a grain of sugar . They're ready to travel as high as a sky scraper just for one grain of sugar; because ants love to get intoxicated on it.

I used to get sugar cravings and satisfy them by binging on sweet food. Eventually, as with all types of addictive substances, the "kick" I got out of sugar would subside, and I'd be left feeling empty again. My blood sugar would drop, and I'd lose my "high" energy state, unable to function normally. Of course, I'd keep getting angry as a result. And why that's so obvious is explained by Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield.

2. Every addiction works on the principle of providing less "feel-good" every time for the same dosage. To experience a longer, stronger, high; one has to increase the dosage regularly.

comments: Over time, I had to increase my "dose" of sugar abuse to get the same high as before. My body was getting tolerant to the same dose, it stopped making a difference. I had to increase my doses to feel the same way as before.

3. Addictive substances force the body to feel good. Eventually, the body loses its ability to produce naturally those chemicals that give us a sense of being happy. We become dependent on the chemicals of the addictive substance to keep us happy and anxiety-free.

4. The solution is not in supressing or avoiding or guilt-tripping or any other such method.

comments: I tried to convince myself, look the other way, tie my hands, scold myself, feel like a criminal, pray, hope, beg, confide, and what not. But none of that worked. Obviously. The root was something else.

5. Everyone needs a healthy aura. Events related to beating, fighting, scolding, humiliation, insulting, cheating, hating, abandoning, blah... cause ruptures in the emotional subtle body. People lose energy from their wounded emotional bodies all the time because of events in the past.

6. These open wounds lose so much energy that a person literally needs constant transfusion to survive. The addiction provides that transfusion, providing a high, and rescuing the person who is constantly losing energy. Temporarily the person can feel powerful, energetic and happy while the substance is flowing in their system.

7. So to close these wounds one must go into childhood and subsequent times when wounds were caused.

8. And the wounds have to be healed.

By using the space of the time to decide between the occurence of an event and our reaction to it, we can choose our reaction to any event in a knowledgeable and responsible way (Read Stephen Covey - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). Thus our response chooses the path of love over hatred, compassion over envy, pity over anger, etc. and our wounds heal, now that our behaviour has changed for the better.

This anartha removal, and becoming responsible, can be best understood by referring to Jack Canfield's How to get from where you are to where you want to be. Read the first principle - Take 100% responsibility for your life.

9. Once the wounds heal, the natural ability to the be happy and joyous removes the need for any transfusion/ addiction.

I've practically used this information in my life, and I love this knowledge.

Its not extra chanting, or extra dancing, singing, reading, association, etc. that will help.

All those things are means to get the information about what we need to do to become alright again. We chant - Krishna gives realizations in the form of thoughts. We read, again the same thing. We associate with devotees - they give us clues about the real issues. All these are means - not the end. Association does not solve problems - using the information gathered via association solves problems.

If we know our imago - an image of us - as defined by Harville Hendrix in Getting the Love you Want, we can use that imago information to heal ourselves.

When all anarthas, past misgivings, are gone, the body becomes whole again, complete. Without external needs, it becomes self sustaining. Nothing can then hold any power over us. We become powerful from within, and stop perceiving power as external.

I wish I could tell everyone about this. I wish everyone could help themselves the way Krishna has helped me help myself. In the end, all we need, is a desire to get out of our messes. And help comes.

My love to each spark of divinity that needs rescuing.