Obsession
"Humanity, which for so long has been involved in its great indulgences, its great conflicts, its great obsessions and addictions must now listen and look and pay attention without trying to falsely fortify itself and without trying to cast gloom and fear over everything."[1]
Directives
"You must manage obsessive tendencies. Replace them if you can with more beneficial activities. Shift your insecurity and your lack of stability, which drives your self-obsession, to focus on other things that are demanding of you. But they must be powerful replacements." [2]
"If you have been a person who has been obsessive or addicted to substances or other things, you must recognize that you have a compulsive-obsessive nature. And now you must manage that nature. You cannot make it go away. You cannot dissolve it by telling yourself that it is over. You cannot replace it with happy thoughts, or even with religious beliefs. You will have these tendencies ongoing. You cannot erase them, but you must learn to manage them. And management, self-management, is the issue here."[2]
Obsession as spiritual bypass
"Obsession in the realm of spiritual development, however, can be more difficult to confront and to undo because everything that is done here looks at the surface to be so edifying. But is it edifying? If spiritual practice disables a person from being able to participate effectively in life and takes them away from their fundamental responsibilities to such an extent that they become estranged from other people and estranged from their existence in the world, is this a healthy thing?" [3]
References
- ↑ The Great Waves of Change, Chapter 4: The Freedom to Move with Knowledge
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Freedom from Addiction and Obsession (January 23, 2009)
- ↑ Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 6: The Pillar of Spiritual Development
See also
Further study
- Freedom from Addiction and Obsession (January 23, 2009)