Spirituality, the opposite of Addiction. Part 1 - What is Self-Realization?


#1

This is going to be a bit controversial since spirituality is associated with religion or god, and in today’s society more and more individuals are starting to think that believing in God or following a religion is a sign of low intelligence or intellectual dishonesty. So if you’re an atheist, or agnostic, I sincerely ask that you read this completely with an open mind.

I don’t want to make this post too long so I’ll break it up into multiple posts.

To keep my backstory short, I’ll say that I was born into a Hindu religion, then later became an atheist, then an agnostic, then a born again Christian, and then an agnostic Buddhist. Looking back, I realize that my interest in spiritual wisdom always occurred whenever I tried researching about addiction recovery but I always maintained a healthy skepticism about the concept of god and the dogma of religion.
At the moment, I’d say I’m a spiritual seeker. Basically, I’m still an agnostic that’s open-minded enough to do my best and walk the difficult path of self-realization and possibly achieve enlightenment one day. I’m curious about this path nowadays because it sounds like it could lead to amazing results one day.

If you read, understand, and contemplate the following paragraphs, then you may be able to understand what this concept of self-realization is. This article series will offer you a new perspective on not just addiction recovery but also on the pursuit of happiness:

  1. This Body is not me, but mine; these thoughts are not me, but mine; my identity is influenced by the human experiences I’ve had so far but that’s not who I am; I am pure consciousness experiencing life in human form. For example, If I was an advanced robot with AI, and if I became self-realized, then I’d say that I’m not these nuts and bolts, or the AI software that’s generating these thoughts invoked via machine learning. The real me is the electricity powering this robot body and all other robots & machines out there; I’m just electricity having a robot experience.

  2. I came into this world without my consent and I was given a random body with a random hair color, skin color, name etc. I was randomly given the male body, but there was a 50% chance that I could have had a female body which would have completely changed my human experience. Based on the environment that I was born into, I acquired a unique set of knowledge about how to function in this strange world. I’ve felt many types of emotions based on the events that I’ve experienced via these 5 senses of this body (Touch, Sight, Smell, Taste, and Sound). The knowledge that I’ve acquired so far, and the experiences that I’ve had so far, has formed an ‘Identity’ or ‘Ego’. I am Pierce, I like these specific things, and I hate these other specific things; I have a specific set of behaviors, purpose, and goals in life because of the random events, and wisdom I’ve gained in my lifespan so far. But is Pierce who I really am? If all of my memories were erased right now, and I had to start over, would I still be the same Pierce after a few years?
    I highly doubt it because the information I accumulate and the experiences that I gain would be drastically different and therefore it would create a completely different personality, identity or ‘ego’. The only “me” that would be a constant, is the consciousness experiencing the human form, (the electricity experiencing the robot form).

  3. When I dream, the dream world feels real. In my dream, I don’t know how I got there and I seem to live my life within this dream as if it’s real without asking any questions. I endure the sufferings of life and the pleasures of life within this dream while the real me is in a different dimension laying on a bed in a dark room.
    But sometimes I have a lucid dream, a dream where I’m aware that I’m dreaming. When this happens, I’m happy and excited no matter how good or bad the dream world is because I KNOW! that this is just a dream, so I’m undisturbed even if this dream happens to be a nightmare.
    Similarly, what would it be like if you “wake up” within the waking life? What if this real world is a different type of dream? As if we’re in the matrix, How would you live in this world if you realized that you are Neo, you are The One?

To Be Continued…
(Credits: The Buddha & The Bhagavad Gita)


#2

Yes, we are all searching for meaning in our existence and time on earth. May you find what you are searching for and discover peace, joy and contentment along the way!