Addiction / Codependency

When we find ourselves looking for something outside ourselves -- anything -- to complete us, to make us feel whole and happy, what is the nature of this force within us? What kind of power compels us to move heaven and earth to find a way to fulfill ourselves in this way? The answer is surprising! We are driven on by our sense of being incomplete. None of us would feel this compulsion to co...

Topics covered: Real existence is being rooted in an awareness that doesn't pursue anything because it is already a part of everything; There is no addiction that doesn't begin with a sense of self that feels incomplete; In order to win the approval of others, we have to sell ourselves. Our sense of self is dependent upon exterior conditions; There is no fear without the fear of disappearing, without the fear of losing myself...

Topic: See This If You Would Be Free (Classroom Talk 7/3/24)

Topic: Escape the Unseen Prison of Painful Dependency (Classroom Talk 11/15/23)

Topics covered: How long do you want to live a life in which you can be carried off at any time, beaten up, and then released whenever your captor is done with you?; The beginning of the end of useless suffering is in seeing that, at present, you do not really know why you suffer. There is not one solution that you think you know that is going to save you; If you ever want to stop being thrown into a prison whenever conditions seem to conspire against you...

Classroom Talk: 11/15/2023 - No single substance -- whether physical, mental, or emotional -- creates an addiction, let alone the pain and conflict inherent in its corresponding dependency; rather dependency is the birthplace of all false solutions with which we first become identified, and then become addicted to... in the vain hope that it has the power to release us from a pain we have yet to understand, let alone resolve.