Looking in and the root of it all (a serious read)

Hello everyone

I certainly do not know the answer to this great problem of addiction, as you can see by my day counter. But this has been an ongoing thing for a long time now and something has crossed my path that I think is very interesting and worth looking into. So if you care to read then let's go into this together.

The problem with knowledge is that it will always be limited, This is because knowledge is only ever based on the past. We can never know everything about something and to claim that we do is an illusion. So we can read all we like about the science of addiction, the causes and how to break free from it, but this will not get us to the root of the problem. Pause for a moment and think about how knowledge comes to be...

The root of it all goes beyond knowledge and into the realm of absolute understanding. Knowledge and understanding are not the same thing. Let me explain what I think is going on. Our senses are the very centre of our brains and it is from our senses that we interact with the world around us. The senses are a bridge between the body and the mind. So if you look very closely, you will see that an outside trigger (porn for example), triggers a sensation within the body. The mind then feels this sensation and remembers it through a past experience as something that brings intense pleasure. So memory is involved in this too. Memory which is knowledge is getting in the way of the sense itself and creating a craving. Please try this for yourself, it is not about agreeing or disagreeing, it is about observing this for yourself. Watch what is happening inside your body the next time you experience a trigger.

The next bit is where it gets a bit tricky because of the issue of CONTROL. This forum is full of people (myself included) who have been trying so hard to control their senses. It is our senses that are controlling us. So this idea of trying to control it in return is silly and self destructive. We cannot control what is controlling us and our senses will be there until we leave this body behind. Again please pause for a moment and see if you can observe this fact... So what do we do now? We cant control it because that only leads to suppression. We can't get rid of our senses because we are not dead yet.

With some practice and careful observation of what is going on inside of you, it is possible to learn how to observe the senses without reacting to them. When we observe our senses for long enough there is clear understanding (mentioned earlier) that our senses mean NOTHNG. They come and go all day and all night wether we are conscious of them or not. By observing the senses for what they are (coming and going), we no longer have to try and control them because we understand how temporary they are and it no longer controls us. This is freedom. Not just from porn but from all our sorrows.

I get that this is all a bit deep and maybe a bit confusing so thank you for reading if you have. Some of these words are not my own, and most of this, I still need to discover for myself to fully understand. But what really resonates with me is that all this has nothing to do with belief, or a god, or some ritual that connects you to a god. It is about looking in very closely and discovering the truth for yourself. Most of us are looking outside for answers. We read books, follow gurus, follow religion, in some hope that we can save ourselves from this burden we call living. If I am allowed an opinion, I think that it is time to look within and find out what is really going on. Suffering is something we all share no matter what nationality you are, no matter what beliefs you have. It is Universal. The solution is too.

Be happy

 

Thank you for the response. There is definitely a lot involved in this and we are only scratching the surface here. From what I think I understand, there can only be a contradiction if thought is involved. Thought being the emotional response to the stimulus, which is a memory, which can only ever come from the past. So we look at something (porn for example), remember a past experience of what we are looking at, bring that memory into the present and then project it into the future as desire. You could call this psychological time. Memory is creating a distortion of the facts (reality as it is, in this moment) which is a cycle that can be broken. Observation, real observation, is seeing something exactly as it is (the truth) being aware of the stimulus but not involving the memory of it. Its not observation if the mind brings in labels, likes, dislikes, shame, guilt, desire etc. All this is illusion, a mind that is stuck in psychological time, CONSTANTLY seeking. The root of suffering.