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Prayer, meditation and therapies like CBT certainly help prevent relapse, but hard core alcoholism requires medical intervention to manage the shakes and deliri

Prayer, meditation and therapies like CBT certainly help prevent relapse, but hard core alcoholism requires medical intervention to manage the shakes and delirium tremens (the best and most vivid hallucinations I have had. Better than plant hallucinogens.) The very definition of the disorder is a total loss of control. It's a very scary feeling to know you're going over the falls and there's no way to the safety of shore. The medical community long ago classified addiction as a disease (substance abuse disorder) I used to read Nisargadatta to try and get sober, but it didn't help. He seems to imply there's some deeper level of consciousness beyond just resting without thought or emotion in the present moment. I found the teachings of Zen to much more helpful and in fact many Western therapies like DBT and Wise Mind are based on those principles.

zozbot234 4y ago
> I used to read Nisargadatta to try and get sober, but it didn't help. Reading is just another kind of attachment. You have to practice, even and perhaps especially when it seems challenging and difficult. Most spiritual traditions are very clear on this, including yoga itself.
- yezr 4y ago
  this! all of my favorite zen teachings describe it as 'your practice'. Zen Mind Beginners Mind says something like "in the mind of the expert there is only one path, in the beginner's mind there are many" and urges the zen practitioner to always keep the beginner's mind... It emphasized to me that it should be _your_ practice of the teachings, not just inhaling more and more teachings
- shrimpx 4y ago
  Although reading and mulling over it, trying to understand what it means within yourself, is a form of practice. It’s a kind of Jnana yoga.
shrimpx 4y ago
> He seems to imply there's some deeper level of consciousness beyond just resting without thought or emotion in the present moment. I’ve come to realize that all paths lead to the same state, including Christianity. Christian worship is a form of Bhakti. It’s all a matter of what fits your personality.

zozbot234 4y ago

> I used to read Nisargadatta to try and get sober, but it didn't help. Reading is just another kind of attachment. You have to practice, even and perhaps especially when it seems challenging and difficult. Most spiritual traditions are very clear on this, including yoga itself.

yezr 4y ago
this! all of my favorite zen teachings describe it as 'your practice'. Zen Mind Beginners Mind says something like "in the mind of the expert there is only one path, in the beginner's mind there are many" and urges the zen practitioner to always keep the beginner's mind... It emphasized to me that it should be _your_ practice of the teachings, not just inhaling more and more teachings
shrimpx 4y ago
Although reading and mulling over it, trying to understand what it means within yourself, is a form of practice. It’s a kind of Jnana yoga.

shrimpx 4y ago

> He seems to imply there's some deeper level of consciousness beyond just resting without thought or emotion in the present moment. I’ve come to realize that all paths lead to the same state, including Christianity. Christian worship is a form of Bhakti. It’s all a matter of what fits your personality.