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The problem is not religious, but the solution is spiritual

Monday, 30 January 2012

Someone wrote on the forum:

The issue is regaining control of your life. Religion/faith/the god question has nothing to do with recovery.

 

Dov responds:

My personal experience 'begs to differ' with you on this. And mind you, I'd be the last guy to refer to my addiction as a problem of faith, religion, or morals. I also do not associate the Yetzer Hara per se' with my addiction, in the strict sense. I see my addiction as an insanity and a disease, and I do not believe that the rule books (of religious dogma) were written with crazy people in mind. I feel that an addict has generally strayed far out of the normal human realm of bechirah and normalcy. Mind you, acting out any addiction certainly causes deep religious and moral problems, but I consider them all symptoms rather than causes. Nu. Any other approach to it just does not work for me, sorry.

Let those who feel very differently about this issue lay down their arms please, as I'm not here to fight about it and let's not get off-topic. But I believe that you know precisely where I am coming from on this, as do many others. Harbei drachim laMokom. Perhaps you even intended basically the same perspective in your comment above.

So, exactly how am I begging to differ with you?

I have found that for me and many others, although our Problem is not a religious one, the Solution is a spiritual one.

And as Religions are very spiritual, as a Jew - I am really in luck!

Making brachos and remembering that nothing is mine; keeping hilchos niddah and remembering that my wife isn't mine; wearing tefilin and remembering that my body is modeled after Hashem's middos/ways (so to speak); doing chessed and remembering that I am not the center of the universe; keeping Shabbos and seeing a connection to my shoresh; watching my children and remembering that I am actually able to tap into power beyond my own and help create a child! - and also: to stay sober... these things are only shayach to me in recovery.

Before some recovery, these things never meant any of those things at all to me.
They were all just a big pain in the rear, actually.

And the spirituality is not only the symptom of recovery, but also the answer itself, as it comes from accepting a G-d of my very own and trusting Him, for a change.

Did that make any sense?