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A BUDDHIST
VIEW OF
ADDICTION
by Peter Morrell
...it is said that as long as
one is in cyclic existence,
one is in the grip of some
form of suffering. [1]

In this essay, I refer

to drugs - meaning
drugs of all kinds,
anything we might
become habituated
to and that we
enjoy to the degree
of dependency. It
seems that drugs
are
widely
misunderstood.
They have a very
long history. People
of all kinds, and in
all
times,
need
something to make
their
lives
meaningful
and
that seems always
to have been the
purpose of drugs,
food and sex, as
well as religion. As
religion
has
declined, so drugs
of all types seem to
have been turned

to increasingly, to
try and make life
more exciting and
meaningful. Thus,
drugs can be seen
as a challenge to
our ordinary life,
adult perception of
the world as being
somewhat dull and
predictable. To have
meaning, life must
come to contain
some excitement into each life a little
love must fall. It is
in these contexts in
this essay that I
refer to 'drugs'.

Apart
from
concepts like Karma
and Merit, the 5
skandhas
and
rebirth - which are
alien concepts to
most
westerners,
and
therefore
require
deep
thought - Buddhism
views
human
psychology
as
being mostly driven
by
two
innate
impulses: desire, or
attraction [craving]
and repulsion or
aversion
[hatred].

They
probably
represent
the
pleasure-pain
principle in western
psychology.
In
Buddhism, virtually
all
aspects
of
psychology
and
human behaviour,
are explained in
these
terms.
Deriving from this,
Buddhism
asserts
that its teachings
are based on how
man actually is the condition he is
in - and that its
ideas are largely
observation-driven,
rather than being
dogmas
handed
down to us. Buddha
encouraged people
to test his ideas out
for themselves. The
impulses
of
attraction
and
aversion also reflect
a basic form of
selfishness and that
we are generally
driven by a desire
to experience and
seek out pleasure
and to avoid pain.

By the power of

the two, desire and

hatred, intimate or
alien, they wander
in cyclic existence
and
thereby
undergo suffering.
[2]

The teachings of
Buddhism
are
entirely designed to
help us to become
happier and more
contented people,
by reducing those
things in our lives,
which
cause
us
suffering [or cause
suffering to others],
by helping us to
reflect more deeply
upon
the
consequences
of
our actions, and by
increasing
those
things that bring us
happiness. There is
not
really
any
good and bad in
Buddhism;
there
are just actions that
bring us greater
happiness
and
those that bring us
greater pain. To live
skilfully, therefore,
is
to
live
in
harmony with these

principles.
In
general, it means to
reduce
our
selfishness, to give
more to others, to
increase
our
happiness and to
stop those things
that harm self or
others - to adopt a
life of non-harming.
Non-harming to self
and all beings.

...the
afflictive
emotions, such as
desire,
hatred,
enmity,
jealousy,
and
belligerence,
that bind beings in
a
round
of
uncontrolled birth,
aging,
sickness,
and
death,
are
founded
on
misperception
of
the
nature
of
persons and other
phenomena. [3]

In the case of
addiction, it is clear
from a Buddhist
viewpoint that it
can be seen as an
overactive
desire

sense,
that
has
gone way beyond
normal limits, and
which is harmful to
self.
It
is
also
important
to
acknowledge
that
we are all in some
ways addicted to
something, be it
only
money,
shopping, success,
promotion, food or
sex. People who are
addicted
to
something
have
become too solidly
locked into a love of
pleasure and are
reaping
the
consequences
of
that lifestyle. It also
means that their
sense of identity is
rewarded
only
when they indulge
whatever
they
crave, and this has
thus
become
dependent
upon
their addiction. A
firm sense of selfidentity is based
solely upon their
habit, and without
it, they feel invisible
and
non-existent.
This is often termed
an
addictive

personality they
believe that life
without their fix is
unfaceable,
not
worth living and
sad and boring.
Such people have
identified
so
strongly or solidly
with the source of
their pleasure that
they believe life
without it is not
possible
or
is
unthinkable. To at
least some degree,
they
have
lost
control of their life.

When the self is

alone [without the
nine
qualities
desire,
hatred,
effort,
pleasure,
pain,
consciousness,
virtue, non-virtue,
and activity] - this
is said to be the
attainment
of
liberation. [4]

While there may

well
be
deeper
reasons
for
this
behaviour and also

a deeper basis of
unhappiness
that
lies at the root of it
[such
as
in
unresolved
childhood
unhappinesses, or
mixing
with
the
wrong
people],
Buddhism,
in
typically pragmatic
style, seeks merely
to deal with the
problem as-is and
to
reduce
the
extent and power of
ones
current
addiction. All other
factors
can
be
addressed through
meditation,
selfrestraint
and
discussion.

...the mental factor

of
desire...accompani
es the perception
of
an
attractive
object... [5]

However, addiction
also
contains
a
further
element,
which is a loss of
control
and

surrender of the will

to a craving. It is a
situation in which
the general balance
of the will against
whatever in the
world is enjoyed,
has
been
progressively
weakened
or
collapsed, and the
total craving for
that one thing has
largely
overpowered
it.
Thus,
any
treatment
of
addiction
must
approach
both
aspects for success
to be achieved. The
sense of control, of
independent
existence
and
balance that we call
willpower must be
restored, just as
much
as
any
reduction in the
craving
for
whatever
one
enjoys. This fact
inevitably brings in
the
need
to
resuscitate a sense
of self and a selfimage, which have
largely
been
destroyed
in

extreme cases of
addiction.
A
coherent sense of
self must be rebuilt,
and it must be a
sense of self that
lies independent of
any external form.

Illustrations
of
afflictive ignorance
are
a
consciousness
conceiving a self of
persons and the
three
poisons
[desire, hatred, and
ignroance]
which
arise on accunt of
this conception, as
well as their seeds.
[6]

The idea of selfimage also brings

with it a sense of
self-respect and a
sense
of
responsibility
for
ones own actions
and whatever state
one has ended up
in. The addicted
person has to gain
a new sense of self
independent
of

their
habit,
and
begin to see that
the state they are
in is predominantly
a result of their own
actions
and
therefore they are
personally
responsible for that
state
and
any
recovery from it. No
change, therefore,
is possible for those
who are unwilling or
unable to move in
the
direction
of
accepting
these
facts. Addicts often
justify their craving
by saying they only
feel or act normal
when
indulging
their
particular
craving. In such
examples,
their
normal
social
conduct becomes
entirely dependent
upon their drug.
For others, it is an
escape
from
loneliness
[e.g.
shopaholics], sad
facts
of
their
existence
they
would rather not
confront, or desire
to
impress/gain
attention. In some

cases, it reflects a
desire to enter a
fantasy realm for
artistic purposes.
The first step has to
be acceptance of
ones own position,
recognition of a
problem
and
a
desire to change.
Without these as
minimum
requirements,
no
change
is
ever
likely to occur.

...the
three
afflictive emotions
[are]
desire,
hatred
and
ignorance... [7]

Though
varying
shades of addiction
occur, addicts of all
types,
when
questioned, tend to
blame
some
previous event they
were
not
responsible for, or
some other factor
external to them,
for their behaviour.
This
very
conveniently

absolves them from

any blame for the
position they are in.
It is thus a crutch
they lean on to get
through their life.
They portray it as
normal or harmless
or both. They
claim to be the
victim of something
and are in denial
about their own
motives and their
own responsibility
for what they do.
They hide, and hide
from,
their
true
motivations,
past
experiences
and
the real basis for
their
behaviour.
They
also
play
down
the
harmfulness [to self
and others] of what
they
do.
They
convince
themselves that it
is harmless and not
serious

but
something they can
control and when
challenged, they try
to convince others
of
the
same
viewpoint.

Buddhism can help

addicts of all kinds
in various ways.
Firstly,
it
encourages
moderation,
abstention and selfcontrol. That can
lead to a degree of
self-control.
Secondly,
it
encourages a sense
of self-identity not
based upon desires,
but
upon
selffulfilment and selfrespect.
A
selfrespect that seeks
to do no harm to
oneself.
It
also
encourages
a
harmless lifestyle,
love,
compassion
and
equanimity,
which
in
turn
encourage
reflection and selfanalysis.

The
six
root
afflictions
are
desire, anger, pride,
ignorance,
doubt,
and
afflictive
view... [8]

In
certain
Zen
monasteries,
one
has heard about in
the
media,
addiction is treated
solely with enforced
abstention
[withdrawal
or
denial]
and
meditation. It is
hard to see how
this harsh, extreme
and
uncompassionate
approach can be
very successful, as
it fails to address
the central element
of
personal
responsibility
for
the state a person
is in. It is left for the
person to figure
everything out for
themselves;
a
position of you got
yourself in there, so
you
can
get
yourself
out
approach. Such a
problem might be
approached
by
teaching a person
that, though others
can
help
and
encourage, they are
entirely responsible
for
their
own
actions, that there

is nothing special
[i.e. different] about
the state they are
in, that life as-is is
good, to restore
their sense of selfworth,
and
to
gradually lead them
away
from
that
which they crave that life without
that thing they
crave
is
both
possible and can be
sweet. This has to
include
their
realisation that the
path they are on is
for sure a path of
self-destruction, a
path of pain. It is a
central
tenet
of
Buddhism
that
excess pleasure is
painful,
and
addiction illustrates
this theme very
well.

Addiction, through
desire
and
aversion,
also
relates to power
and powerlessness,
cause and effect,
and to the nature of
mind
and
sensations.
These

are
all
related
topics. It is easy to
apprehend a link to
power
and
powerlessness,
because to obtain
pleasure often also
gives pleasure to
another
[for
example, in sexual
addiction].
However, it can
also give rise to a
victim
consciousness
as
one adopts a more
subordinate role to
the other. One also
becomes jealously
protective
of
another, primarily,
not out of pure
compassion
for
them, but because
they are the chief
source of ones own
pleasure. That is a
form of selfishness.
We seek to extend
and exert control
over,
and
ownership of, the
partner
one
possesses.
One
sees this in many
relationships where
the power balance
has
become
distorted,
heavily

favouring the more

dominant partner.
This is bad as it
brings suffering and
restricts
the
freedom of the one
possessed. It also
means their love
is
subject
to
continuous
payment
of
the
pleasure
that
is
being
extracted
from them. It is
thus
un-genuine,
fake
and
based
upon
their
continued
dominance.
Challenge
that
dominance of their
role, and see how
much true love
there
is
left!
Precious
little.
Causing suffering to
another creates bad
karma;
such
relationships
are
harmful and not as
benign
as
they
might appear.

In all addictions, the

person
has
an
ambivalent
or
blurred grasp of
cause and effect,

power
and
powerlessness.
They exert power
over their habit [as
a cause] but also
let and ultimately
crave for it to have
power over them
[as an effect]. Thus,
they never seem to
know where they
want to be in a
power
seesaw,
constantly flipping
between cause and
effect, exerting and
then
receiving
domination; craving
power over others
and then letting
power be exerted
over them. All this
inevitably gives a
person an unclear
sense of who they
are,
what
they
really
want
and
where the power
really lies. They end
up
having
a
confused sense of
self-identity. Other
kinds of addictive
behaviour
concerning
power
over others, such as
rape,
sadomasochism, office
bullying,
racism,

sexual harassment
at work and child
abuse, do not seem
to
contain
a
pleasure
element
except
for
the
person in control.
Such
forms
of
addiction
are
mainly about power
over others - other
elements
being
secondary.
The
similarity
is still
present, however,
in relation to the
craving or need
such
people
manifest
in
repeating
their
addictive behaviour.
In that sense, they
certainly need their
victim as much as
a drug.

In
relation
to
sensation and the
nature
of
mind
[Buddhist
hermeneutics], this
vast topic is far too
complex to go into
in sufficient detail
here. But suffice it
to say that objects
of sensation in the
mind
can
be

painful, neutral or
pleasant. We desire
to give and receive
pleasant
sensations, in such
exchanges, we find
pleasure, and to
which
we
can
become addicted.
We then end up
loving those with
whom we exchange
these
pleasant
sensations.
Particles of pleasant
sensations in the
mind can also be
recalled to mind
[consciousness] on
request and so in
fantasy can be relived
as
real
images. This acts as
a pleasant stimulus
to
renewed
pleasure and forms
the
basis
of
masturbation,
daydreaming, erotic
art,
and
pornography. Seen
solely
from
the
viewpoint
of
Buddhist
hermeneutics, it is
clear that addiction
is
primarily
the
exclusive
enjoyment
of

particles
of
sensation,
which
are pleasant to the
consciousness.
In
this sense, it could
be said, that it is
only further down
the same street of
what
all
people
engage in every
day gazing at
attractive
forms,
delighting
in
attractive
tastes,
scents and touches,
etc. However, it
does also involve a
loss of control and a
pervasive
belief
that enjoyment of
these sensations is
vital
to
ones
existence and the
only way to live out
ones life.

However,
any
pleasant sensation,
in time and through
overuse, wears out
its own pathway in
consciousness,
treading
deeper
ruts,
such
that
more
and
more
drug is craved to
reach
the same
high. By contrast,

abstinence and selfcontrol

or
moderation,
reempower the basic
pleasure
and
increase it, while
overuse dulls the
enjoyment.
This
broadly applies to
all
forms
of
addiction, including
food,
chocolate,
nicotine,
sex,
alcohol, shopping,
promotion, power,
etc.
Nonattachment
cultivates a looser
and
more
nonchalant
indifference
to
pleasure,
which
must
be
exhaustively
cultivated in order
to nullify addictions.
This also enhances
ones
sense
of
control over the
pleasant sensations
to which one has
become addicted.
And it gradually
leads to a new
sense of self based
just on being who
you are.

Cure of addiction
necessarily involves
unspinning - putting
into reverse - the
habit as it was
formed. It means
regaining
control
over
ones
life,
denying oneself the
sensations to which
one has become
helplessly addicted,
and
generally
negating the path
one has followed. It
means
the
reestablishment
by
gentle means, of
control over the
habit, being able to
switch it on or off at
will, just like a tap.
This
means
stopping gazing at
pleasant
forms,
stopping
the
internal
fantasy
element
and
stopping
all
the
habits
associated
[attendant rituals of
habit] with what is
a
pattern
of
addictive behaviour.
Inevitably, a very
long slow process
can take as many
years to un-learn as
it took to establish

in the first place. It

means learning how
to live day by day
on nothing, on a
sensory
diet
of
nothing
in
particular and this
will eventually stop
the cravings. That
is the basis of the
Zen
approach
mentioned above. It
means being able
to enjoy ordinary
life
as
it
is.
Additionally,
it
means being able
to
discover
and
enjoy oneself just
as we are. In these
senses, it might be
seen as a very
joyful
and
refreshing path to
follow.
To
the
addict, this may
sound like a very
boring
form
of
sense deprivation
which is exactly
what it is!

Nonattachment...views
desire as faulty,
thereby
deliberately
restraining

desire... [9]

Although addiction
is harmful in certain
respects [both to
self and to others],
in other ways, some
positive things can
come from it and it
can be seen as a
form of spiritual
path.
In
this
respect, it can lead
one to make many
useful realisations.
There are at least
three ways in which
it can be useful.
Firstly, it can lead
to a realisation of
the need for nonattachment,
a
greater indifference
to the world and
greater moderation
in ones habits. It
can therefore lead
one to a deeper
realisation of the
fleeting,
transient
[impermanent]
nature of the world
and of the mind,
and
their
twin
engagement. This is
an
important
Buddhist realisation
to make and which

addicts of all types

can
apprehend.
Likewise, it leads to
an understanding of
the
way
desire
leads only to pain.

In another sense,
addiction can also
lead to a realisation
of
the
fragmentation
of
corpuscular forms
in space and time,
which again is a
profound realisation
of
Buddhist
emptiness
[Shunyata]. There
seems little doubt
that some addicts
can apprehend this
important Buddhist
realisation
with
ease. It arises from
the
fragmentary
sense of self many
addicts
become
subject to. It also
arises
to
some
degree from the
sense that their
world is collapsing
or
disintegrating
[cold turkey] even
when
others
reassure them that
it
is
not.
It

especially
arises
from many druginduced
experiences
in
which life, self, the
world, other people
appear
to
be
vacuous,
diaphanous, empty
forms, unreal or
disintegrating. Such
a sensation can
persist
for
a
lifetime,
many
years
after
the
drugs have first
been used. Such a
sensation can be
intensely
real.
Clearly,
from
a
Buddhist
perspective, this is
like
a
direct
experience
of
emptiness
based
upon
an
apprehension of the
corpuscular nature
of reality and the
disintegrating
nature of unreal
forms.
Persistent
sensations of this
type are illustrative
of deep Buddhist
concepts normally
very
hard
for
normal people to
comprehend
or

experience
for
oneself. Thus, in a
sense, the addict
has
broken
a
fundamental
illusion
in
our
conception
of
reality that might
pre-dispose
them
towards
Buddhist
ideas.

Thirdly,
we
can
mention
the
contemplation
of
suffering and its
causes. With a little
guidance,
the
nature of suffering
and its causes can
be
realised
by
addicts, without too
much difficulty. This
in itself can lead
one to adopt a
more
sober,
measured
and
moderate approach
to life, and to
realise the need for
an abstention from
indulgence
and
excesses. The safer
and more serene
beauty of ordinary
life can also be
apprehended from
the standpoint of

the
addict.
Abstinence
alone
can lead one to
appreciate a Zenlike
form
of
tranquillity
as
compared to the
chaotic frenzy of
indulgence
in
pleasure. It can also
lead
one
to
a
realisation of the
value of creating an
inner
world
of
vision,
vivid
memories recalled
in perfect clarity
impressed
deeply
upon
the
consciousness this
can be used in
Buddhist practice to
create vivid images
of a pure realm of
Buddhas.

...when you have

attachment to, for
instance, material
things, it is best to
desist from that
activity. It is taught
that one should
have few desires
and
have
satisfaction
detachment - with
respect to material

things... [10]

Finally,
addiction
can
lead
one
towards a deeper
interest
in
the
Buddhist view on
the nature of mind.
Even the idea of
karma and rebirth
can lead addicts to
temper their bad
habits
and
gain
some hope for a
calmer future. Most
of
all,
addicts
should
seriously
consider
the
harmfulness of their
addiction, both to
self and others. In
yet another sense,
addicts are people
who have failed to
transform ordinary
life into something
acceptable
or
special for them
and through which
they
can
then
experience life with
some
joy
and
fulfilment. The drug
or
addiction
replaces this sense
of fulfilment and
thus they can only
access that sense

of lifes joy and

meaning, via the
drug itself.

To sum up is not
easy, as there are
many threads. To
an
extent,
Buddhists
and
addicts seem to
share some similar
perspectives on the
world. They both
tend to see the
transient
and
fleeting nature of
self
and
phenomena
as
being
an
experience central
to their worldview a
view
almost
utterly obscured to
ordinary
people.
Both
are
also
familiar with nonidentity
or
selflessness,
an
egoless state in
which forms appear
diaphanous
and
unreal, in which self
dissolves
into
nothingness and in
which the world is
consumed
by
emptiness.
These
are
profound

similarities.
By
contrast, the addict
is not grounded in
deep
love
and
compassion for self
and the world and
is not on a path of
self-improvement.
Their vision is an
essentially
pessimistic
one,
while the Buddhist's
view
is
predominantly
peaceful,
hopeful
and optimistic. The
addicts view is also
harmful to self and
others,
while
a
Buddhist's view is
based upon respect
and
non-harming,
love of everything.
Though the addict like a Buddhist - has
apprehended
the
empty
and
dissolving nature of
reality, they do not
use that profound
insight to construct
an inner world of
pure forms founded
in
love
and
compassion.
The
addict is essentially
leaning
on
the
crutches of their
illusions, while the

Buddhist leans on
nothing,
accepts
self and the world
just as they are and
gets on along a
path of continuous
self-improvement.

...the sense of an
object
as
being
attractive,
unattractive,
or
neutral...feelings of
pleasure, pain, or
neutrality
arise.
Due
to
such
feelings,
attachment
develops,
this
being
the
attachment of not
wanting to separate
from pleasure and
the attachment of
wanting to separate
from
suffering...
[11]

Other
features
stand
out.
The
addict seems to
have rejected the
values
of
the
ordinary
person,
which the Buddhist
has also rejected,

such
as
the
permanent nature
of reality and the
idea that pleasure
should
be cosy,
quiet and decent.
The
Buddhist
aspires to entirely
destroy desire and
aversion as the root
causes
of
all
suffering, and sees
both in turn as
products
of
our
deluded
apprehension of the
world as solid and
real. The addict has
also
experienced
the emptiness, but
has failed to realise
that the cause of
suffering is aversion
and desire - in
which they continue
to indulge. Thus,
the addict appears
to
sit
mid-way
between
the
ordinary person and
the Buddhist, and is
moving in some
ways along the
way
towards
Buddhism - chiefly
in apprehending the
emptiness and in
realising that desire
and hatred have

some problems and

price-tags attached.
I would therefore
conclude that the
addicts is a form of
spiritual path - a
development away
from the ordinary
life position - and
that
involves
experiences, which
can be more fully
understood from a
deeper study of
Buddhism.
These
relate to cause and
effect, the nature of
mind, desire and
aversion and finally
impermanence and
emptiness.

...the mental factor

of
desire...accompani
es the perception
of
an
attractive
object... [12]

Sources
[1] The Dalai Lama at
Harvard, 1988, Snow Lion
USA, p.48
[2] Geshe Lhundup Sopa &
Jeffrey
Hopkins,
Cutting
through
Appearances:
Practice and Theory of
Tibetan Buddhism, 1989,

Snow Lion, USA, pp.49-50

[3] ibid., p.111
[4] ibid., p.158
[5] ibid., p.188
[6] ibid., p.205
[7] ibid., p.216
[8] ibid., p.272
[9] Dalai Lama at Harvard,
p.76
[10] ibid., p.153
[11] ibid., pp.86-7
[12] Sopa & Hopkins, op cit,
p.188

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