Recognizing The Source Of Cravings

Recognize that thought, emotions, cravings, and desires to use are temporary forms which arise from and dissolve back into the formless awareness within you.

The point of this teaching is to help you become not only conscious of the arising and dissolving of these forms but also to point you to the source (formlessness) within you from which they come. Keeping your attention on that source anchors you to the present moment, so that you are not taken “for a ride” by every thought, emotion, craving, and desire to use that arises.

Let me explain a little more. But this is not my truth. This is a truth as old as the hills. This is simply an expression of it.

For purposes of this teaching I want to make a division where no such division actually exists. This is merely so the conceptual mind can wrap itself around what I am saying here.

Think of the universe as having two realms: form and formlessness.

You are already very familiar with the realm of form. The separate objects or parts in life are the forms. Forms are the “things” which you see, think, touch, taste, and feel. A form is energy with a temporary life span. Cravings, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, planes, cars, houses, cats, phones, words, bodies, lamps, clouds, stars, planets are examples of forms. All forms are subject to the law of impermanence. They arise and then dissolve. Simply put, they are temporary. The desk in your bedroom will one day turn to dust, and eventually there will only be space where the dust was. Your physical body is temporary. It came into creation, and will deteriorate completely after death. Remember the anger or irritation you felt the other day when the car ahead of you was moving too slowly on the freeway? It came and went. It was here, and now it’s gone. It may take longer, in clock time, for a desk or a human body to dissolve than an emotion. But a desk, a person, and an emotion are nonetheless temporary forms which arise and dissolve.

This second realm is formlessness. When I use this term “second realm,” I do not intend in any way to imply that one is more important than the other. In fact, the ultimate truth is that there is no such division, and that it is all One (but that will be left for another day). Form and formlessness are just words I’m using to point you to what is actually happening in life. Formlessness is the air, space, awareness, or emptiness. It is the “no-thing” realm. This is a realm most people pay no attention to, which makes sense because it is the realm of “no-thing” and we are conditioned to pay attention only to “things.”

But if you look closely at what is happening in life, forms are arising and dissolving within formlessness, so to speak. Formlessness or space was here in your bedroom before your desk came into existence, and will be there when your desk has turned to nothing. Formlessness was here before your physical body came into existence, and will be here when it’s gone. Although you may not have realized it, formlessness was here in your body before your irritation at the driver on the freeway arose, and is here when it dissolved. It is awareness itself, which is who you are beyond your thoughts of who you are. Your thoughts of who you are constitute the ego, or dream self. Awareness is your true Self. It is what is looking at these words right now, prior to any thoughts about these words. It is what was here when you were 12 years old, it is what is here now, and what will be here when you are 60 years old, even though different thoughts came into this field of awareness at these different ages. Think of formless awareness as the animating principle beyond all life forms, prior to any thoughts of separation which may arise in the various forms. Formless awareness is much like the sky. It is always there, changelessly present. It is the essence of who you are. It is the essence of life itself. Thoughts and other forms are the temporary clouds which come into this field, and then leave.

Most people are completely identified with form, and unaware of formlessness, which means unaware of awareness itself. They are lost in thought, essentially addicted to it, trying to find a more complete sense of self in it. This is the cause of suffering. Adyashanti, in the quote above, where he discusses the unmanifest, is pointing you to this formless awareness within you. Adyashanti further explains, “the unmanifest or unconditioned is not about what you see, but what is seeing. It’s not about your thoughts, but what’s awake to your thoughts. It’s not about your feelings, but rather the direct experience of what is awake to your feelings.” This awakeness is who you truly are. This is the sky. And what you see, think, and feel are the clouds. So to believe that these temporary clouds have anything to do with who you truly are in your essence is delusional.

This formlessness is sometimes called the source, by some teachers. I like that term. It is very pointed. It directs you inward, to that space of awareness from which all forms arise and then dissolve back into. Pay attention to that space always. This space is who you are in your essence. This space is the unmanifest. In this space, no forms have manifested yet. This is the unconditioned One Life. So, as your attention is on this alive awareness within, you actually become aware of all forms which arise from that space, including all thoughts, emotions, reactions, cravings or desires to use.

This is why presence is “enlightened recovery.” Presence is like a light that gets turned on within your body and mind. This light sees everything that arises within. It is that which is aware of all forms arising in this moment. As Eckhart Tolle puts it, “this moment is inseparable from who you are at the deepest level.” Tolle also talks about inner body awareness, which is so critical for those recovering from addiction. Inner body awareness is placing your attention into the aliveness within the inner body at all times. You are placing attention on the source from which all forms arise. In actuality, awareness is becoming aware of itself. Stated another way, the source becomes aware of itself. And stated yet another way, so that the conceptual mind can visualize this, you become aware of who you truly are.

So let’s concentrate more on cravings, or on “the desire to use” as some addicts call it.

To crave means “to long for.” Webster’s defines “crave” as “to want greatly” or “to have a strong desire for.” Craving is defined as “an intense, urgent, or abnormal desire or longing.” But a dictionary is not needed in order to know the fact of craving or what it means to crave. You directly experience cravings all the time. These are forms which arise and dissolve within your awareness. A “craving” is energy within you, a sort of movement (form) which pulls you towards some other form (a beer, a line of coke, a cookie, sex). This energy often produces a feeling and/or a thought of some future event or action, which you perceive as desirable. Then the unconscious minds goes chasing after its own projection, believing falsely that it will find fulfillment there. The craving, if unfulfilled, may lead to line of obsessive thinking, and ultimately to using substances. The craving may produce, for example, the thought, “I want to leave work and sit in a hot bath” or “I want some chocolate ice cream” or “I would love a beer” or whatever your vice may be. Nothing particularly wrong with those thoughts. But in a body/mind which is triggered towards addictive behavior, these thoughts, when they are not made conscious through presence, have the tendency to keep an addict spinning in self-obsession.

If your attention is on your inner body (on the formless awareness within), you can actually sense the arising of a craving, as this movement of energy, in the very moment it forms, before it actually turns into what we know as a “craving.” This is so important because cravings, when they are unwatched by awareness, have the capacity to turn into addiction, and self-destructive habits. Once a craving manifests from its source and transforms into a thought, it is on its way to an obsession. And this is where the addict is at risk of relapse.

When the light of consciousness is shining on the inner body, on the source of cravings, cravings don't arise at all. They are like cockroaches who can't stand this light. And if they do arise, within awareness, they actually become vehicles for enlightened recovery. In other words, when presence becomes your predominant way of being, cravings are similar to little alarm bells. In the awakened state, cravings arise within awareness, and actually increase wakefulness. They wake you up, so to speak. They are like reminders that say, “pay attention to the here and now."

Sooner or later all cravings, once manifested, dissolve back into the source from which they come. You can delay the dissolving of any form, including a craving, but you cannot ultimately keep the dissolving from happening altogether. This is because they are literally subject to an absolute, universal law. The law of impermanence.

Do not try to think away cravings. You are then only adding form to form. This is like trying to put a fire out with fire. Instead, become aware of the inner body. Let awareness become aware of itself. This is literally the difference between mature and immature recovery. Immature recovery uses thought and methods to try to “think” things away. Mature recovery recognizes the source from which all forms come, and in that recognition, freedom is realized as your natural state.