Pushing a Basketball Under Water

I remember asking my mother once why she wouldn't stop smoking and she responded that then she would only get fat, and that excessive weight isn't good for her health either. I didn't know much about addictions then, so I had little to say in response.

I was reminded about that conversation when I came up with the title for this post. Perhaps you know this feeling, you have identified a psychological dragon and you have cut its head off with the help of all your strength and will-power only to find that a new one pops up.The spiritual path happens to be applied psychology. All our urges center around our body, recognition, power, sex, etc. This feeling of drive, restlessness and lack of satisfaction just gets shuffled around. Just when you think you have conquered one, you find that the same psychological force pops up somewhere else with a different face.

But time is on your side and hard work pays off. The image I came up with is a basketball with a faulty air ventile, so that each time when you push the ball under water some air gets released and the next bounce is less impressive than the one before until one fine days it just stays under water. Once you have untied a knot, you get the hang of it so that next time around it gets easier. At one time you can even anticipate when you will get depressed, when a burden is lifted and when life returns to you. Keep the faith, before you know it the struggle will be over.