Having the will to dissolve ego

 I once saw a one-page article of someone in the New York Times who vowed to beat his alcohol addiction with will-power. His point was that the AA approach—noble as it is—contains the premise that we are powerless when it comes to addiction, and his point was that he could not subscribe to such a limiting belief.

 

I thought it was odd to give this man so much publicity when launching his endeavor to beat alcoholism. Wouldn’t it have been more more deserving to feature the people who have actually beat the addiction. Still, I am sure that many succeed even outside of the AA institution. Beating an addiction is a spiritual calling, and of course we can succeed on our own.

 

There is an inner contradiction to beat an addiction with will-power, for both are of the ego. The addiction encapsulates the yet unhealed pain body and the desire the escape from it, while willpower is channeled ego in what we want to accomplish. I am sure it can be done—that’s what stoic living is all about, overriding what is deemed inferior—but it’s inefficient.

 

The approach of dissolving ego is a willingness to look into the origin of the pain body, and a study of the tendency to run away from what bothers us. The willpower that is required is the willingness to look at the root cause of the inner interference. It’s a method of dissolving ego, and an opening of our eyes towards inner and outer realities we have never noticed that way before. AA and the method of willpower makes us a recovered addict, the approach of mindfulness and inner healing sets us free instead.