Are we all addicts to our way of life?

We behave like puppets our entire life. If it is hot, we are upset; if it is too cold, we complain. If somebody suggests something to us, we feel criticized; if they say something nice to us, we feel happy. We react to every little thing and to every situation.

The word ‘addict’ is usually used in the context of alcohol or narcotic drugs. However, in actuality, we are all addicts to our respective situations in life. Either we are addicted to success, or to our favorite cup of coffee that we want to have every day; there is a favorite chair we sit in... We are addicted to so many small things. And if just one of those things goes out of sync, we lose our good sense.

We are even addicted to the pursuit of happiness. We are puppets to our thoughts, to our brain, to our conditioning, to everyone around us... So what is the easiest way to control this? Simple: don’t take control of it. Because we can never control our mind. Actually, we cannot control anything. It is only an assumption that we can control everything. For example, we can’t even control the hair on our head from falling, so what to talk about the brain!

We may feel that if our brain comes up with a silly thought of beating someone up, we have a choice to either do it or not to do it. Therefore, we can control our mind. However, in reality, we don’t have control because we are already feeling the anger that wants us to beat up someone. In an ideal world, we should not feel the anger.

The day we learn not to be an addict to any kind of emotion is the day we will have learnt to just be!