The Real Addiction

When we talk of addiction, it is not merely to alcohol or to drugs, but also to passion, to anger, to fear, to egotism: all these are addictions. All these are addictions to your impurities. And at the intellectual level you understand very well, "Anger is not good for me. It is dangerous. It is so harmful." Yet you are addicted to anger, you keep generating anger. And when the anger is over, you keep repeating, "Oh! I should not have generated anger. I should not have generated anger." Meaningless! The next time some stimulation comes, you again become angry. You are not coming out of it, because you have not been working at the depth of the behaviour pattern of your mind. The anger starts because of a particular chemical that has started flowing in your body, and with the interaction of mind and matter-one influencing the other-the anger continues to multiply. [...]

Whether you are addicted to craving, or aversion, or hatred, or passion, or fear, the addiction is to a particular sensation that has arisen because of the bio-chemical flow. This type of matter results in reaction at the mental level, and the reaction at the mental level again turns into this bio-chemical reaction. When you say that you are addicted, you are actually addicted to the sensation. You are addicted to this flow, the bio-chemical flow.

-- S. N. Goenka