How can I free myself from my addictions and compulsions?

Even the inner peace of meditation and the love and social support from friends and family can only take us so far. What really frees us from our addictions, our habits, and our compulsions is the direct, transcendent experience that we are not isolated and we are not alone.

On one level, of course, we are separate from each other. You’re you and I’m me. You have a body that needs to be fed and you have a mind that needs to think. But on another level, we are spiritual creatures. Our souls also need nourishment.

We have a body and a mind, but we are not only a body and a mind. We are separate from each other, but we are not only separate. This understanding is part of the perennial wisdom of virtually all religions, all faiths, and all cultures, once you move beyond the different rituals, doctrines, and forms. When we forget this truth, then we begin looking in the wrong places to try to fill the emptiness and to kill the pain: food, alcohol, cigarettes, telephones, overwork, and so on.