76. The Greatest Obstacle to Liberation

Enlightenment with Rishi Atma Bodha

Nicotine withdrawal has such wonderful deep meaning. It certainly is a conflicted state of being, whereby divisions occur within yourself. It is almost like a "civil war" in a sense. The biological cells of your body crave nicotine since they are addicted and they covet this as a source of power and pleasure. They try to send all the signals they can to the brain to try to influence the master of your body (You) into facilitating nicotine into your body. Your mind has a choice to obey the withdrawal signals from your body or quit "cold turkey" , rejecting the dominance of your biological signals. By discerning which voice to listen to, you have acknowledged the existence of hierarchy.

Just as your arms have less intelligence than your brain, so also, not all sources of knowledge are equal. Some perspectives are truer than others. The addle-minded addict is generally going to have a more limited perspective than someone who is more clear-headed. External desire in many ways is like nicotine. People get addicted to the rush of it and forget that other more superior experiences exist. Why desire something when you can love something? Why is desire seemingly more popular than love? People are addicted to desire because it is all they know and haven't tasted love yet. As more people taste love, less people will choose desire. Desire will feel its power slipping and be screaming and try to coerce others to let it dominate them.