CONTENTS
ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY DEEPAK CHOPRA
TITLE PAGE
PART ONE: THE MEANING OF ADDICTION
1. THE MISGUIDED SEEKER
2. NURTURING THE SPIRIT
3. ACTION, MEMORY, DESIRE
4. DISCOVERING YOUR MIND BODY TYPE
PART TWO: THE EXPERIENCE OF ADDICTION
5. ALCOHOL ADDICTION
6. ADDICTION TO ILLEGAL DRUGS
7. TOBACCO ADDICTION
8. FOOD ADDICTION
9. OTHER SOURCES OF ADDICTION
PART THREE: RESTORING BALANCE
10. MEDITATION
11. EXERCISE
12. VATA-BALANCING DIET
13. JOY—THE REAL ANSWER
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SOURCES
INDEX
COPYRIGHT
Deepak Chopra is the bestselling author of twenty-five books, including Ageless Body, Timeless Mind and The Path to Love. He is the Director of Educational Programmes at The Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, California.
Chopra, Deepak. Unconditional Life: Mastering the Forces That Shape Personal Reality. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.
——. Perfect Health. New York: Harmony Books, 1991.
Condry, John C. The Psychology of Television. Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1989.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 1994.
Doweiko, Harold E. Concepts of Chemical Dependency. Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1996.
Frawley, David, O.M.D. Ayurvedic Healing: A Comprehensive Guide. Salt Lake City: Passage Press, 1989.
Gelernter, David. 1939: The Lost World of the Fair. New York: Avon Books, 1995.
Johnson, Robert A. Ecstasy: Understanding the Psychology of Joy. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1987.
Ludwig, Arnold M., M.D. Understanding the Alcoholic’s Mind. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Milkman, Harvey, and Sunderwerth, Stanley. Craving for Ecstasy: The Consciousness and Chemistry of Escape. New York: Lexington Books, 1987.
Phillips, Adam. On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored: Psychoanalytic Essays on the Unexamined Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Regis, Edward. Who Got Einstein’s Office?: Eccentricity and Genius at the Institute for Advanced Study. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1987.
Szasz, Thomas. Ceremonial Chemistry. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor/Doubleday, 1974.
Weil, Andrew, and Rosen, Winifred. From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
Deepak Chopra and The Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, California, offer a wide range of seminars, products and educational programmes, worldwide. The Chopra Center offers revitalizing mind/body programmes, as well as day spa services. Guests can come to rejuvenate, expand knowledge or obtain a medical consultation.
For information on meditation classes, health and well-being courses, instructor certification programmes, or local classes in your area, contact The Chopra Center for Well Being, 7630 Fay Avenue, La Jolla, California, 92037, USA. By telephone: 001–888–424–6772, or 001–619–551–7788. For a virtual tour of the Center, visit the Internet website at www.chopra.com.
If you have enjoyed this book and would like the opportunity to explore higher realms of consciousness and have a more direct experience of divinity, you may do so interactively at Deepak Chopra’s new website, www.mypotential.com.
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Accidents, 43
Action-memory-desire triad, 16, 18, 77
Addiction(s), 3
addict as misguided seeker, 4–5
alcohol, 42, 43–57
drug, 58–71
food, 82–93
joy as answer to, 122–28
“modern,” 94–101
sex, 97–99
television, 99–101
tobacco, 72–81
work, 95–97
Affection, 127
Air, 23, 69
Alarm clock, 124
Alcohol
benefits of, 40–42
ceremonial function, 39, 42
consumption of, 40
dangers of, 42–43
history of, 39, 40–41
hostility to drinking, 39–40
social drinking, 41
Alcohol addiction, 42, 43–57, 95
characteristics of, 45–46
disease model of, 46–48
ecstasy experience, 48
hitting bottom, 48
and Kapha, 56–57
and Pitta, 54–56
spirituality as cure, 49, 52
therapy, 50–51
treatment alternatives, 49–53
and Vata, 53–54
Alcohol dependence, 42, 44, 46
Alcoholics Anonymous, 50, 51–53
Alertness, 107
Alternate Nose Breathing Exercise, 119
Ambrosia, 58
Amnesia, 51
Amphetamines, 61, 70
Anger, 124–25
Antabuse, 49–50
Astringent taste, 89–90
Automobile accidents, 43
Awareness. See Mindfulness
Awareness Pose, 118
Ayurveda, 105
on anger, 124
and eating habits, 84, 86, 124, 127
flexibility, 11
food classification, 89
and individuality, 11, 21–23
and memory of perfection, 5
and mind body connection, 23
and mindfulness, 19
and pleasure/pain mechanism, 14–15
See also Doshas; Kapha; Pitta; Vata
Ayurvedic Healing (Frawley), 54
Balzac, Honoré de, 15, 62–63
Beans, 121
Behaviorism, 91–92
Bhrimari Breathing Exercise, 119
Bible, 41, 58, 62
Bitter taste, 89–90
Blackouts, 47
Boredom, 100
Bragg, Ginna, 91
Breakfast, 124
Breathing
exercises, 118–19
as measure of exercise intensity, 114
meditation, 109–10
Bumblebee Breathing Exercise, 119
Burnout, 70
Burroughs, William S., 68
Byron, Lord, 98
Calories, 89
Cancer, and alcohol, 42
Cheers (TV show), 41
Children, 13
Chocolate, 91–92
Choices, 59–60
Cigarette-rolling machines, 74–75
Cigarettes. See Tobacco addiction
Cigars, 79
“Clean, Well-Lighted Place, A” (Hemingway), 41
Cocaine, 61, 63, 68, 75
Coffee, 62–63
“Cold turkey” withdrawal, 66
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 65
Confrontation, 50
Consciousness, 23
Control, 95
Crack, 61, 75
Cravings, 45, 59, 87, 90
Dairy, 120
Depression, 56, 71, 88–89, 98, 123, 124
De Quincey, Thomas, 65
Desire, 16
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, 63
Diet, Vata-balancing, 120–21
Dieting, 83
Digestive system, 86
Disease model of alcoholism, 46–48
Disease theory of addiction, 59, 60
Doshas, 23–36, 105, 106
determining body type, 30–31
See also Kapha; Pitta; Vata
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 8
Drinking. See Alcohol; Alcohol addiction; Alcohol dependence
Drug addiction, 58–71
choice involved in, 59–60
continued use despite problems, 68–69
defining points of, 61–63, 64
DSM IV criteria for, 63–69
efforts to stop or cut back, 66–67
history of, 62
intoxication at inappropriate times, 67–68
and Kapha, 70–71
overuse, 64–65
and Pitta, 70
preoccupation with, 63–64
reduction in activities in favor of, 68
tolerance, 65
and Vata, 69–70
withdrawal, 65–66
DSM IV. See Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
Earth, 23, 24
Eating disorders. See Food addiction
Ecstasy, 8, 48
Ecstasy (Johnson), 6
Einstein, Albert, 82–83
Elements, 23
Endorphins, 125
Esophageal cancer, 42
Exercise(s), 112–19
breathing, 118–19
and doshas, 114–15
and endorphins, 125
general guidelines, 113–14
and Kapha, 114
and Pitta, 114
and Vata, 114, 115–18
External conflict, 46
Fat, 89
Fear, 4
Feast-or-famine behavior, 87
Fire, 23, 70
Fish, 121
Flowers, 125
Food addiction, 82–93
healthy diet as alternative to, 89–91
and Kapha, 88–89
and Pitta, 88
and Vata, 87
Forward Bend Pose, 115–16
Frawley, David, 54
From Chocolate to Morphine (Weil and Rosen), 91
Fruits, 121
Gambling, 15
Gelernter, David, 10
Genetic predisposition, 59
Grains, 121
“Grounding” effect, 115
Guilt, 76, 77, 99–100
Hangover, 43
Happiness, 13, 14, 85, 122
Head-to-Knee Pose, 117–18
Healing, 60
Health, perfect, 105
Heart attack, 42
Heat, 54, 70
Hemingway, Ernest, 41
Herodotus, 41
Heroin addiction, 17, 60–61, 63
Hippocrates, 22
Honey, 90
Hospital patients, 64
Hunger, 83, 84, 85–86
Impatience, 69
Individuality, 22–23
Insomnia, 43, 123
Internal conflict, 45
Isolation, 64
James, William, 49
Janu Sirsasana Pose, 117–18
Jellinek, E.M., 46–48
Johnson, Robert, 6, 8
Johnson, Samuel, 64
Joy, 6, 9, 14, 21
as answer to addiction, 60–61, 122–28
of child, 12–13
Jung, Carl, 48
Junky (Burroughs), 68
Kapha, 24, 30–31
and alcoholism, 56–57
characteristics of, 33–35
and drug addiction, 70–71
and exercise, 114
and food addiction, 88–89
and meditation, 127
questionnaire, 28–29
and tobacco addiction, 78–79
Karma, 15
Laudanum, 65
Laughter, 126
Liver cancer; 42
Love, 123, 127, 128
Ludwig, Arnold, 50–51
Manna, 58
Mantras, 111
Marma points, 125
Materialism, 7, 9–10
Meals, 127
Meat, 121
Meditation, 80–81, 106–11, 126
breathing, 109–10
Kapha periods, 127
in morning, 124
primordial sound, 110–11
Memory, 15
See also Action-memory-desire triad
Mind body connection, 23, 44
Mindfulness, 19–20, 80, 86, 109
Miracles, 8
Morning, 124
Movement, 23
Music, 5–6
Mystery, 8
Nadi Shodhana Breathing Exercise, 119
Narcotics. See Drug addiction
Native Americans, 74
Nature, 125
New York World’s Fair, 10
Nicotine, 76
1939: The Lost World of the Fair (Gelernter), 10
Nurturing activities, 123–24
Nuts, 121
Obesity, 43
Oils, 120
Opiates, 61
Opium, 62, 73
Orgasm, 97, 98
Padahastasana Pose, 115–16
Pain, 15, 50, 59, 60, 61, 97–98
Panchakarma, 17
Parker, Charlie, 5–6
Partnership for a Drug-Free America, 60
Perfect health, 105
Perfection, 5
Perspiration, 114
Pitta, 23–24, 30–31
and alcoholism, 54–56
characteristics of, 32–33
and drug addiction, 70
and exercise, 114
and food addiction, 88
questionnaire, 26–28
and tobacco addiction, 78
unbalanced, 35
Plants, 125
Plato, 41
Pleasure, 21, 40
creating, 100
desire to repeat, 14, 15
at work, 124
See also Joy
Poppy seeds, 62, 73
Prakriti, 106
Prana, 125
Primordial sound meditation, 110–11
Prohibition, 39–40
Pungent taste, 89–90
Quiet time, 126
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 74
Regis, Edward, 82
Relaxation, 127
Respiration. See Breathing
Rest, 126
Restful alertness, 107, 108, 126
Rock cocaine, 61
Rosen, Winifred, 91
“Runner’s high,” 125
Salty taste, 89–90
Sanskara, 15
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 70
Sattva, 69
Savasana Pose, 118
Seriousness, 97
Sex addiction, 15, 97–99
Shakespeare, William, 41
Silence, 126
Simon, David, 91
Simple Ceremony, A (Bragg and Simon), 91
Sincere intention, 77–78, 91, 93
Sleep, 43, 123
Smoking. See Tobacco addiction
Soma, 58
Sour taste, 89–90
Space, 23
Spices, 121
Spirituality, 5, 20–21, 91
and alcoholism, 49, 52
nurturing, 7–11
State-dependent learning, 51
Stress, 67, 106
Sugar addiction, 56, 90
Sweeteners, 120
Sweets. See Sugar addiction
Sweet taste, 89–90
Symposium, The (Plato), 41
Szasz, Thomas, 60
Taste, 89–91
Television addiction, 99–101
Thunderbolt Pose, 116
Tincture of opium, 65
Tobacco addiction, 72–81
appeal of smoking, 75
Ayurvedic approach to quitting, 78–81
history of smoking, 74–75
and Kapha, 78–79
and Pitta, 78
smoking as dangerous to health, 73
and Vata, 78
Tolerance, to drugs, 65
Understanding, 112
Understanding the Alcoholic’s Mind (Ludwig), 50–51
Vajrasana Pose, 116
Vakriti, 106
Varieties of Religious Experience, The (James), 49
Vasana, 15
Vata, 23, 24, 30–31
and alcoholism, 53–54
balancing diet, 120–21
characteristics of, 31–32
and drug addiction, 69–70
and exercise, 114, 115–18
and food addiction, 87
questionnaire, 25–26
and tobacco addiction, 78
unbalanced, 35, 106
Vegetables, 121
Voltaire, 62
Water, 23, 24
Weight, 83, 84
Weil, Andrew, 91
Who Got Einstein’s Office? (Regis), 82
Wine, 41
Withdrawal
“cold turkey,” 66
from alcohol addiction, 45
from drug addiction, 59, 65–66
from television addiction, 99
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 88
Wonder, 12
Work, pleasure in, 124
Work addiction, 95–97
World’s fair, 10
Yoga, 114–18, 125–26
Yo-yo effect, 56
Creating Health
Return of the Rishi
Quantum Healing
Perfect Health
Unconditional Life
Ageless Body, Timeless Mind
Perfect Weight
Journey into Healing
Creating Affluence
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
The Return of Merlin
Restful Sleep
Perfect Digestion
The Way of the Wizard
Boundless Energy
Raid on the Inarticulate
The Path to Love
The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents
The Love Poems of Rumi
(edited by Deepak Chopra; translated by Deepak Chopra and Fereydoun Kia)
Healing the Heart
Everyday Immortality
The Lords of the Light
On the Shores of Eternity
How to Know God
The Chopra Centre Herbal Handbook
EARLIER I SUGGESTED that an addict is a seeker of joy, but one who has been looking in the wrong places and has become sidetracked there, perhaps for many years. We explored some of those side roads in Part Two. But all this was in preparation for the ideas and techniques presented in the pages that follow. In other words, wherever you may have been in the past, now you’ve “come to the right place”!
Despite their apparent differences, the topics I will cover in Part Three—meditation, exercise, Vata balancing diet, and joyful daily activities—are really diverse approaches to the same goal. If I were to describe that goal in the fewest possible words, I would call it perfect health. The Ayurvedic concept of perfect health is founded on the idea that body, mind, and spirit are truly one—and therefore perfect health is achieved when the physical, intellectual, and spiritual sides of our nature are working together efficiently and harmoniously. The purpose of the material in Part Three, and the purpose of Ayurveda as a whole, is to help you discover, use, and enjoy the tools that nature gave you for making that goal a reality.
Your results on the mind body questionnaire indicate your dominant dosha. In a basic sense, this is who you are physically and emotionally. The balance point of your nature was set at your birth, and in Sanskrit this balance point is called your prakriti, a word that literally means “nature.” But stresses of all kinds can cause deviations from the natural condition of harmony in your system, resulting in the state of imbalance that is called vakriti. Although your underlying nature has not changed and your dominant dosha remains the same, your currently unbalanced condition can mean that another dosha is presently exerting an unduly strong influence. When addictive behavior has been present for some time, the excessively influential dosha is virtually always Vata—and it’s important to note that even individuals who are natural Vata types can also be subject to Vata imbalances. Because of Vata’s destabilizing influence on most people who have a history of addiction, the techniques in this section of the book are designed to pacify Vata dosha. Once this has been accomplished and your system moves closer to its natural state of prakriti, you can make further adjustments in your diet, your exercise routine, and your other Ayurvedic practices so that they are no longer oriented specifically toward balancing Vata. To learn more about this, I suggest you consult my book Perfect Health, or arrange for a consultation with an Ayurvedic physician.
Although all the material in Part Three can be enormously beneficial in dealing with addictive behavior, I want to emphasize the special importance of meditation. All addictions have one thing in common: their power depends on something external, something out there in the world, something extrinsic to the individual self. It may be a powder or a liquid or a machine, but it’s not something you were born with—you’ve got to find it and buy it and drink it or swallow it. In contrast, meditation comes entirely from within. You already have everything you need to meditate. You had it when you came into the world. No one can sell it to you, and no one can take it away from you. Meditating is the opposite, the antithesis, of addictive behavior, and I urge you to give particular attention to the chapter on meditation that follows.
I BELIEVE THAT addiction and its consequences are the most serious health problems now facing our society. Cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses such as emphysema, many forms of cancer, and AIDS are just a few of the conditions that derive, directly or indirectly, from addiction. This brief book, therefore, is an attempt to address a very large and complex problem in a very limited space. At first glance, this might seem an enormously difficult task. There might even appear to be something presumptuous about trying to deal with the immense complexities of addiction in little more than a hundred pages. Yet I believe that a small book such as this can be of great benefit to the millions of people who are struggling to cope with addictive behaviors in their own lives, and to the millions of family members or loved ones who are trying to help them find a solution to these problems.
In fact, even as I acknowledge the vast scope of our society’s difficulties with addiction, I feel very optimistic and eager as I begin this book. The reason is quite simple: although we will be discussing real physical and emotional pain in these pages, essentially this will be a book about health and joy, pleasure and abundance, love and hope.
To some extent, I believe the very positive orientation I will be taking here is unconventional. So much of our effort to address addiction is infused with anger, conflict, and despair. Sometimes this is articulated quite explicitly, as in phrases like “the war on drugs,” or in “war stories” of careers ruined and lives shattered by addictive behaviors. At other times the negative orientation expresses itself less directly, as seen in the bleak decor of many treatment centers in which patients are called upon to deal with their problems seated in a circle of plastic chairs in a linoleum-floored, fluorescent-lit room.
Fear of the past, fear of the future, fear of using the present moment for experiencing real joy—so many fears haunt the ways in which we have become immersed in addictive behaviors. Fear is also a part of many treatment programs for addiction. Yet a fear-based approach cannot, in my opinion, be successful for the majority of people over an extended period of time. So I intend to propose here a quite different view of addiction, of what it represents, and of the people who succumb to it.
I see the addict as a seeker, albeit a misguided one. The addict is a person in quest of pleasure, perhaps even of a kind of transcendent experience—and I want to emphasize that this kind of seeking is extremely positive. The addict is looking in the wrong places, but he is going after something very important, and we cannot afford to ignore the meaning of his search. At least initially, the addict hopes to experience something wonderful, something that transcends an unsatisfactory or even an intolerable everyday reality. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in this impulse. On the contrary, it provides a foundation for true hope and real transformation.
I’m tempted to go even further in this characterization of the addict as seeker. In my view, a person who has never felt the pull of addictive behavior is someone who has not taken the first faltering step toward discovering the true meaning of Spirit. Perhaps addiction is nothing to be proud of, but it does represent an aspiration toward a higher level of experience. And although that aspiration cannot ultimately be fulfilled by chemicals or by compulsive behaviors, the very attempt suggests the presence of a genuinely spiritual nature.
Paradise Lost