Mar 11

Kalu Rinpoche | How to overcome our addictions (Part 1)

Q: Tashi Delek, any advice on alcoholism?

A: I think alcohol is not the problem. The main problem is that you choose not to see certain things, and you are little bit fearful of certain things, so therefore, or overwhelmed by certain things. So that’s why you drink alcohol to switch everything off. So, so that’s that.

I don’t have a problem people drinking alcohol. But, and, and then I don’t have a problem with people who are having a depression, or having alcoholism little bit, here and there.

Everybody go, goes through that in life, you know? People goes through, you know, people lose their job, people sometime earn a good money, and sometime they don’t, regardless of where you stand in the social level. And then sometime people go through divorce, sometime people go through break, break ups, sometime they have a family dispute, some, some they have a overwhelming pressure from the position they’re in. Some people they feel isolated, lonely, depressed.

And some people drink alcohol to ease that issue, or they think that it helps. In the beginning you get the impression that it helps, little bit. But in the long run, it doesn’t help, it destroys your body. I’ve been through that. Everybody goes through that. Nobody is special.

The more you suffer in life, the more understanding of the happiness you will have afterwards. If you never suffer, you don’t understand the meaning of happiness. If you suffered enough, if you feel hopeless time and time again, and then afterwards, you will find the purpose, you will find the discipline, you will find the clarity, you will find the beauty in the teachings of the Buddha. Not seeing as a religious teaching, but rather, practical method. So, yeah.

 

Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche in Bhutan (20′)
8th March 2023

To be continued …