First is to diagnose that you have an addiction issue. Then start asking a question – who is getting addicted to something? Whether it’s a material or a person? Who is getting addicted? And start looking at it from Outside. ‘I am not the addiction, I am not addicted to anything at all, and I am just witnessing it’. Try more and more to be a witness to the activity. Try to detach from the activity. It’s a gradual process. Slowly you will start feeling that your body is asking for something, which you are providing and your mind is asking for something, you are providing. But you are neither the body nor the mind. So you will start detaching yourself slowly. Eventually when you feel completely detached, all these things will vanish.
Secondly, you need to create a sudden death to an addiction. For e.g. a person who smokes want to stop. So he may think, “Okay let me reduce from 10 cigarettes to 5, then to 2, then to 1”. It never works. Mind switches over, mind twists. Suddenly you go back. What is the best thing to do in this case? Cut it off and that will cause a sudden death to the addiction. And vacuum is not good for the mind, it’s difficult because you are used to certain things over a period of time. Hence engage yourself in something positive, something that rejuvenates you, something that regenerates you. Fill that space with something more meaningful. Life will blossom.
Mohanji