freethinking

A couple of rehabs ago (yes, sad statement), I met someone who had told me there were some buddhists who liked to study alcoholics because (and I am putting this very simply) since "life is suffering", and alcoholics induce suffering upon themselves, then they are closer to God without knowing it. I have always tried to find more info on this, but never did. I do know about the Sarpashana in Boulder, CO in the 80's....but I think this is different.

Has anyone ever heard of this? Would love to find more info on it...

kiki5711

look for a different budhist. This one might like alcohol in secret.

what about all the other people who are suffering and are NOT drinking. They're not closer to god?

Zencat

"Encountering sufferings will definitely contribute to the elevation of your spiritual practice, provided you are able to transform calamity and misfortune into the path."
~H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama

I think suffering will cause many to seek a solution. As for the Buddhist that would be enlightenment. Alcoholics do lead a life rife with suffering. Maybe the desire is greater to seek a solution when the suffering is at its greatest. Making the alcoholic more prone to seek an end of suffering. This makes me think that the alcoholic will be more open to new messages or reconsider old beliefs in a way that leads to a greater practice of spirituality or a path that leads out of suffering.

BP44

Carl Jung wrote to Bill Wilson and stated in effect that he felt that the problem for the alcoholic was that he at a low level thirsts for a union with God. Therefore, the solution for the alcoholic is spiritus con spiritum. I cannot put down spirit without infusion with spirit. So, it isn't that the alcoholic is closer to God. The problem for the alcoholic is that he is separate from God.

omegasupreme

I can not get closer to God, it is impossible. There is no duality, God and I are closer than breathing...or, perhaps, God is the ocean and I am a wave, or God is the water and I am a fish. I just had to wake up to that which was already present. Ya see, just because our eyes are open does not mean we are awake. In the final analysis deep within is the only place I can find the Great Reality.

freethinking

Very interesting, Zencat....thnks for the quote!

kanamit

I don't understand the connection.

If you are a Christian for example, addiction will put you further away from God as drunkenness is a sin in the Bible. It will put you further away from Him—until you are reconciled.

Pinkcuda

Maybe it was meant as a joke. It sure sounds like the roots of the statement could have been made in jest.

DrivenHeart85

I was thinking what Zencat said essentially because I'm living out this whole topic right now. lol In my opinion alcoholics have more suffering than your "normie" and eventually, (in theory and in hope), the alcoholic will look to end or decrease the suffering. A normie might live every day on a standard level of suffering that they've become acclimated to and never seek to relieve it because they think it's just how life is. When people say they're "grateful to be alcoholics", I like to think this "closer to "God" reason is why. Tolle, (though I don't think he ever said he was Buddhist), was in great suffering before his ego mind and self split.

In my case, I lived the first 18 years of my life as a neurotic Christian Catholic, then went to college, gave up on my faith and picked up alcohol addiction instead. Now, at 26, I know I need to do something to learn how to live sober and cope with all of the suffering in life and am open minded enough to go seek out something that is not familiar to me or my culture even, but makes sense to me. Like my "13th day meltdown" post...that's totally me not understanding a damn thing about life. lol But now I have the ability to read further and get more understanding about why those nasty emotions are so common in this world and what I can do to understand/change/accept them.

But that's me and my only slightly educated on Buddhism opinion...I live a busy life so reading and learning only get a chance to pop in on weekends. lol But if I had continued life as it was when I was 18, experienced 1/2 of the loss I'd experienced and never started drinking, I would've been vastly farther away from spiritual truth than I am now.

Jfanagle

One's proximity to God, I have always understood at any rate, is not a case of God's position. We are as close to God as we choose to be and God's position remains constant.

In a nutshell I have reminded myself of this comment that I heard years ago in an AA meeting and it stuck in my mind.

"If you are not as close to God as you should or want to be, make no mistake it isn't God that has moved."

Jon

LaFemme

Dicey subject...I like it

I will say I was my closest to God when I was drinking. That was when I got on my knees almost every single night and begged him to help me.

Now I still pray and feel I have a good relationship with God, but certainly not the intensity of my active drinking stage.

I've heard it said that God uses our troubles to get us to seek him. I always sought God in my life, but only once with all my heart and soul.