If we can see when craving is absent, we will understand addiction and what to do about it. Has one ever sat in a forest at night, unafraid, bathed in moonlight? Listening to the rustling leaves, the earth's breathing. Something opens within us, and this opening is empty and solid at the same time. Profound stillness of mind. A quivering in the heart of what is wordlessly present. In this depth of being, without movement, utterly still, is a total absence of craving. Returning to silence, to our source, reveals our wholeness, and we see that all addiction comes from a forgetfulness of this. Awakening to our Self is freedom. In this freedom, we are not terrified of the unknown, we embrace it. We are not partial; we are whole. We remain before thought, open and free.

If one wants to become free from an addiction, one must understand all addiction. To see what addiction is, we must see how much of our sense of self is determined by what we crave.

Have ever experienced a moment of true freedom? Have we ever experienced complete independence, from substance, from compulsive relating, from becoming? Are we not addicted to thinking, to projecting our fears and anxieties into the future? What would happen if we gave this up? What is left if everything we use to define ourselves is taken away?

This can't be easily answered, because the answer becomes another support. Without holding, without pushing away, without anything, who are we? Is it possible to live in purity, without conditions and qualifications?

In a moment of awakening, of experiencing our innate wholeness, craving disappears. There is no other thing to depend on, no other place to go, no other time to covet. No condition to medicate or escape, no whole to fill. In this awakening to wholeness is simplicity, the joy of everyday life, the acceptance of everyday thoughts and feelings. No need to run, no need to hide, no need to fear, no need to crave. Simplicity is openness and wonder, simplicity is peace. Peace is who we are. When we know who we are, we are free, and this freedom dissolves the condition that is the root of all cravings, attachments, and dependent identifications.