Is a Spiritual Awakening Necessary for Recovery?

Is A Spiritual Awakening Necessary for Recovery?

Yes, I think so.  I do not believe that a spiritual awakening is necessary for abstinence.  But I do believe that a new perspective and a new meaning is necessary if someone is to live a long life and suffer setbacks and defeats as we all do - without the need to self-medicate or alter our perceptions.

MEANING

For life to have meaning (and the suffering that comes with it), it must signify something more than just be born, work, play, eat, sleep, have sex, make more of us and die. Life must point to something beyond itself.  But what could beyond life, beyond nature?

The conventional, nonspiritual response to this question rests on the assumption that life can be defined purely in biological terms.  Thus, it is said that an individual human life has meaning insofar as it is part of the greater life of humanity or life as a whole.  For most people that means all the customary goals that bring a sense of purpose to daily life: securing the health and well-being of our family, friends and community, useful work; artistic creativity; recreational pursuits and so on. 

Beyond life means something other than biological life, and therefore it means something that cannot be known through the senses, the organs of life.

SPIRITUAL

When I define spiritual, I am talking about the dimension of human life that cannot be perceived through the senses and that gives a unique meaning to each individual human life.  An act of responsibility, charity or forgiveness may or may not be accompanied by spiritual awareness.  On the other hand, a truly spiritual nature will strive to be responsible, charitable, and forgiving.  It will also know when it has fallen short.

RECOVERY

Recovery does not mean simply that the alcoholic or drug addict has become abstinent or even that he’s resumed the activities of daily life – that is, work, family, recreation, and other normal activities.  The idea of recovery suggests that 1) an addict or alcoholic realizes that he or she belongs to something greater than himself or herself, and that 2) he is willing to try to act in accordance with that realization, especially when only a memory of it remains and life seems unbearable.

For the true alcoholic and addict who have only quit, any sort of pain – physical, emotional or mental – triggers the reminder that intoxication is a quick and efficient way out.  The addict may or may not choose to act of that reminder, but the fact that it comes up is part of the automatism.  With the growth of recovery, the addict leans that the promise of relief through intoxication is an illusion.  She has learned that suffering may be put off but that it does not go away.  It’s an illusion and a lesson that takes both time and effort.  As a result, the newly or merely abstinent addict carries two burdens: first, that the suffering triggered the urge to escape and, second, all the difficulties inherent in not acting on that urge.

How does addiction match the characteristics of suffering?

_{THE HIGHER POWER}

The virtue of faith in a Higher Power also means remembering that we are lower powers. We are like the dog who waits patiently for his master to return.  The dog did not create his master; he has had an actual experience with a master.  Having once had a moment of clarity, the experience of a Higher Power, the recovering alcoholic or addict is in the same situation: waiting faithfully for what he once knows with certainty to be true. 

Working toward a spiritual awakening, then means putting what faith you have in the right place.  Unlike anything or anyone else you might get sober for, a Higher Power does not change.  Relationships, health, satisfaction with work, the joys of creativity and recreation – all are subject to change.  That’s why depending on them as a foundation for sobriety is a mistake.  Eventually, at least for some period of time, all of them will stop making us happy.  At some point, then will even be the source of frustration and disappointment.

A spiritual awakening brings the understanding that we are not alive for ourselves alone.  We are not even alive simply for our family, our communities, or even the whole human race.  We are alive for the purposes of a Higher Power.

What is your purpose in life?

What is your source of life? 

What is your source of strength? 

What is your higher power like?