Ministries & Spirituality

There is a time and place in which the soul begins to seek a path of return to its lost home, and, finding the way blocked or invisible, yearns once again for the sense of peace and love that it remembers as having been part of its deepest longing. In that moment of time, when the soul turns toward the sun of its longing seeking remembrance and reunion, seeking the sense of peace and completion that it believes is possible, a significant step toward the light of Spirit is taken and the soul will never be the same again.

At the same time, if the yearning for home is not realized by fulfillment, if the spiritual longing finds, instead, an emptiness of heart and a lack of response to its prayer for reunion, it can become disconsolate and greatly sorrowful, so much so that it gives up that which it has set its heart upon, and instead turns to other means by which to fulfill its desire for peace and for the essence of tranquility which can only be produced by the light.

These are the conditions under which addictive processes take place within the human psyche. They emerge from the condition of perceived separation from one’s point of origin and spiritual home, and arise when the deeper longing of the soul still struggling to emerge within the human self, seeks its way back to the point of its Source and origin.

They do not arise before this, because before this the embodied soul is fully engaged with life on the material plane. It is engaged both from the standpoint of seeking mastery and a sense of physical comfort and fulfillment, and in the sense of fascination with the many arenas of earthly learning and pleasure that are both sensory and spiritual – though the latter quality may be unknown to the self that pursues them. When the soul begins to find these pleasures and this mastery no longer sufficient to quiet the yearning that grows within the heart and the deeper levels of being, then the soul begins to lose hope that the life of the physical plane will be able to grant the satisfaction that it longs for. Instead, it may seek a substitute gratification that it hopes will steadfastly and surely be able to grant the kind of peace and soul-fulfillment that is desired.

Fundamentally, turning toward addiction is a spiritual act. However much it may be fueled by conditions of poverty, need, emotional instability, immaturity, or any other psychological variable, the replacement of the soul’s yearning for completion and peace with a substitute is an act of spiritual seeking that has taken a turn away from its true destination toward an alternative destination. This is an act that is both an effort to resolve a spiritual dilemma, as well as an effort to grant immediate release from the pain of having to wait for a more authentic source of realization.

The difficulty in waiting for what one longs for but cannot yet have, and the emptiness that occurs in the presence of the heart’s longing that neither mind nor senses can satisfy – these are the dilemmas of the embodied self that seeks relief from longing and a way of resolving the problems of time and of waiting. If the process of choice were engaged in more consciously, with greater awareness of what truly was being sought, it is likely that many more who turn to addictive substitutes could find within themselves the courage to wait through a period of pain and of emptiness. But the choice before the embodied self is rarely that conscious. And although a spiritual longing exists at its foundation, this longing is often not even dimly recognized by the conscious, experiencing self which only seeks an end to its pain – the pain of emptiness and the pain of loss.

When it is discovered through use of addictive substances, relationships, or habits of any kind that a kind of numbing of pain and of distress takes place through the ability of addiction to grant a temporary feeling of satisfaction, then the original impetus to find a spiritual solution to a basically spiritual dilemma is lessened. In such instances the soul must often wander far down the pathways of illusion before it discovers that the promise of peace and of satisfaction that an addictive substance or process seems to give is an illusion. It discovers that there is often more pain involved than satisfaction, and that the emptiness, in any case, never really goes away.

Some who choose this alternate route for easing a hunger of the soul continue a very long time in a state of illusion, until broken, desperate, and despairing, they return with empty hands and an empty heart to face the source of the problem. Others, who see more clearly or who are able to bear pain with greater courage, find that the path of addiction is a path of illusion and seek a change of direction and movement shortly after having embarked upon it.

The problem for many who embark on this road out of spiritual longing and out of a nameless pain that seems impossible to ease by any other route, is that there is no easing of the underlying cause of the pain except by continuing to incorporate more and more of the addictive substance, relationship, or process. This is true not only because the physiology of addiction prompts this kind of accelerated usage in order to maintain the same effect upon consciousness, but also because underneath it all, the awareness of one’s own emptiness still and always remains. Addiction represents the desperation of the hopeless and the yearning who, with a sense of desiring to save themselves, seek a way out of their dilemma by turning to a source which seems to offer a possible way.

In the end, all addictive process whose origin is the state of separation that the embodied self experiences from God and from its true self, must be healed by finding its way back to the center of this dilemma – to the source of its own pain. When this can occur in a more authentic way, that is, when it is recognized that it is spiritual hunger that is fueling the craving for a substitute and illusory peace rather than a real peace, then, and only then, can the spiritual enlightenment of the embodied self begin in an authentic way.

Today, the problem of addiction and its spiritual underpinnings can be viewed in a new light. Because it is the time now of increased spiritual light upon the earth, the underlying truth of addictive process can more easily come to the embodied soul, bringing with it greater clarity concerning inner motivations, longings, and formerly unconscious states. As a result, it is now more possible for the healing of addiction to rise beyond the level of psychological and physical forms of treatment that have proven effective in recent decades, but only to a certain degree, to a new and higher level of healing.

Now, it becomes possible for all addiction to be revealed in its true essence as a spiritual action designed to answer a need that it was believed could not be answered in any other way. With this longing exposed to the light of awakened consciousness, there is hope, today, that what has been a widespread and pervasive problem in both advanced and underdeveloped nations will have the chance of being healed in an equally widespread way at a core level. This new possibility comes out of the increased capacity of the human body and psyche to touch its own spiritual depths in ways that were not possible before. With this contact, the phenomenon of addiction can, in time, disappear as a solution to the problem of the soul’s longing, and a new step can be taken toward the soul’s true destination – the path of return toward its spiritual home.



By: Julie Redstone

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Just like a snow flake, we reach to melt in belonging, and we call this phenomenon spirituality. It gives us purpose to feel more than what we already know.

Spiritual seeking for us is a essential for many who yearn for a sense of belonging. Just like a turtle that is just hatched and knows to go directly to the ocean, and swims for years and later to come back to the same shores where it was born. And it does it without a compass, maybe the compass is built in. If we were to take a lesson from the little turtles then we too will understand that we as humans are searching to go back to where we belong, this too is built in us. The search has forever been if we look at our past. Our known history has left clues for us to realize the importance our ancestors have placed on spirituality. Be it ancient Greeks or Aztecs, or the magnificent buildings that ancient Egyptians have built for their spiritual masters. If a person does not cultivate the power of heart towards compassion, how can it find its way home? As majority of us feel pure when we act upon the kindness that is within our hearts, that takes us home even for a little moment we feel joyous.

Our inhabitants is round about seven billion on earth and out of seven billion of us, about over six billion of us feels that we need to feel spiritual. We just tend to label our spirituality different. But at the end of the day it is individual. Yet to share same faith, same point of view seems more fruitful for many of us, thus there are religions. And many of us search a personal light personal heaven either within or outside. Know the world in yourself. Each truth you learn will be, for you, as new as if it had never been written, and the book of your life, your spirituality, will then be written with gratitude for you exist and you belong to the higher powers that you seek.

We are living in times that strive for so much, so many loads that is put before our senses, thus it rather overwhelms many of us, and we tend to shine away from the very light we seek. On the other hand we are told we need to be spiritual more so than we are. The golden rule to remember is balance, as the priests or mullahs would like to guide their flock. As we cannot all go to the mountain tops and live a life of monks, if we did, who then would grow the crops to feed us, so balance is very important.

As the universal inquiry that has always been asked and still we ask. What and where is God. Response to this question is still unknown as it is not proven by many who lived before or science that is highly developed still leaves us with the very same question for all of us. Then we tend to feel that we are not meant to know, yet build our hearts faith, so we may follow the teachings that are on the menu. As when we are young we are absolute masters of our ships knowing exactly where and how we are going to sail in life. But as years are lived and the certainty of time being limited whispers, is this it? And we then are busier to find belonging, also some people feel this is it, this is all it can be.

As the saying goes “all seed answer light, but the color is different. The plant reveals what is in the seed” we too are seeds who seek light in our own ways to reach high on spiritual skies, and wondrous is the sky, always fascinating us with its decorations, like a greatest work of magic ever assembled in one place for our eyes us here on earth, we all feel awe when we gaze the nights sky. And many of us remember as child when our loving parents have taken us to camping adventures, we see the magic as soon as one star falls quickly wishing another. The will to believe in something is within us all, most use the word faith is probably in religious content. Yet even the devout faithful sometimes wonder; why must I blindly believe. Why must I trust? Some rather begin with doubt working, climbing the ladder of wisdom. To find a spiritual path we all search and take our pick from the menu. What ever makes sense for individual then the spirituality is obtained with certainty. Everyone finds himself in the world where he belongs. The vital thing is to have a fixed point from which to check its reality now and then. Always watch and follow nature of things, most important nature itself. Those who truly understand spirituality, from all walks of life from every corner of earth will tell you it is not the difference we need to concentrate of spirituality, rather, the similarity.

We, as we grow and experience life should not believe a word without putting its truth to the test; discernment does not grow in laziness; and this faculty of discernment is indispensable to the Seeker. Sound skepticism is the necessary condition for good discernment; but piecemeal criticism is an error. And just like the turtles who hatch from and egg, and go on a journey never taken before, to only come back to the shores where it was born, turtles compass, built in a mysterious way we simply do not understand, just like the silent inner voice of our souls seeking the light to shine like a star in the spiritual skies to belong in spiritual unity and love. We seek quietly as we are spiritual beings. As the spiritual humans know that the gift of Heaven is free, this GIFT of LIFE, is so great that no effort whatever could hope to ‘deserve’ it. Yet it is given as a gift just to find our way back home.



By: tolga savas

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