"Every Desire is Holy"

 

According to the yoga sutras, there are four main purposes in life; dharma or living in a right way, artha or self-reliance, kama or human enjoyment, and moksa freedom.  BKS Iyengar uses the metaphor of a river to capture the interrelationships between these four aims. 

 

He writes,

“Imagine the situation like a river flowing between two banks that control its course.  One bank is dharma, the science of religion, or as I consider it, the righteous duty that upholds, sustains, and supports our humanity.  By religious I mean the observance of universal or ethical principles, not limited by culture, time, or place.  The other bank of the river is moksa, freedom.  By moksa I do not mean some fanciful concept of future liberation but acting with detachment in all the little things of here and now-not taking the biggest slice of cake onto one’s own plate, not getting angry because one cannot control the actions and words of those around us.”

 

The river of our lives, artha and kama runs through these two banks.  When dharma and moksa are in balance, supporting each other in firmness and purpose, the waters of pleasure, love, prosperity, and well-being flow with vigor and vitality.  When they are lax and the waters overflow their banks, life’s energy is depleted. 

 

Addiction is a sign that dharma and moksa are out of balance, lax or forgotten, infirm and porous.  In compulsion for food, money, sex, work, alcohol, drugs, fame, the rivers of our lives (our hopes, dreams, deep intentions) flow over its banks leaving us depleted from vital energy, balance, and precious life-force, lost, and out of control.

 

At its root, addiction points to our deep inner longings for love, completeness, wholeness, and compassion.  The compulsive action can be thought of as a calling from the deepest parts of ourselves which long to be known, loved, and seen, and heard in this world but which we have abandoned out of fear, shame, and confusion.  These longing come from and through the body but they are not of the body but of the soul. 

 

In a yogic recovery, dharma and moksa teach us how to “taste the essence” of the infinite through the particular, find the balance and firmness to harness life’s flows of pleasure and pain and in doing so plumb the inner depths of our being, the soul.  While dharma offers ethical and moral principles to cultivate a known sense of the soul, moksa offers the chance to make choices in life rather than acting out of unconscious compulsive habits that are rooted in fear, shame, and confusion. 

 

Using dharma and moksa to recover from addictions and compulsions gives us the chance to return to the divine within, to go deeper inside of ourselves, to cultivate a profound inner knowing.  Seen in this way, it is through this addiction, not in spite of it, we are given the chance to know our deepest desires.  And as Hafiz wrote so many years ago since “All longing is holy,” this work of recovery is holy work at its core.