An Invitation to See With New Eyes

The alcoholic or addict is often plagued with an inaccurate “vision”. We tend to have this eye that sees things from a certain kind of self-centered perspective. We seem to be, left unchecked or untreated, destined to view the world and the circumstances in which we find ourselves from the viewpoint of how it affects us or what we can or should get out of it. We often find ourselves looking for what we can extract from the world rather that what we could add.

In recovery we are gifted a new vision. By doing the internal work to gain a clear understanding of how our alcoholism or addiction warps our perspective toward self-centered thought, we begin to see just how much damage our own thought process has done and can do to ourselves and those around us. Beyond the negative though, in recovery we also get to see just how much good we may be able to do in the service of others.

A Christian Mystic’s Approach to Seeing the All

Most Christian mystics agree that at our core is a deep yearning for union with, or connection to, the Divine. The difficulty found in the alcoholic or addict is the layering of our own desires, pains and/or needs leading to increasing levels of isolation – isolation from others and a sense of separation from God. The more isolation or separation we experience the more self-centered we become. We become consumed by cravings for escaping reality when there is no solution present to deal with our reality.

Once we discover the spiritual nature of our disease, we can begin to see more clearly a path forward – a path toward a spiritual connection and the real need for such a path. We begin to learn through experience that our sense of separation is a false sense – a false notion. We come to find that our connection has always been there and will always be there because we carry the Voice of the Divine with us always. Our ability to “hear” the Voice has just been deafened by our own self-centered desires. Why spend time trying to hear something we aren’t even aware of, particularly when we’re busy trying to solve our own problems?

This new awareness begins to bring about a transformation in us. As we spend time each day seeking to improve our connection, we begin to see the world differently. We eventually find the ability to see others, situations and ourselves differently. Meister Eckhart famously wrote: “The eye with which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me…my eye and God’s eye are one eye”. This was of course a poetic statement attempting to depict a new way of seeing ourselves, one another, and all of creation the way God does. What if I could see me, or see you, or see the world the way God does? What would I see?

A Buddhist Approach to New Vision through Greater Insight and Understanding

On a Buddhist path, Understanding, Insight, Loving Kindness and Compassion are four major components of leading a life of liberation from attachment and offering a path to liberation for others. We alcoholics and addicts, in our disease, may find ourselves guided by our attachments to our own ideas, notions and images of ourselves, others and the situations in which we find ourselves. These attachments lead to a craving for escape – most likely through alcohol or other substances. By beginning to look deeply at the nature of our craving as well as the nature of the mental escape provided by consuming alcohol or other substances, we can begin to see the impermanent nature of each of these. With this deeper awareness we might develop the intent to break free from this recurring cycle of suffering and escape.

As we continue a path of gaining greater insight and understanding our view broadens. We begin to see not only the suffering of ourselves but the suffering of others. With the truth of a common suffering and our own experience of freedom from suffering, our once self-centered thought-life is transformed to one of other-centeredness. We gain access to a compassion for others we might not have had before and a true desire to express loving-kindness toward others. This shift in thinking and approach to life is most closely depicted in the Boddhisattva path of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition: one who works for the liberation of all beings. Experiencing our own liberation, we find a true desire to show others how they might be liberated as well.

A new view or new eyes through which to see the truth of ourselves and our own spiritual shortfalls are tremendous gifts. From this new understanding we can move in a new direction of spiritual growth leading to love, compassion, and understanding for ourselves and for others we may be able to help with our own experience. With this new and greater understanding, we can begin to build a more beneficial life of deeper connection to God, Nature, the Universe, Creation, Others and our own innate sense of well-being divorced from the attachments that led to so much of our own trouble.