- All forms of addiction come from getting used to something, and once it becomes habit your mind will think about it repeatedly and you will have a strong recurring desire for that certain thing. The key to stop the craving is to develop self-discipline. When you abstain from something for a while, your craving will reduce naturally. For example, if you want to be a smart learner, how can you stop being lazy? It’s almost impossible because we already became used to laziness. Therefore, we must keep trying even though we are lazy. When we can overcome that turning point, our laziness will gradually reduce, though trying requires self-discipline.
There is no shortcut in a human’s life. If you have no power over your mind, you can’t do anything properly. It’s like if you want to break a sugar addiction, you must first have a strong will to stop the sugar cravings. No matter how much suffering you go through, at some point you will get used to it.
What I try to illustrate is that human beings have no shortcuts, so if you want to achieve something, just do it. If you want to a break sugar addiction, you must be determined to quit eating sweets. If you want to be healthy you should consume good foods for your body. All the healthy people in this world had go through a lot of struggles. Therefore, they are well aware of what is addictive and unhealthy, and that they need to completely switch directions and go through a lot of hardship. It’s the path that everyone has to overcome.
One problem of stopping sugar cravings isn’t how to avoid eating sugar, but rather on how to encourage yourself to cut down sugar instead. We can develop this habit with our families, by encouraging everyone to help each other maintain a healthy lifestyle, giving support to one another, and cautioning when someone feels like getting back to old ways.
Inevitably, discipline is a main key that can make the difference between those who succeed and those who fail. Whether physical or mental health, everything depends on discipline. According to the Buddhist teaching, Sila (precept) is the moral conduct which ones should keep adhering to, if one can adhere they will live happily, but if they are unable to their life will be troubled.
Strong discipline comes from strong precepts
Those who are disciplined strictly adhere to Buddhist precepts. For instance, while eating we must realize that health is the most important. Otherwise, one would just passively follow rules without knowing the reason why it is important to take care of one’s health. Our body is ours, but if we take our body for granted, one day when we fall ill we will realize the value of our body. Therefore, while we are still healthy we need to be aware that this body is important. As a result, we have a moral obligation to control our eating habit. If we are still not aware of that, discipline is still necessary. Adherence to rules and an enlightened understanding must be in parallel.
If we compare to the concept of Dhamma, precepts (Sila) are that which you should adhere to or refrain from. Even though they are rules, they are ones that should practiced with mindfulness in order to see the real benefits of the doing or refraining from something.
In fact, there is no need to care for one’s health excessively. But when one falls ill or has a disease, one must understand and come to terms with it, because that is what one has been accumulating all along. For example, if one day one gets cancer, one has to admit that it is a consequence of one’s food indulgence, a trade-off between enjoying happiness while eating and getting the disease. It is almost as if one has used up the quota for emotional happiness. On the other hand, if one does not indulge, one may not get the delightful tastes like those of sugar cravers or salt cravers, which is the trade-off between giving into your cravings and maintaining good health. But if one can stay disciplined, one can live happily and be rewarded with a healthy body and enjoy a disease-free life.
Compiled by: Winna Rakkarn
Photo credit: Unsplash
