Hi Faustino
well..I'm quite familiar with your Buddhist approach to life by now... and appreciate your input.

For your 'detachment' I offer 'transformed mind. I say that, because how can the 'I' in us detach ourselves from the reality we face?

The "I" in us does not go anywhere.. it cannot hide...in fact..it is most difficult to hide your "I" from the craving for alchohol..as a young man said to me a week or so back "If you know the bottle shop is just a km away..you will find yourself sprinting to it"

You say 'detach'...but I ask 'who/what will do the detaching'? You speak as if there are 2 entities in our being. One can order the other to 'be gone' from some temptation.
Perhaps I'm misreading you, but you can correct me.

I prefer to focus on our core being itself. My starting point is of course the spiritual.. which influences the physical. Something has to 'direct' our being such that our brain chemistry will be altered.
But I can only accept that our consiousness and spiritual dimensions are interwoven into the total 'us'.

The crazy thing is... that we can 'know' that something is 'short term pleasant/long term harmful' yet.. because the negative consequences are not felt immediately, on the contrary pleasure/gratification is the immediate outcome of much harmful behavior... we often cave in to it.

I contend..that under the influence of the Word of God, our spirits/hearts are challenged and our consciences are touched, such that we have an opportunity to make a change of direction. (Repentance) After, or proceeding from, that change of direction (an act of the will) our brain chemistry will alter in a positive way.
The Bible calls this 'sanctification', a process. Phil 3:12-14 applies.

Polycarp, not “Buddhist”, which is sectarian, but realist – the Buddha taught a technique for observing reality as it manifests within one’s own mind and body, to see things as they really are rather than merely at the gross, apparent, surface level which we normally perceive.

Applying this technique, you won’t find any “I”, but a flow of phenomena arising and passing away which the (fleeting) mind can observe. A foundation of the technique is observing a strict moral code, in practise very similar to the code I learned from a Methodist mother. You can’t remove sources of temptation, by understanding the transitory nature of existence and the suffering inherent even in pleasant experiences if we crave for their continuance/repetition, you remove the desire for them, the craving for the sensation they bring. This is how I dealt with drug use, promiscuity and suicidal tendencies – I’m sure I’d have been dead decades ago if I hadn’t learned the Vipassana technique, which enabled me to live a life which was good for me and good for others rather than continuing with self-destructive habit patterns.

Addictions are entrenched habit patterns, cravings for particular sensations. Whatever the proximate cause – e.g., in my case, fear of rejection and inability to commit arising from the trauma of a family break-up in my infancy – the answer is to dissolve these negative habit patterns. Vipassana is a simple but powerful technique for doing this – I don’t know of any comparable solution. Criminals generally have very strong anti-social habit patterns, Vipassana has been used successfully in prisons in several countries to break these patterns and change the behaviour of even hardened criminals.

Of course, the addict must have a volition to change. My rescue began when I was pulled back from the brink of suicide by someone who had learned many things of value in India, leading me to go there. So a first step with addicts is to get them to see that there is an alternative, they do have a choice and a capacity for change.

On the last point, addicts are always driven to addiction by some particular suffering, often depression or leading to depression. People with depression etc tend to have a very distorted and confined view, people who haven't been severely depressed can't comprehend the condition, and sufferers tend to feel very isolated. Some years ago I read and posted on the depressionnet website - it was clear that many new posters couldn't understand their condition, thought it was unique and didn't know where to turn; and that when they found out that they were not alone, people did understand, people could empathise and advise them, it could be a turning point, a glimmer of hope. Something like this is needed to give people the vision, volition and courage to move forward.

I gave voluntary service for about 30 years in helping others to share the benefits of Vipassana (not evangelising, but helping to organise and manage courses and build and run Vipassana Centres), I had to give up during several years with concurrent severe illnesses, and have been delighted in recent months to be able to resume managing courses. So I've not only seen the change in my life but that in many others.

Which is not to suggest that non-meditators can't help addicts! - just to say that I put into practice the point of helping people to change. That said, many addicts will have to have already made some progress before they could cope with a Vipassana course, in retrospect I had several months of preparation once I'd decided to make changes.

Many have found, like me, that once you make that first, mental, step, avenues open up, positive forces come to your assistance. Volition is the key; helping people find that volition is the non-addict's role.

Polycrap: << I contend..that under the influence of the Word of God, our spirits/hearts are challenged and our consciences are touched, such that we have an opportunity to make a change of direction. (Repentance) After, or proceeding from, that change of direction (an act of the will) our brain chemistry will alter in a positive way. >>

So if all that's the case, why is your son abusing alcohol - given that he's undoubtedly been "under the influence of the Word of God" since birth?

Drug taking is similar to immoral behaviour. People believe that the temporary pleasure (or escape) is worth the risk. That is why with years of indoctrination about just wearing a condom teenage pregnancy rates still climb. The only difference now is that we now terminate (murder) in order to cover up our shame.

Spiritually whatever a person is overcome by is that which he/she serves. Whether it is drug taking, sports, sexual immorality, homosexuality, gambling, alcoholism pornography or paedophille.

I know a number of drug takers who want to give up but they love the pleasure of it more than their own children. This is what happens when we are mastered by things that are totally selfish.

Humility, repentance and asking for Christ's power has and does lead to freedom.

The good news is that those caught up in such bondage are far more likely to turn to Christ due to their desperate circumstances. The ones who 'have it together' disguise their greed, lusts, perversions etc in respectability (art, sports, careers, environmentalism etc etc)

This little piece of logorrhoea should be enshrined forever as the "paedophile priest" defence.

>>under the influence of the Word of God, our spirits/hearts are challenged and our consciences are touched, such that we have an opportunity to make a change of direction. (Repentance)<<

Boaz, even a devout non-believer can feel sorry for what he has done (repent,in your terminology), and decide to "go straight" in future.

Usually - as with our priestly friends - after he is caught.

Tell me please the number of the current crop of Christian kiddy-fiddlers who gave themselves up, as a result of their "spirits/hearts being challenged under the influence of the Word of God"

There were none, Boaz.

Just like in real life, with real people.

Goodness/badness is 100% unrelated to religion.

Unless of course you are inclined give the paedophile priest extra demerit points for being a hypocrite as well as a sex criminal.