Return to God

Let’s start with drugs. They disconnect a person from stress and emotional pain.

A person with soul-related issues is the one drawn to drugs.

The soul gets damaged when we renounce love for the sake of pleasure, when well-being, principles, ideals, and spirituality become more important to us than love.

If the pleasures for the soul, mind, and body lead to the destruction of love in others or in ourselves, our soul becomes impoverished, and we begin to suffer from the absence of love in our soul.

Doctors refer to this as a lack of positive emotions, a constant inner stress. It can be called emotional pain.

The right way out of this situation is to accept this pain, limit oneself in pleasures, and try to return to God. This is a very painful, agonizing, and long path.

It is much easier to compensate for the lack of love through various pleasures — sex, food, alcohol, gambling, self-satisfaction, or a sense of power.

But the more pleasures we receive, the more impoverished our soul becomes.

Moreover, the dose needs to be constantly increased until a protective mechanism in the form of diseases and misfortunes activates.

The initial stage of the disintegration process lasts a fairly long time because our soul is vast and takes a long time to deteriorate.

The spirit and body go through this stage much faster.

The collapse of the future, i.e., the spirit and consciousness, is slowed down by such diseases as Hepatitis C, AIDS, cancer, etc. All these are indicators that the future no longer exists.

If a person stops using drugs, it does not necessarily mean that the process of the soul's and consciousness’s disintegration has stopped.

It's not enough to simply limit oneself from pleasures; the energy of pleasure must be transformed into love. Without faith in God, this is impossible.

But if the soul does not return to love, the natural degradation of the spirit and body will occur.

Alcohol is the same drug, so its regular consumption also cuts us off from love and contributes to the degradation of the spirit and body.

Why does drug use cause a person to hit rock bottom?

Because each time they use drugs, they renounce love in favor of pleasure.

The collapse of the spirit manifests as the loss of the future, a ruined destiny, loss of a job, housing problems, humiliation, diseases, and misfortunes.

If, in such a situation, a person remembers God, the collapse of the spirit pushes them back, helping them return to the soul and love.

If they fall into despair or resentment, their body begins to deteriorate after the spirit, and in such a state, a person does not live long.

If there is no future, as indicated by Hepatitis C and HIV infection, one must return to the soul and try to revive it.

Pleasures from sex, food, alcohol, and drugs must be replaced by other forms — pleasures from physical labor and creativity.

One can find joy in caring for others and helping them.

One can find joy in extreme sports, hiking, and unpredictable situations, in work with minimal compensation, or in communicating with and caring for animals.

One can find joy in fasting and in purifying one’s emotions.

One can feel joy in solitude.

The main thing is for the soul not to expect pleasures but to start giving away energy.

The destructive happiness of drugs, alcohol, and other pleasures needs to be replaced with the happiness of creation.

Creativity, sports, caring for others, extreme situations, selfless work — these are all forms of energy giving that purify the soul.

Once you master them, it will be easier to move on to what is called selfless love in the soul.

It will be easier not only to understand but also to feel that love for God truly is the highest happiness.

After all, you can give as much energy as you want to God in the form of love and gratitude, and this will not weaken you by increasing attachment, but on the contrary, it will make you free and happy.

S. N. Lazarev, «The Experience of Survival, Part 2»