Day 4 - Mind and Life XXVII - Craving, Desire and Addiction

Dr Matthieu Ricard

Dr Wendy Farley

You can view the videos here.

The point of this summary is not to replace the complete video and nor is it fully comprehensive, but rather the intention is to give a brief overview of proceedings so as to assist the reader in determining which sessions they would like to watch in full. 

Day Four of Mind and Life XXVII - Matthieu Ricard discusses From Craving to Freedom and Flourishing: Buddhist Perspectives on Desire and Dr Wendy Farley talks about Contemplative Christianity, Desire and Addiction.

A Christian and an addict walk into a meeting...

Recently Richard Wilmot(PhD), author of “American Euphoria: Saying 'Know' to Drugs”, posted this provocative statement on a LinkedIn discussion group:

“Today one of the main criteria for a diagnosis of drug addiction/alcoholism is: continuing to consume alcohol or another drug “despite unpleasant or adverse consequences” (DSM). For the Christian martyrs the same criteria would apply. People of that time and place—Rome, 2nd century A.D.—could also say that this new Christianity was like a drug that endangered lives and that being a Christian had all the adverse financial, social, psychological and physical consequences that we now see in the lives of drug addicts and alcoholics. And yet Christians, of all ages, in spite of the consequences, continued to profess their faith… and continued to be eaten by lions.

Obviously there was something to Christianity that prevented the Christian from being abstinent from Christianity. It was something internal… an internal euphoria. It was something that could not be seen but nevertheless was something that was felt… and felt as something awesomely significant. It was something that made all the pain and suffering worthwhile: it was a religious experience.