Lately, Tohar spoke about enthusiasm extensively. The most interesting connection they made, in my view, is between enthusiasm and addiction. Here are their words:
“There’s something about enthusiasm – it’s similar in nature to fear. It spreads, it’s contagious, and it creates more and more of itself. It replicates itself.
“Imagine yourselves feeling frightened; fear quickly amplifies itself. The more you feel the fear, the larger it grows. You might find yourself in a whirlwind of fear until you manage to ground yourself again. Enthusiasm has a similar nature. When you are enthusiastic, you want more of it. You seek out more of what excites you; you want to experience it again. For this very reason, enthusiasm is a vital force to follow, an important force that can propel you along the way – if you see yourself as worthy of what you seek.
“When a person sees themselves as unworthy, enthusiasm turns into addiction. What is addiction? It is enthusiasm that has turned into an obsession with an action, a substance, or an idea that, for a while, allows you to numb pain, numb sorrow, numb fear, and feel good.
“Addiction is the choice of a substitute because you do not perceive yourself as worthy of the real thing. The real thing could be love; it could be free expression. The real thing might be sharing wisdom, doing what you truly want to do, and much more.
“When you see yourself as worthy, you do what makes you feel better about yourself. The movement becomes one of expansion, and enthusiasm drives expansion. But if you feel unworthy and settle for substitutes, then there’s an obsession – that’s addiction. You want more and more to grasp onto something, to attain something that gives you a temporary, substitute answer to what you truly need. And because it’s a temporary substitute, you need more and more of it.
“In working with enthusiasm, it is essential to heal the pain that says, ‘I am unworthy’. Healing this pain, which we repeatedly talk about, is crucial to everything related to self-realization. It is absolutely essential in your ability to move through the world in pursuit of what excites you.
“Self-enthusiasm creates reality, and you need to see yourself as worthy of it. Not merely understand that you are worthy, but to truly know it”.
