l friend told me about one of our friends in college, who got addicted to running. He was so addicted to running that his feet would get sore, get blistery, get cuts in them, but he would not stop running. It became a psychological problem. He needed psychiatric help for it. He actually overdid running so much, became so addicted to that adrenalin rush, or whatever he was getting out of it, that he started torturing himself. Very strange, very sad.
So, are we back to compassion for ourselves? Are we back to compassion for ourselves for this habit of rushing and the chronic need to feel busy? Let's open the compassion up for ourselves. Let's open the compassion up for everyone else in the world who has this same kind of conditioning, and gets a big hit, an adrenalin rush, out of working, working, working; feeling busy, busy, busy. Use the D/D method, it's wonderful, it'll work on this, if you do it good enough, if you open your heart for all of the pain, all of the suffering.
When you think about it, the practice is to look at Dukkha, to see the cause of Dukkha, to see a way out of Dukkha. You look at the fact that, okay, I have this problem, "I like to get an adrenalin rush, but it causes me Dukkha". It's logical that you must stop somewhere along this cycle that you're spinning around and round in.
Tell yourself, "This is Dukkha. This is Dukkha, I don't want it."; "This is Dukkha, I don't want it". Open the compassion, over, and over, and over again: "I don't want it", "I don't want it"; "This is Dukkha", "This is Dukkha". How many times do you have to say to yourself, before finally you say: "It's fire, I don't want it", and you let go. Remember the Fire analogy I give during the regular retreat.
So you have to see it over, and over, and over, and over, and in between it's like you hang on: "It's neat"; "It's me"; "It's me". Other times you think you let go a little bit, but no. You have to look at it over, and over, and over - I can't tell you how many times it'll take, but it's like the Buddha said to that young 16-year-old Brahmin priest, "You must do this practice over and over, over and over. The compassion, the lovingkindness, open it up for yourself, and open up the D/D method, it can help with this sort of problem.