Isnt that the truth @jakeybrown.

That is why every spiritual teaching mentions going within.  The answers are not outside of us because that is not where the power resides.  Inside is where we find the connection to pure consciousness....the power of the universe.

When we are focusing upon what others did, their actions, and trying to change them, we are in for a long waiting game. 

The only one to be changed is me....that is where the power lies.

Of course, outer situations and people reflect back to me what I need to learn and apply.  Life presents mirrors to me each day of the stuff I do not like about myself which requires attention.

Sadly few take the opportunity to embrace the images in the mirror and be grateful for the opportunity to point out an area where I am falling short.

I cannot recall if it was the Buddha or a zen master who once said that for one to be enlightened one must first have suffered the afflictions of terrible physical disease. I would expand upon that by saying that the burden of addiction in its many forms will also put one through the refiners fire. I've done my fair share of groaning under the burden of affliction. The irony is that what I once hated, I've come to be grateful for. For it is the burning furnace of life that makes us what we are.

Yes and through that addiction I learned how senseless fighting is.  I fought alcohol a lot...most every day...and the record is perfect...I never won.  Alcohol was the bigger foe.

It was only when I surrendered, ceased fighting it, embraced it for what it is...the power it wields...the lessons I learned, that I started to overcome it.

Over my two decades on this path, I realized that applies to all aspects of life.  When I am fighting the problem "out there", I am in for a loss.  Whatever the foe, it is too great for me.

"We ceased fighting anyone or anything..."

An excerpt from our literature.

It is one thing to have a mentor...it is another to have a jailer.

One loves, the other enslaves.