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The Practice of Attempted Elimination of Unwanted Vital Movements Through Purposeful Indulgence, Part 1 · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  There is a theory current in various spiritual paths as well
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  as in various attempts to overcome certain unwanted
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  behaviours in the ordinary life, that by purposeful indulgence
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  through experience anubhava, the individual can overcome the
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  undesired impulse, craving or desire the ideas that such
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  indulgence will exhaust the tendency and thus allow the
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  individual to move on from that drive.
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  The overindulgence can create a form of distaste or rejection,
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  eventually a detachment from the impulse viragya.
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  There are reported cases of individuals who reject things
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  after feeling glutted or satiated.
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  This only works, however, if it leads to a true renunciation and
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  not just a temporary feeling at the time of satiation to see the
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  impulse revive once the energy rebuilds itself in the being.
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  The Buddha became satiated with the luxury and satisfaction of
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  desires he experienced as a young pampered Prince.
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  After he saw the suffering that people experienced, he
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  contrasted that with his own situation, realized that his
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  life was being artificially cushioned and walled off from
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  the truth of human existence, and at that point his life of
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  satiation gave way to true rejection and non attachment.
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  An offshoot of this approach of overindulgence is what may be
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  called a type of inoculation, whereby someone is introduced to
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  something that could become addictive in such a way as to
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  make them feel sick and associate that item with the
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  sickness, thus steering them away from doing that in the
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  future. We see this with parents who aid
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  a young person in smoking or alcohol with the view to
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  overindulgence the first time. In some cases such inoculation
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  has been seen to be effective, but in many cases, after the
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  first experience, peer pressure may lead the individual to try
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  again, and then they overcome the first artificially created
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  bad experience and actually become enmeshed in that
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  behaviour. For individuals pressured by
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  vital desires and impulses that they find hard to master,
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  indulgence is usually not the solution, as it strengthens the
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  grooves already built into the system and makes it easier, not
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  harder, to continue to indulge. What may be an occasional
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  inconvenience, if indulged, may actually become a deeply
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  embedded, repetitive demand of the vital being.
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  The vital has its own methods of convincing the mind to support
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  the satisfaction of its desires, and this is one of the routes it
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  may take to accomplish that. Under the guise of dealing with
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  a particular drive or impulse, it is secretly enjoying and
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  strengthening it. Less dangerous methods include
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  the practices of Nyana Yoga such as Vichara discrimination and
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  application of the higher understanding to control a vital
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  impulse. This method may be overwhelmed
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  if the vital Dr. is strong, deeply embedded and insistent,
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  and requires then a constant application of the higher will
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  to eventually bring it under management.
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  Another is to take the impulse and substitute for it an
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  alternative more aligned with the objective the seeker has
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  before him. For example, if an impulse to
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  eat a snack comes up, the individual may recognize that he
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  should instead take up his daily exercise routine or sit for
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  meditation, or focus on something of interest to him.
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  This concept of substitution can be utilized by the higher
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  aspiration and will to address any desire, drive or craving
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  that comes up with an appropriate alternative chosen.
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  In his short novel Sidarta, Hermann Hesse described a seeker
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  who had not worked out all the vital drives from his nature and
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  could not therefore fully adopt the attitude of non attachment.
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  He returns to the city after some attempts at taking up the
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  ascetic life of the renunciate in the forest.
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  There he is enmeshed in the life of sexual allurement, creation
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  of wealth, creating a family, and along the way falls into
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  various forms of indulgence in drink and gambling as he
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  immerses himself in the ordinary pursuits of life.
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  Eventually he experiences a sense of distaste for all of
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  this, and his earlier spiritual leanings bring him to the point
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  of renouncing that life and finding peace and fulfillment
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  through listening to the silent lessons of the river and the
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  example of a simple ferryman. In this case, the question of
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  working out unfulfilled drives and desires meant returning to
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  the ordinary life for a time, but eventually the spiritual
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  drive brought him to a place of contentment and realization, Sri
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  Orobindo writes quote. The system of getting rid of
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  things by Anubhava can also be a dangerous one, for on this way
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  one can easily become more entangled instead of arriving at
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  freedom. This method has behind it two
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  well known psychological motives. 1 The motive of
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  purposeful exhaustion is valid only in some cases, especially
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  when some natural tendency has too strong a hold or too strong
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  a drive in it to be got rid of by vichara, or by the process of
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  rejection and the substitution of the true movement in its
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  place. When that happens in excess, the
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  soduct have sometimes even to go back to the ordinary action of
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  the ordinary life, get the true experience of it with a new mind
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  and will behind, and then return to the spiritual life with the
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  obstacle eliminated, or else ready for elimination.
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  But this method of proposed of indulgence is always dangerous,
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  though sometimes inevitable. It succeeds only when there is a
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  very strong will in the being towards realization, for then
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  indulgence brings a strong dissatisfaction and reaction.
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  Vairagya and the will towards perfection can be carried down
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  into the recalcitrant part of the nature.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo, Bases
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  of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness, Subcontinent
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  Sleep and Dream Illness, pages 94 to 95.