Thanks for that - I love it too, even if my path is less buddhist these days I studied and practised it for decades and reminds me I need to meditate more.
For me craving is just that movement away from what is, or accepting it. Wanting this or not wanting that, like a push/pull relationship to reality. Wanting something to change sets it off, but so does not wanting change..which is so natural, clinging to what/who we love (attachment) but also doomed to create suffering as everything and everyone arises and passes. That might seem depressing but its liberating.
As you say, simply being is a way through craving. I also think seeing that craving is not real helps too - it's empty, it's usually just thoughts, starting with the thought or sensation that this moment or my life is not ok as it is. It is based on delusion and illusion - that acting on the craving will lead to happiness or as you say I can control it and make it better.
I find if I can distinguish between the thinking mind and awareness (of senses/breath/spaciousness) then I can see that in awareness there is no problem, nothing wrong. The wrongness is mind made - but that means rightness can be mind made too!
So for porn this is helpful because I might have a thought about using, which multiplies and becomes what feels like a need, but its actually only thoughts. And by thought I mean a mental event - which can be a memory, an image, a fantasy. Or it could be seeing a beautiful woman, which creates thoughts of wanting and can lead to all kinds of feelings. A lot of our feelings are a reflection of our thinking, often if I am feeling low, anxious, not good enough, it has come from a few random thoughts or judgements or comparisons.
So if we can let that initial thought come and go, as we learn to in meditation, the craving is weakened. But the tendency is for the thought to take hold, multiply into other thoughts like 'I can't do this' or 'I deserve some pleasure..' or 'I have to see x or y..' and create an emotion or however the chain works for you that leads back into acting out. It is like we chase after that thought, as though we want to think it again and again, giving it power, letting it define experience. But really, thoughts come and go out of nowhere, like gusts of wind in the sky, and if we can just let the kind of thoughts that lead us into dark places go, then we don't have to use. Nice theory right!? Now if I could just...
Maybe it all sounds very mechanical or over analytical, but I believe there is freedom in that equation: if I can catch the thinking, which I am more likely to do if I am practising meditation (!) then whilst I can't always stop the thinking process I can create space around it and drop into the body, what I can see/hear/touch, this can divert it. For example, when looking at the sky, thoughts seem small and insignificant, but when sat at a computer head in hands, thoughts totally fill my experience and seem to direct it..
Sorry brother, I love discussing this stuff and can easily get on one lol.
