Originally Posted On a Myspace Profile Blog -- April 2nd, 2008.
This is something I struggle with, as a human being, it is ingrained in me to want to seek out my other humans, to find warmth, comfort, solace, harmony, and love with one another.
as my sign is a fixed fire sign, a Leo - King of the Jungle and the spot light in astrology, I really quite enjoy the spot light...the attention.
I enjoy the attention, attention I get from my fellow humans, women more specifically, rather that attention be real or "imagined"...I like it.
my Hedonistic tendencies kick in.
Now, there is totally nothing wrong with having a strong love of life and the things in it, nothing at all.
My Paganism teaches me that is is natural to seek out the pleasures of this life, to embrace them as gifts from the gods, and generally thats what I do, I go into any interaction as a almost religious experience.
as an example, when I get a chance to be intimate with a woman, I metaphorically, and depending on the situation literally worship her. In my eyes she is the Goddess incarnate, my eyes are wild with love, amazement, awe, appreciation, and yes, of course lust.
Alright so now you understand where I am coming from with my strong passions and vigorous attitudes towards life. and I quite enjoy it.
on the flip side of the spectrum, is things ive studied from various other aspects that talk about Non-Attachment. The Buddhist for example talk about how by robbing the body of earthly pleasures we are able to reach a state of Nirvana.
Yeshua - Jesus talked all the time about "not being part of this world"
in the Gnostic Gospels he is quoted as saying;
"Whoever has come to understand the world has discovered a carcass, and whoever has discovered a carcass, of that person, the world is not worthy." - Verse 56, Gospel of Thomas.
There is a video I watched, and still watch every now and then, to be reminded I guess, plus I think its a pretty nice explanation of this. Now I won’t muck my thread up with a video, however if you wish to view it - it is only about 20 minutes long and can be found here on google video - True Resurrection - A sermon by Rev. Derrek Younger of One Church Universal.
Like Rev. Younger, I feel as if this world is basicly a tomb or a grave, to keep our Spirit, our intellect chained to this physical body, to die. To try to hinder us from the process of "enlightenment"
I don’t need to try to explain this to a Christian, they full well know what I am talking about - except they use different terms.
Also, like Rev. Younger, I don’t think that the hedonistic tendencies are inheritantly a bad thing, I believe that if you rob the body of any and all passions,pleasures - like the Buddhist’s try to do - then you will probably be a miserable person (Unless you are able to reach the Enlightenment that is - the state of non-existence.) I think that we should be able to have some guilty pleasures of this life, some possessions. the key however is moderation - we should take care as to not let our passions and our possessions own us.
now this is kinda where I stand in the middle, Loving life yet at the same time despising it. Loving the pleasures and the riches, and the passions of this life, and yet at the same time wishing to transmute them, wishing to transmute this life, this physical deception, and become one with my creators in the spiritual - in the "Enlightenment" (* Not Enlightenment as the Buddhist’s describe it in this instance, but "Enlightenment" as in the concept of realizing our full potential, our whole nature, of the self, and of the spirit. if that makes any sense at all...)
One of the quotes from Rev. Younger in the video I provided a link to, he Said; "If it’s made of matter then it probably doesn’t matter."
sometimes I find myself agreeing with that stance.
and yet other times I find myself saying "But, Oh yes it does!"
Does anyone else maybe struggle with this? or perhaps can see my point of view?..my position of being pulled in two opposite directions by two seemingly opposing points of view?...
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