Become spiritually content and take worldly things at stride
This is much easier said than done, but the fruits of the labour are bountiful.
Being spiritually content has only enabled me to see that there is more past worldly things, not to disregard their importance.
I see your meaning, Phil, but I wonder what to degree we can (actually) dematerialize our passions. Can’t we say the spirit is a desire, or more precisely, passion? The spectral glow of sexual or psychic energy, moving our muscles and thoughts unconsciously, to it’s own alien rhythms?
After all, the spirit is fire: and when is fire content?
And now perhaps we should say: the spirit is content (or the fire is contained) when spirit/fire can be explained, predicted… and controlled.
Religion and psychiatry are ultimately one and the same way of channelling libido into ‘permissible’ channels… of extinguishing excessive energies, or refocusing them into useful work.
This is what it means to become-normal.
In fact, all of culture operates this way: by diverting, deflecting and absorbing psychic and sexual energy. Of course, we must also realize the machinic-subject only ‘works’ by accelerating, that is, to produce a breakdown. We can’t separate psychic and social oppression, but sometimes we can break through.
Science, religion and philosophy all end up creating individuals ‘just in time,’ that is, only in order to make them subjects (to truth, to justice, to God, and so forth.) This raises the difficult and proper question of evolution. How do we break through and move forward? Can we live without this disjunctive breakdown (either of the ‘fire’ or the ‘society’)?
In short: how do we balance (justified) ‘transcendent’ spiritual contentness with (also equally justified) ‘worldly’ political outrage?
Look at the seven fruits of the spirit. Love Joy Peace… What is your source of joy? That is what you love.
Newsweek magazine reports that the joy of newly found, large amounts of money,… These joys only last about three years. After that only friends and family sustain happiness. Money makes life easier, but it also makes it easier to screw up your life.
You cannot have joy unless you have love. You cannot have peace or contentness unless you have love and joy. And then so on down the list. The last of the list is self control. How can you have self control over drug addiction unless you find love and joy and peace from friends and family??? You cannot. In fact the mere reason people do drugs (to add something to their life that they cannot find without drugs,… excitment) Well this is the very basis for addiction. You are dependent for sex and drugs to do something for you. In this when sex becomes your main source of joy and excitment over friends and family,… well this is the root of all perversions of sex. Sex as an expression of love is limited by pleasing your partner. Sex outside of love is limited by what you are willing to do to get off. Then when you learn to get off from a certain thing (child molestors) The imagination used to fill in the gaps of reality is just as real as anything else to the point that chemical castration will not deture a child molestor.
I recommend stoicism.
The problem with the stoics was that they all seemed to move towards a sort of resignation in which they were so calm about everything that they didn’t bother getting involved with the problems of society. I think they had the right ideas about putting logic above the emotions. When you get emotionally attached to things you become irrational if someone at all prods at them, because you become to rely on them. I find logic much more reliable. When I see Christians crying over a plane crash saying “Why did God let this happen?” I chuckle a little, and think to myself, ‘the plane’s engine malfunctioned and so it crashed. It just so happened to have people on board. That isn’t God’s fault. I don’t see why he would destroy his own carefully thought out laws just to stop you being upset. And according to you, they’re in a better place now anyway. Your ‘attachment’ to them is leading to selfishness.’
Neo-stoicism, anyone?
Too… many… generalizations…
-
Since when are joy and love intrinsically linked. Love and Joy are in and of themselves seperate states, while they may occur simultaneously at times they are not intrinically linked. I can say for certain that I have had love with an extreme lack of Joy, as well Joy can manifest without the classical definition of Love accompanying it.
-
Contentness and Joy would almost be mutually exclusive it seems by definition. One cannot have Joy unless one is content, but can be content with no hint of Joy.
-
People do not only do drugs for exitement. Although I have personally used drugs not only for exitement but also for enlightenment and for sedation. As for the control over addiction, it merely requires either some personal restraint and/or some professional help. Many people get help IN SPITE of their family and friends.
-
Sex is not merely ‘what you do to get off’ when outside a relationship. It can be used as a mutually pleasing way to spend time, it has been used in therapy, some people even recommend it as a possible way to exercise. And within the context of a relationship, or ‘as an expression of love’, often carries a strong hint of personal gain for one or both parties engaged in it… someone has to enjoy it and thus it is what they do to ‘get off’. And trying to argue that extra-marital sex leads to child molestation is rediculous… do I even need to articulate why?
Interesting. Stoics and Naturalists. They’re identical in not doing anything, but for different reasons.
Yeah, at least the Stoics seemed to enjoy themselves though.
If you live in love with no sence of joy, then you are in fact counteracting love with negative energy.
Build a tolerance to drugs or alcahol and you are adapting to the drug thus depending on the drug to feel normal subconciously.
Sex and drugs are a reward for most often negative behavior. Thus further enlightening people a negative selfish way of getting what they want over what they need. Any state of conciousness achieved by drugs are tainted by the drugs unnatural balance of brain chemistry and therefore your overall demeanor toward what you do.
lets put this together by cause and effect. Belittling relationships to equaling what you get from it is exactly the type of mentality that makes people think any selfish act is okey. Next you’ll be preaching that crap about charity being selfish deep down. No the true cause and effect is loving your neighbors is spiritually saticfing.
A child molestor isn’t choosing to become a child molestor because they were molested. The subconcious errosion of morals left little to be rejected in that mind. It became to him a way to get all they desired. I think child molestors are attracted to the empty slates children are,… then they let their imagination fill in the gaps. This imagination is then reinforced with positive reward.
Now lets compare the Christian way… If you don’t have sex till you are married. You are forced to focus on every other aspect of a marriage (mind body and soul).
People that sleep around focus on a spiritual type or body type. They are attracted to an image, and then hold out for someone who will fullfill their imagination and fullfill their needs to be accepted just the way they are. Like they shouldn’t have to work to make love work.
I think the nature of humanity lies in the theory of, “You are what you eat.” If you are comming from a society that remembers the beautiful things of love,… but gives up on love to get the instant gratification of sex,… you’ll find that people slowly errode their actions to fit their new cause and effect. With sex as a bigger priorety then finding love, 30 year olds sleeping with 15 year olds will become more and more common.
The question then comes down to, " If every one was beautiful, would people become less desired to use youth lust as a way to get beauty?", “Would social norms regulate the desire to get something more taboo but good?” ,“Would robots be created to mimic the nicities of love?” ,“Would free love keep people saticfied enough to stay in check?”
But then this really needs to be answered. “What parrellel aspects do changing our prioreties errase?” Do you think we will have a big enough system of compramizes to fill in the voids created by replacing marital love and devotion, or even religion.
When corrupted men or bastards of all sorts torture you upon agony and misery being spiritually content does nothing for one’s preservation against the tides of adversity.
( Don’t get me wrong I like spirituality but at certain times even it has some failures.)
being spiritualy content can give you the peace of mind to get through a problem
That isn’t belittling a relationship, it is a mere observation made by many. Even in your own response loving your neighbours is spiritually satisfying… I love my neighbours and I get satisfaction out of it. This is the basis of psychological egoism, which while it fundamentally problemed is not disproven (just impossible to reasonably prove). It isn’t ‘crap’ but merely a different viewpoint.
As for your views of child molesters (something I am not 100% comfortable discussing) the idea that they have lesser morals and thus must be attracted to children seems rather strange. Do you hold the same views for anyone who has non-socially acceptable sexual preferences? While sex with children is unacceptable under today’s social paradigm it is important to bring up that in Pre-Christian Rome it was acceptable for senators to sleep with both men and children (as well as most aristocrats). Was the ruling class of Rome morally eroded? It seems you have fallen into the conservative view that sex has a very narrow definition, a position that is defendable but calling into question morals of pedophiles is very shaky ground.
And I would like to point out the occurnace of pedophillic thoughts and actions in society. One study uncovered evidence that nerly 1/4 of all males feel sexual arousal by children (Freund, K. and Costell, R. (1970). “The structure of erotic preference in the nondeviant male.”). Furthermore, one study uncovered research that up to 30% of sexual offenders to children are not sexually aroused by children to any noteworthy degree, indicating many situational, rather than pleasure-driven, occurnaces. Morally deficient may be a difficult route to prove in this context.
Actually, the ‘Christian’ view of marriage comes out of a more antiquated notion of property (as has been discussed in other threads on this board). The view of a virginal spouse was prized over one that was more promiscuous out of problems with inherantance of unfaithful partners. THis merely carried over to become a moral norm from generations of habiltualization.
And I don’t know if this holding back sex is the greatest idea. Sex is a critical part in a relationship, the understanding of a partners sexual desires are critical in choosing the correct partner. If on your wedding night you realize your new spouse has a foot fetish or merely an overactive sex drive you have missed a very key part of theur character which could cause significant problems. 
I know many people that sleep around merely because sex is fun. They do not do it out of a desire to find someone to fill their imagination or accept them for who they are, indeed they seem resistant to relationships at all. They seem hesitant to love at all, they are merely looking for physical enjoyment.
I think pain and suffering is the only real thing personally.
Most forms of spirituality are distractions from accepting the real.
Your suffering is real not the meditations that you use to thwart them and if you want some fantasy land in the clouds upon some imaginary god fiend to save you I suppose that is your perogative.
Spiritual energy. As far as spiritual energy goes, take a clue from what we know. All we se is the side effects of ghosts,… that’s why there is no dirrect proof for science to work on. Yet ghosts have side effects in matter while being independent of matter. Soooo the brain reacts to these side effects,… but then that could only mean that the human brain is evolved to deal with spiritual energy.
adapting to a stimulus… adapting to the chemical imbalance brought on by an outside force. To no longer be high,… you’d have to counteract the drug with an equal and opposite reaction. Brain chemestry strengths change while high,… and after an adaptation while remembering being high.
While married you have to please your partner first before they feel like getting laid. Without marriage. Sex and drugs are running from the realization that you aren’t happy without something to distract you from reality. With 8 hours work, 8 hours play, and 8 hours sleep a day,… you’ll find that people balance their demeanor from work stress with distructive hobbies instead of constructive hobbies. Hobbies that require you to learn technique and basic science, to get better at the hobby,… these are hobbies that build charecter and the ability to teach yourself. This is the natural way to get ahead in society. But now people are spoiled with TV’s instant drama and excitment at the touch of a button, and expect the same thing from their sex and drugs. The instant gratification society will not work to better it’s people unless it’s forced upon them by government.
Dependent on sex and drugs to control your mood??? Yet unwilling to listen to a different path.
…caloused.
When you miss some key points, everything you say can be easily redirrected. Some smart people forget the obvious.
Lets start with loving your neighbor. Maybe you feel the need to bond with your surroundings. But the most holistic deffinition is that we are all one spiritually,… so if my neighbor suffors, then subconciously I suffer. This is still possiable to be true with all of your facts. If you can’t see all of the possibilities then you can not see half the truth.
Lets look at the christian belief of marriage being euqal opposites created by God. The souls energy couldn’t really be male or female. The soul is neither male nor female and love between the sexes forces us to find ways to look beyond our sexual differences and into the soul. People that sleep around limit the role women play in their life in order to preserve what they find pride in. But when you find love, you feel wholer. Maybe the different biochemical energies of the bodies bride the gap that the body limits. In this, love is really alloud to flurish as intended. Then you see why satan cannot create but merely pervert what God created.
I think pain and suffering is caused by ignorance. We have to accept that we cannot baby proof the world. In fact we need to encorage risk so that we can naturally learn our limitations. Otherwize we are limited by our own social values.
But the ability to rize above pain and suffering is the desire for; peace, contentness, utopia,… heaven.
Of course, If you believe in a spiritual self, the fact that someone is smashing to pieces your body shouldn’t be that big a deal for you in regards to ‘spiritual contentness’.
When it comes to calmness (and even joviality) in the face of suffering, I look to Al-Hallaj, who was a sufi muslim executed for his assertions of his oneness with God, as one of the most inspiring figures:
“Many accounts tell of Al-Hallaj’s calm demeanor even while he was being tortured, and indicate that he forgave those who had executed him. According to some sources, he went to his execution dancing in his chains.”
"His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, “I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there’s only one step to heaven, cut that if you can.”
Of course, if you want to see how spirituality can free a man from the physical pain of dying, rather than any spiritual pain, I’d recommend you just look at Thich Quang Duc, the vietnamese Buddhist monk who set himself on fire as a protest:
“As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.”
I wish I was spiritually content, or just content in general. I just feel fucked up all the time like I got out of the matrix and want to go back but morpheus won’t allow it.
It’s called mescaline man. The only way to fly.