I was just kind of thinking today, as I stared a candy bar down in defiance, that it's so funny that all the things that are good for us, are hard to do, and all the things that are bad for us are easy and enticing. I think that in order to become masters of our own lives, we must learn to master our impulses and cravings.
Who are we really? What is left of us when you strip away the natural impulses, the unhealthy cravings, etc? I believe we are spirit joined with body. But, who is really in there? When you are hungry...are YOU hungry, or is it just the physical body? How about all the other desires of the flesh?
I watch my dogs and conclude that they absolutely give in to every bodily craving and desire that they experience. My Alaskan Malamute isn't going to excercise restraint if I put a female in heat in his pen with him. No more than he would if I threw a little bunny rabbit in there. But, we aren't animals now are we? Some would disagree. They think we're just a higher evolved animal and we shouldn't expect much from ourselves. If a man cheats on his wife, it's ok because bottom line he's just an animal behaving on instinct.
I think that one thing that seperates us from the animals is the ability to recognize that we are more than just flesh behaving on instinct. We have spirits, we have souls, and we feel this deep in our hearts. The great difficulty is how intertwined our spirits are with our bodies. Even though great joy, or great anger are purely emotional and derive from the mental and spiritual form of ourselves, we still have physical reactions from these emotions, like crying, or laughing.
What I'm getting at is that to become the master of our own universe we must recognize that we are spirit matter. We have to learn to master our body, instead of the body mastering us. We must learn that we are so much larger than just mere animals acting on base instinct.
I think the whole "we're just animals" argument is simply an excuse to not rise to the occasion and become who we know we could really be.
Quote of the day:
The definition of an intellectual is: Someone who has been educated beyond their ability to learn anymore. author unknown
13 years ago
2 comments:
This is probably one of my favorite posts of yours. I loved the line about staring a candy bar down in defiance.
And I think you're right that a lot of people use the animal argument as an excuse - some before the fact and others after. Though I do agree that there is a line of truth in the argument, I don't think that it's a dominating factor - we have will, after all.
I'm with Wil on this. I'll even go the next 2 steps.
1) It's a rationalization for not being responible for your own actions. And by extension, in popular culture... I am not responsible therefore I must be a victim... And since I am obviously a victim, there must be an entitlement... et cetera!
2) There are only animals, so there cannot be a God. There is no animal greater than me because I can think, I can scheme, and only I know (instinctively) what is good for me!
Peace and all good,
Kermit
PS - I ripped off the bit about intellectuals and put it on my blog. I also said where it came from and gave it a link back to you.
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