I confess that we all have an inborn affection for our body; I confess that we are entrusted with its guardianship. I do not maintain that the body is not to be indulged at all; but I maintain that we must not be slaves to it. He will have many masters who makes his body his master, who is over-fearful in its behalf, who judges everything according to the body.
We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it. Our too great love for it makes us restless with fears, burdens us with cares, and exposes us to insults.
Virtue is held too cheap by the man who counts his body too dear. We should cherish the body with the greatest care; but we should also be prepared, when reason, self-respect, and duty demand the sacrifice, to deliver it even to the flames.
The body tends to loudly demand our attention, not from any malice, since it does not judge deliberately as the mind does, but only from calling out its urges, as it was made to do. Whenever I behave poorly on account of desire or anger, it is not the feelings that are at fault; the fault is in my thinking about the feelings.
Once I begin to recognize the priority of the soul over the body, I may be tempted to disdain the body, believing it to be an unnecessary diversion from the work of being human. This is jumping from the fat into the fire, another of those cases where I swing wildly from one extreme to the other. That I have abused something does not mean that I should discard or destroy it, only that I should learn to care for it rightly.
Even on the best of days, I must always be conscious that I take a mastery over my passions, instead of allowing myself to be led about by them. On the worst of days, when the Black Dog is especially fierce, this can take on the form of a mighty struggle. Nevertheless, it is always possible for me to correct myself, to return to the peace of the lower being in harmony with the higher.
Once an alternative to a slavish life becomes apparent, I see how many people are beholden to their flesh alone. A surefire sign of it is in the way they are tossed about by their ever-changing moods. When they feel pleasured, they will be all smiles and niceties, though when they feel discomfort, they are filled with rage and recrimination.
I refuse to reject them, since they have only lost their way, but I will not decide to follow their example. Instead, I look to folks with a more even temper, who can be level-headed in any state of their circumstances. Such people may seem far rarer, though that may only be because they do not choose to draw attention to themselves. They can be temperate in the face of gratification, humble while being praised, grateful during losses, courageous when threatened, serene if taunted.
No comments:
Post a Comment