Do not live for the desires of the flesh.
I have a theory about what this means and why it is such an important thing across both eastern and western religions. This theory involves fatalism, psychology, evolution, and physics. It starts at the beginning of human history and it goes through until your death.
But first a warning: this theory does not give you the complete story of how to live your life. I believe that it is a great directional tool, but it is not complete. I will remind you of this warning again later and explain a bit more, but for now, the beginning.
All of the current clues in science point to the idea that human beings came from the same evolutionary line as modern day apes. As with all scientific theories I believe this, but I also think that we still don’t know the whole story (which is why they are theories not laws).
I realize that a whole post could be written about how someone who believes in a greater purpose can believe in evolution, but for now all I am going to give is this. The evidence for evolution is really solid. The evidence for the existence of some type of God is really solid. The evidence for these two things are not in conflict with each other, therefore I can believe in both.
How we gained consciousness and became what we are today is up for debate, but one thing is clear. We retained a whole bunch of animalistic traits. We are driven by a cluster of cravings and basic feelings some people might call instincts.
We are run by a chemical reward system that heavily influences every decision we make. In fact, using neural biology we can almost make the case for the idea that we are just robots, controlled by a complex array of chemical injectors and receptors.
This is where fatalism comes in. The idea that we do not have freedom of choice but are controlled by nature has been around for a long time. The basis for this comes from a scientific law. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, or cause and effect.
What this means is that nothing happens without something making it happen. What this means for you is that you are actually just a puppet. Everything you ‘choose’ to do (the effect) is actually a result of all of the other things that have happened in the world so far (the cause).
This may be hard to wrap your head around because you feel so in control of your own life, but I encourage you to put aside your initial feelings and try to understand. Pick a choice that you feel like you made and go back and look at all the reasons why you made that choice. For example, your genetic make up, plus the fact that you didn’t eat enough sugar, plus something you read on the internet, may be the reason you decided to have a smoothie for breakfast this morning.
The more you fight it the scarier this idea comes. Look at animals, would you say that they have free choice or that they are just reacting to their surroundings and cues from their bodies. What makes us any different?
Nothing, if you don’t put aside the desires of the flesh.
This is my theory. Unless we control our animal instincts we are just animals with brains that come up with justifications for what we do. To be fully conscious we must not be enslaved by our reproductive drive, our instinct to conserve energy, our cravings for glucose, the fight or flight mechanism (our anger and fear), or the push to have our own DNA survive over others.
Religions from both the east and west agree.
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21
References to the ‘sins of the flesh’ are abundant in the Bible and are always accompanied with the warning that there is not room for both the spirit and the flesh.
In Buddhism there are five hindrances to Nirvana or to complete concentration. These are five states of mind that make complete meditation imposible: sensual desire (abhidya), hatred or anger (pradosha), laziness and sluggishness (styana and middha), restlessness and worry (anuddhatya and kaukritya), and doubt (vichikitsa).
In both religions the body needs to be controlled in order to find the place where we ought to be. However, in both religions overcoming our earthly nature is only a step in the path to fulfillment, and neither require complete abstinence.
In fact, the Bible has a strong warning against this,
“Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” 1 Timothy 4 : 2-4.
In Buddhism the path to enlightenment is called Dharma which is understood as the middle way between materialism and idealism or hedonism and asceticism. (I got this from reading Dr. C. George Boeree of Shippensburg University)
This brings me back to the warning from the beginning. Fully rejecting our animal instincts is not the purpose in life that I talk about when I talk about finding God. When I first noticed all of the connections between science, the Bible, and Buddhist teachings I placed way too much importance on this idea, only to try it and find myself feeling super unfulfilled.
That being said, I think that if you are completely controlled by your animal instincts, and it takes serious self consideration to know if you are, then you can never begin to see reality and truth or be what you were made to be.
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