Desires, the ace in the sleeve of Illusion

Although we eat sweets and food to give us a sense of “happiness”, of joy, the pleasure is very limited and short lived and invites afterwards the other side of the pendulum, the lower feelings of guilt, remorse, depression, along with the health repercussions on the physical body etc, and since the world is mostly polarized towards negative nowadays, the lower emotions are felt more acute and seem to last longer… Actually it’s funny that I was reading something similar in the book of Nisargadatta yesterday, about the futility of empowering desires and pushing toward materializing them. And this is because the result is more pain and suffering which eventually will push us to try to get more and more “better experiences” to “counter” the painful or unpleasant ones, and the circle continues in a downward spiral. I haven’t fully seen it whilst reading about it, but now (after feeling the low-vibe emotions following – in my case – the eating of too much sweets along with the experience), it clearly makes sense why the desire to experience all this “good” stuff and to avoid the “bad” ones is silly and unproductive. 

The brilliant life teaches again! All the sensual pleasures (belonging to the sense organs) are just traps of the soul enforced by the mind in its attempt to ensure the perpetuation of its ruling over the body and its continuous transmigration (from one body/experience to another) until the veils of ignorance are burnt down by the power and light of the Self. 

The desires are keeping the spirit under heavy veils of ignorance, especially when that sensual pleasure is experienced in a non-aware or semi-aware state, therefore pulling one into a Vortex of low vibration feelings and a vicious circle of desire – fulfillment – short lived (almost fake) pleasure – suffering flow of events. And it all exhausts the body (through eating bad stuff, sweets, fast-food, having unhealthy sexual desire, unhealthy sexual unions (that might bring trouble in all sorts of ways) or unnecessary and excessive masturbation, and addiction to everything related to the satisfying of the senses… Oh, what a smart trap!!! 

The true yogi sees through the trap and takes the other path, the path of breaking down walls and patterns that keeps him captured in this illusion. He knows that he is not the body neither the mind nor the experience) so he learns to watch himself while exploring the illusion. He removes one by one all addiction, all dependence to anything, letting slowly go of everything that used to bound him/her.  He starts seeing the middle path, in which he still eats, but doesn’t crave sweets or fancy or/and unhealthy food. He might still have a sexual life, but is healthy and devoid of craving for it. He stops craving for any stimulation, either visual, tactile, taste-wise, sexual, olfactive, auditive,… , being fulfilled by the eternal bliss of the Self found within. The middle path is not craving for anything, yet if some fancy thing appears by itself, it is fully and awarely experienced and not craved for after it ends, neither the fact that was experienced regretted. Everything seems equal inside of him, although for the external observer might look opprobrious, but this is rather advanced and we can only speculate on the moment when that point is reached. Unless we get to that same level of experience, we, who haven’t reached there, will continue seeing things in a very limited and naive way, being prone to judge according to our limitations the actions and experiences of beings that have transcended the limited to a certain extent. 

Continuous untangling and transmutation of “what is not us” out of our system is the path to Yoga. Instead of being the path of acquiring, it’s the path of “losing” (letting go) everything from the point of view of not considering things or people as our property, having people and things vanishing away and being fine with it. It is the path where attachments are slowly disappearing . That doesn’t mean that people, properties and experiences are not there anymore; yes they might still be, but they are all brought by Life itself, pushed by the destiny to be fulfilled, instead of being created by the continuous desire, volition and struggle to control and manipulate the flow of life. 

He (the Yogi) doesn’t refuse anything, and although experiencing it, doesn’t attach to any of these experiences or people. A sweet tranquility is inside of the yogi whether he’s  eating, having sexual intercourse, or experiencing whatever people might judge as a good or bad event. He’s always the same, sedate inside himself, equanimous, bathing in the bliss of himself, unfettered by the tricks of the illusion.