Friday, July 10, 2009

Flash

The other day I was sitting happily at home when suddenly I experienced a flash going through my body. The feeling was sexual in nature, but I have no memory any longer what it was about. It came and it went and all I could do was to wonder about the nature of the experience.

I think all thoughts, desires and biological stimuli are nothing but flashes. It just happens that we don't perceive it that way since our brain and body go on autopilot afterwards. When our attractive neighbor shows up, some of us first have the thought of how attractive this person is, followed by a bunch of thoughts that probably don't belong into this blog. Just imagine how much energy we could save if we just left it at the first thought, i.e. the realization that this really an attractive person and then we move on with our life.

J. Krishnamurti often stated that desire is a consequence of thought. When we see a nice car, house or attractive person, why don't we leave it at this observation. The next thought that we have to possess them is desire; this chain of thought is sometimes useful, but most often a futile waste of time and energy.

It seems that our spiritual path is all about self-mastery. Not that we should suppress our feelings and desires, but that we become so in tune with our mind and body that we are able to perceive flashes and are able to react to them or ignore them as we deem necessary.

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