Leaving the cave man behind

 Pure of heart,

he watches his own actions,

as if they were another’s.

How can praise or

blame disturb him?

Ashtavakra Gita

 

Can I have a little survey? How would you rank these three activities:

Steamy sex with someone you love and/or find really attractive.

Having a rich meal on a cold winter day in front of the fire.

Being valued by a group of friends you care about.

 

Actually, you don’t even need to rank the three activities. Just tell us if each of them would give your brain chemicals a boost. It’s not hard to see that all of them are designed to keep our gene pool going in times of harsh conditions. Our drive to kill a game in the cold winter raises our survival odds, being liked rather than hated by people we can pool our resources with rather than fighting over them, and sex (obviously) all raised our chances to leave an imprint for the next generation.

 

Do you get it? How can we claim to be us if evolution has installed these drives in us. Should we break free from them like monks try to do, or should we just go for the ride enjoying what we are programmed to do?

 

The direct path is simple. There is an inner serenity that we always have access to that nourishes our brain chemicals. No external stimuli are needed. That doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy sex or a good meal in good company, but the hunt for pleasure and pain is behind us. We still interact with our surroundings as we please, but our surroundings no longer define us.