SENSUALITY - THE WRONG ROLE OF SENSUAL EXPERIENCES

Sensuality exhausts the power of our will and makes us unrestrained, immoderate, lustful, depraved and dependent on our current sensual experiences. Sensual motives induce us to behave in such a way which endangers our survival. We think it is more important for our food to be tasty than healthy. Voracity and excessive drinking endangers our health and therefore, our existence. For example, a person sick from lung cancer refuses to quit smoking by saying: “My life is in vain if it is deprived of satisfaction!”

Immoderation in sexuality potentially endangers our potential offspring and continuation of species, because it makes us unprepared for those life responsibilities needed for starting a family and looking it. Once people are ruined by hedonism, the idea of living for someone else, even if it were their own offspring, becomes too much of a burden. This is the main cause of the “white plague” of modern civilization.

VANITY – THE WRONG ROLE OF MENTAL NOTIONS

The abuse of mental notions is manifested through our need to create notions about reality in our minds which do not correspond to reality, but to our desire to show ourselves and our values in a distorted light.

The need for a great mental notion about our own worth and magnitude makes us proud and vain. Responsible behavior is conditioned by our self-criticism. However, vanity does not allow us to be self-critical, for self-criticism threatens our idea of our own worth and greatness in our mind.

Vain persons would hate themselves if they did not have a distorted notion about their own importance. Their mental notions can be very easily threatened, even by a lack of other people’s approval. That is why they are incapable of having an objective notion of reality in their minds, can be swayed by flattering, and are prone to conflicts since they get easily offended. Vanity makes us easily offended and therefore causes endangerment of our actual life needs by forcing us to take rash and silly actions.

Once vanity is projected on a larger scale through the form of nationalism, patriotism or any other ideology, it leads an entire nation into temptation of endangering its survival on a global level due to the need to satisfy its proud Ego or due to the need to avoid the humiliation of making a political compromise.

The abuse of feelings (emotions) makes us selfish, i.e. slaves to the feelings of being loved, possessions, sense of belonging, and other emotions.

Selfishness makes us possessive, stingy, vulnerable, prone to using various opiates (alcohol, narcotics, meditation, etc.) and immature for facing emotions matching the reality. The need for selfish pleasure disregards our life needs in order to satisfy the need for certain feelings. It takes away our courage to fight injustice and makes us incapable of resisting any manipulation through our sentiment.