| |
I think you are right, dear goddess, that all “moral” teachings have been abused and confused many times by religious organizations and others who strive for control of people rather than individual empowerment. Sex and pleasure are natural and important powers of uniting in love and appreciation and if anybody thinks that's wrong then that's his problem.
On the other hand for me it was quite a revelation to understand that “sins” can actually be destructive to myself when I am not in charge of using my powers and pleasures consciensciously. So I am considering the sinful aspect of these sins to be addictions or unconscious habits of reaction, and then they are certainly deadly to all growth in self awareness and healing of mind and spirit.
I throw them into the discussion especially because life today is so materialistic and addictive, that I need to question myself often if I am in control of my mind and emotions or if my desires and emotions are controlling me.
Yogananda explains hiw views this way:
“Lust applies to the abuse of any or all the senses in the pursuit of pleasure or gratification. Through ther sense of sight man may lust after material objects; through the sense of hearing, he craves the sweet, slow poison of flattery, and vibratory sounds as of voices and music that rouse his material nature; through the lustful pleasure of smell he is enticed toward wrong environments and actions; lust for food and drink causes him to please his taste at the expense of health; through the sense of touch he lusts after inordinate physical comfort and abuses the creative sex impulse. Lust also seeks gratification in wealth, status, powewr, domination - all that satisfies the “I, me, mine,” in the egotistical man. … lust loves to destroy one's happiness, health, brain power, clarity of thought, memory, and discriminative judgment.” Chap.1, Verse 9.
|
