Someone asked me about this very question yesterday, and here it is. Synchronicity again.
Me: It seems that religious teacher and society, in general, think physical desires are bad and to be avoided while disciplined intellectual and spiritual work is praised. I see a lot of denial and repression here. So it says—
Jamie giggles at something Erik’s saying.
Me: Oh, quit laughing!
Erik: Excuse me, Mom. Excuse me. I have to go masturbate. I’ll be right back.
Jamie and I laugh.
Me: Is creative pleasure better than physical pleasure or do we just need to stop judging ourselves and start freely expressing ourselves? Wait. Let me read the paragraph before that. This reader writes such long questions. “My feeling is that it’s all energy of different vibrations, and energy flows from the lower chakras to the higher ones. I think most of the issues that people work through are blocks in lower chakras, so we have family and work related problems galore, trying to free up those blockages, but when you stop judging and accept what is, you can clear those blockages, get your basic needs met, and actually move on to “higher things” like sleep, sex, food, social interaction to introspection and creative expression.” He puts “higher things” in quotes, because he knows there’s no better or worse. “So, any movement from those basic survivals needs to introspection and creative expression, um, so, is creative pleasure “better” than physical or do we just need to stop judging, be natural and start freely expressing oneself?” Lot’s of redundancy here. Sorry.
Erik: What do you mean by stop judging yourself and start freely and naturally expression yourself? Stop judging yourself! That’s exactly what we were talking about before. There are techniques that help. If you want to study, then you create an environment that’s best suited for you to study, right?
Me: Mm hm.
Erik: So, those people who—like the monks or nuns—that want to go into a more enlightened state of life devote themselves into that. They give up physical pleasures so that they can focus, not on the body, but on the soul. It’s a choice that people make. But we’re looking at average Joe and Jane in life. For us to say, “Here you are in this human life, but these old school thoughts back from medieval days and so forth—the church put on people that these things are sins, and you must stay in line. We’re trying to govern you to make you good people and less crazy and unruly. We’re going to give you these rules so you keep your nose clean.”
Jamie chuckles.
Erik: Well, we’re obviously a different generation. We’re in different times now, and my personal belief is that as we have grown, we don’t require a larger foundation to give us these morals or integrities. As we’ve grown, evolution has taken place, and our parents have been more communicative. The idea that our spirituality as a part of our everyday life has become more accepted.
(Pause)
Jamie (to Erik): Where are you going with this?
Seriously.
Erik (Chuckling): Shut up! I’m getting there!
That made us both crack up.
Erik: What I’m basically saying is that it’s old school thinking, so I don’t know why the fuck you think that it pertains to today. That’s like looking at the Bible written thousands of years ago and saying (in a stuffy voice) “This is absolutely right. This is how I’m going to live my life.”
Me: Mm hm.
Erik: You know what? You chose to be human, Go masturbate. Go have some sex. Are you hurting anyone?
Hm, Maybe a little carpal tunnel syndrome, but…
Erik: It’s respect, acceptance and honesty.
Me: Well, why are religious teachers so into disciplining the physical and praising spiritual work?
Erik: That was a choice for that person, but it doesn’t mean that it has to be everybody’s choice or that it’s not the way to get closer to what you might want to call God or a higher power—refraining from sex.
Me: Okay.
Erik: As long as what you’re doing is not interfering with—
Jamie: He calls it “day to day life” and I’m like, ‘What is day to day life?’
Erik: Your ability to be a functional person. That’s like—
Jamie (to Erik): Oh, Erik!
Me: Ah oh.
God, what has that boy said now?
Jamie: I know. He’s getting into other things.
Erik: That’s like, um—
Jamie: Great. Why use alcohol instead of what he was talking about!
Erik: You want a drink? That’s fine. It’s whatever for you. It’s whatever you need it to be, but if you’re drinking every day, then it’s interfering with who you naturally are. And that kind of addiction, that self-sabotaging is not what I’m trying to promote here. I’m not saying, ‘Go crazy, and go wild!’ I’m saying if you tell yourself “no” all the time, where is your joy? Where is your happiness? There’s going to be a point when you pick up a bottle or you pick up a glass of wine, and you’ll ask, “Will this allow me to be happy?” Yes, and you pick up the second glass, and you ask, “Will this allow me to be happy?” Yes. Go for it. You pick up the third glass, and you ask, “Will this allow me to be happy?” and you go, “Nope. I reached a limit. I’m going to water now.” It’s that allowing yourself to give your emotions rein. And then of course, you know, Mom, we’re going to have those few people who are totally emotionally imbalanced and don’t know how to identify what they’re feeling and don’t know what joy really is. And to them, I say get some guidance.
Me: Yeah.
Erik: Go lean on someone to help you identify what you’re feeling, and then create that language for yourself. You can have that self-regulatory system and self-pacifying techniques.
Me: Yes, you can.
Erik: Ding! (He’s got nothing more to say on the subject.)
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In case you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel, here’s Part Two of Erik’s take on some of the struggles we humans have. I’ll post these videos from time to time:
The three ERIK novels which he says he downloads to E. J. Daniel are available FREE as PDFs sent to your email. Request any or all from: ejdaniel@q.com. Read them in this order:
SECOND CHANCES
JUST SAYIN’
THE TRUTH ISN’T OUT THERE
