desires and age

[teriyaki]

Why is it that most of the people preaching to give up desires and "go within" are old men?

If satisfaction lies inside, why do we bother to reproduce? Without desires there is no life?

Maybe i'm unclear about something.

 

Sorry.. a bit of context.. I had just watched this video by Eknath Easwaran

Edited April 21, 2014 by teriyaki

[GrandmasterP]

" To make a virtue of necessity."

( Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona).

 

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.

(Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray).

 

:-)

 

Our Zennist and Tantra chums tend to be at it like knives at all ages.

There's a 100+ year old Rinzai Roshi in the USA ( Leonard Cohen's Roshi) who has been a very busy lad by all accounts.

Depends who one chooses to listen to I suppose.

Only the life denying paths deny human nature but even those tend to differentiate between love and lust.

 

Those semen retention lads on here puzzle me no end.

Same with the 'celibates' over on DW.

Why bother to beat yourself up when you are at your best and freshest?

Just wait a while and once you hit 60 that stuff, quite naturally; becomes a breeze.

 

Takes all sorts I suppose.

 

 

:-)

Edited April 21, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Rara]

Why is it that most of the people preaching to give up desires and "go within" are old men?

If satisfaction lies inside, why do we bother to reproduce? Without desires there is no life?

Maybe i'm unclear about something.

 

Sorry.. a bit of context.. I had just watched this video by Eknath Easwaran

People take these things too far...and it becomes dogmatic anf nonsense.

 

I find that it was a great way to learn not to become attached to things. Beating addiction or materialistic dependency....or being in a relationship because you fear being alone.

 

If you can love and have kids and a harmonious family, no problem!

[GrandmasterP]

There are some right grumpy old gits about though.

I do lawn bowls as my only competitive sport these days and at 62 I'm a youngish player.

Whilst 99% of bowlers are cheery old coves you do meet the odd miserable sod.

Get one of those on your rink and they seem to try and bring everybody down to their own sorry level.

Fair enough we all have aches and pains and sorrows , maybe more so as we get older.

That said there's no call to be laying ones gloom or proscriptions on anyone else.

Edited April 21, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Rara]

There are some right grumpy old gits about though.

I do lawn bowls as my only competitive sport these days and at 62 I'm a youngish player.

Whilst 99% of bowlers are cheery old coves you do meet the odd miserable sod.

Get one of those on your rink and they seem to try and bring everybody down to their own sorry level.

Fair enough we all have aches and pains and sorrows , maybe more so as we get older.

That said there's no call to be laying ones gloom or proscriptions on anyone else.

Haha, there are plenty of these in all ages!

[Andrei]

everything (human emotion I mean) is dictated by the hormones. if you understand that you understand the whole point of alchemy.

[bax44]

everything (human emotion I mean) is dictated by the hormones. if you understand that you understand the whole point of alchemy.

Care to expound upon this a bit? I have had pretty bad hormonal issues since a bad head injury 7 years ago. (thyroid/testosterone to name a few)..are you implying alchemy isnt possible without healthy hormones or something else? im genuinely curious.

[Andrei]

I didn't listened to the guy in the video (maybe later) but th OP has a point. The point being when you are young you have hormones. You have hormones during all life, they are just changing.

 

Now, what does it mean healthy? It means nothing, everybody is different and has a different hormonal spectrum. Each hormone correspond to a human emotion or character trait and if you look deeper it is an energetic pattern. The taoists would say that a person is characterised by a nature's element or an energy typology. In taoism there is the BaZi the chinese astrology which is characterizing a person according to her birthdate. The Ba Zi reading is just telling you who you are, whate energies you have in your body and you resonate with. Through alchemy you can change these patterns, but also you have to be aware of certain limits.

 

Now I suppose the original meaning of the OP's "desire" is sexual desire. This can be considered like a burning fire, but now it depends where is this fire located? in the sex, in the liver, in the heart, in the spleen? depending where the fire is burning it activates the organs, it is the underlying cause of producing hormones or burning them transforming them into something else, different than the original substance. This is why you can have a 250 year old taoist with 23 wives and 200 descendants.