Temptation

“Oh yeah, I forgot you can tempt me with things that I want...”
-Bender, Futurama

“To defeat another you must first defeat yourself."
-Samurai Jack

“If one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he gains freedom in the Way.”
-Yamamoto Tusenetomo, Hagakure

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
-Galatians 5:16

A man was hiking up a long mountain trial, when he came upon a hot spring a little way from the road. In it there swam a woman, supremely beautiful and utterly naked, who called out to him in thickly sensuous tones "Traveller! Your journey is long and you are weary. Long have I dwelt here alone, unsatisfied in my womanly desires. Will you not take your leave and attend to me?" Hearing this, and seeing that there was much pleasure to be had at her lips, and at her breasts, the man replied "Indeed my journey is long and wearisome, though I stray from my path a little, I cannot deny myself this refreshment." "Good," the woman returned, "then come in and join me." Quickly and hungrily the man stripped out of his clothes and jumped into the water. But no sooner than he entered it he was caught by some odd current which dragged him down. He cursed the woman with his last words, before being sucked deep under the water, never to return again.

A second man was hiking up the same trial, and came upon the same spring. The woman called out to him "Traveller! Your journey is long and you are weary. Long have I dwelt here alone, unsatisfied in my womanly desires. Will you not take your leave and attend to me?" Hearing this, and seeing that there was much pleasure to be had at her lips, and at her breasts, the man replied "Indeed my journey is long and wearisome, though I stray from my path a little, I cannot deny myself this refreshment." But just then a friend of his appeared on the road, walking in the opposite direction down the trial. Reminded of his journey and not wanting to be seen dallying by his friend, he said to the woman “No, on second thought I will not leave my path and attend to you.” He turned and left her to continue up the mountain trial.

A third man was hiking up the same trial, and came upon the same spring. The woman called out to him "Traveller! Your journey is long and you are weary. Long have I dwelt here alone, unsatisfied in my womanly desires. Will you not take your leave and attend to me?" Hearing this, and seeing that there was much pleasure to be had at her lips, and at her breasts, the man replied "Indeed my journey is long and wearisome, but I have been promised greater pleasure than that of your spring at its completion. If I stray from my path now I risk denying myself of that greater pleasure.” He turned and left her to continue up the mountain trial.

A fourth man was hiking up the same trial, and came upon the same spring. The woman called out to him "Traveller! Your journey is long and you are weary. Long have I dwelt here alone, unsatisfied in my womanly desires. Will you not take your leave and attend to me?" Hearing this, and seeing that there was much pleasure to be had at her lips, and at her breasts, the man replied "Indeed my journey is long and wearisome." and turned and left her to continue up the mountain trial, overtaking the second and third travellers.

I am convinced that the process by which temptation is “overcome” is itself paradoxical. Consider: The impulse by which the sinful desire is cast aside cannot come from without or within. If it comes from without, it is cannot be claimed as one's own; if my only reason for not succumbing to greed in buying a pointless and lavish gift for myself is that a friend of mine enters the store, no victory has really been won. In such cases, even right down to the myriad subtle stimulae that continually redirect the consciousness, all that really occurs is a manipulation of superficialities, there is no deeper conquering, no reverberation in the Spiritual.

On the other hand, as far as it is possible to separate the “internal” awareness from this swirling mess of limiting factors, is the mind not just as capricious? While a resistive impulse born behind the eyes can certainly be said to belong to them, what can it ever amount to but faith in an equally, if not more, arbitrary set of mutually-dependent sensations? Furthermore, the man who battles temptation in his own virtue by definition instantly and totally succumbs to it in believing he has any “virtue” in himself at all. Overcoming temptation is about denying yourself, not relying on it.

For this reason I have concluded that the holy impulse must come from both without -in submission to some higher telos by which sinful self-reliance can be transcended- and within -in order that it may attain to any personal significance to the individual being at all. What is this, I cannot catch in the ink of this or any pen. A phrase that perhaps comes closest of which I have become fond is “TRANSCEND YOURSELF” because it embraces this paradox, for in the moment of going beyond oneself the whole idea of a “self” going beyond is called into question. Nietzsche's “BECOME WHO YOU ARE” is also useful, but it is more prone to sacrificing the concept of spontaneity for temporal considerations. It also contains double the amount of words.