When appetite takes the throne, the higher part that should receive light and give measure is forced to serve what it was meant to rule. The result is not freedom but a slow animalizing of life. You feel it as drift and compulsion, the mind enlisted to justify the next craving.
This interior collapse mirrors a wider pattern.
When the link between heaven and earth loosens, forms lose their clarity and the flood rises. In a person, that flood is the swirl of ungoverned desire washing. It is worshipping the animal part - the golden calf.
The cure is not technique piled on top of appetite - the most widespread mistake today.
Instead, it is a reordering of love in which meaning again precedes matter. Grace does this from the inside out. It gathers what is scattered, restores hierarchy, and makes the soul luminous. Prayer, family time, songs, art, etc., are all ways of achieving this balance. This makes freedom more than a political right.
It makes freedom a felt harmony of a being ruled from above.
Fascinating take. Thank you. It seems addiction is a perfect this-world example: what initially gave pleasure comes to viciously tyrannize the pleasure seeker.
It is interesting to compare the Christian concept of grace to Plato and Aristotle, as while both Plato and Aristotle understand that the virtuous life is hard, neither seems to fully adopt a view that man's nature is wounded. The concept of grace, the divine life, is that it both heals and elevates the nature. That is a distinct claim apart from Plato and Aristotle, it would seem - though both struggle with how to teach the crowd philosophic truths. It is a worthy comparison!
Another great read.
The unseen tyrant is the soul turned upside down.
When appetite takes the throne, the higher part that should receive light and give measure is forced to serve what it was meant to rule. The result is not freedom but a slow animalizing of life. You feel it as drift and compulsion, the mind enlisted to justify the next craving.
This interior collapse mirrors a wider pattern.
When the link between heaven and earth loosens, forms lose their clarity and the flood rises. In a person, that flood is the swirl of ungoverned desire washing. It is worshipping the animal part - the golden calf.
The cure is not technique piled on top of appetite - the most widespread mistake today.
Instead, it is a reordering of love in which meaning again precedes matter. Grace does this from the inside out. It gathers what is scattered, restores hierarchy, and makes the soul luminous. Prayer, family time, songs, art, etc., are all ways of achieving this balance. This makes freedom more than a political right.
It makes freedom a felt harmony of a being ruled from above.
Fascinating take. Thank you. It seems addiction is a perfect this-world example: what initially gave pleasure comes to viciously tyrannize the pleasure seeker.
Once again, learning from the Ancients and from the Christians. The best of two worlds.
The natural and supernatural have much to share!
A great read.
Thank you!
Thank you!
It is interesting to compare the Christian concept of grace to Plato and Aristotle, as while both Plato and Aristotle understand that the virtuous life is hard, neither seems to fully adopt a view that man's nature is wounded. The concept of grace, the divine life, is that it both heals and elevates the nature. That is a distinct claim apart from Plato and Aristotle, it would seem - though both struggle with how to teach the crowd philosophic truths. It is a worthy comparison!