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Pleasure
November 11, 2008
One of the privileges of life is that we can continually increase the scope of the things we love and enjoy. All too often, though, our first inclination is to resist exploring new pleasures. Ironically, we hesitate to try new foods, listen to new music, or even meet new people, not to mention our resistance to new ideas.
Why do we put up petty resistances to so much goodness?
The usual excuse is that we resist because we might like it too much. Who needs a new vice, anyway?
Truth be told, the greatest pleasures don't come easily, so we're not so likely to get addicted to them, so the usual excuse doesn't hold water.
You see, to appreciate the sublime we must, as they say, go to the mountain. The good things in life take work. And so, our egos are involved in the experience of the finer things in life. We hesitate because we don't want to fail, or to appear ignorant. But failure is proof of effort, and it's no sin to be ignorant if it's our first time exposed to something.
Besides, being ignorant (having never tried something before) is a prerequisite for enjoying something for the first time. And the first time is one of the sweetest experiences that pleasure has to offer.
That is why conscious ritualing is so wonderful. It provides a controlled framework which allows us to explore the unknown, and to enjoy even the familiar again for the first time.
Take love, for instance. Love is always at first sight, even when it's someone we've known for a long time. This is because we suddenly see them in a new light -- it's our first sight of them as qualiadelia. And every time we return to the ritual of love we renew love's qualiadelic power.
In fact, every time we return to any ritual we climb higher up the proverbial mountain, and so each time the pleasures, as well as the hardships, are new.
So, really, why do we resist trying out new things? Venturing into the unknown is the way to overcome the resistance of the ego, who hates change. But it is human nature to change, to strive. We are like Salmon charging up the river, but our goal is nowhere near so clear.
Whether or not there really is a God, the word "god" is here to stay. It is the most qualiadelic word in any language, and it is the sum of all the good for which we humans strive. It is the totality of all the best we can imagine. No matter what else we strive for, this is the real goal.
Our rituals help us get through the day, to live and to get some pleasure out of life. But conscious ritualing, living the qualiadelic experience, keeps us constantly striving beyond the routine.
We are bodies whose goal is to translate our DNA to the next generation, but just as we raise our children we also raise ideas. Ideas are living. They are, like god and love, filled with qualia.
The living ideas we nurse can make life just as meaningful to us as any child we raise. Luckily, our parenting skills, for both babies and ideas, will only improve if we learn to ritual consciously. It is a simple skill, to be aware of the qualiadelic, and ritualing comes as naturally to us as speaking. Life is an exquisite pleasure.
Be Qualiadelic. Be Conscious. Change the routine.
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