Thank you Steve for these thoughts- they are in line with my current evaluations. I do practice and enjoy self-control and have also found it difficult. Meditation has minimized both the extremes and the damaging after-thoughts that used to follow. I've not renounced my desires completely because I find I am not ready but am viewing those greedier(self-gratifying) indulgences from a different lens and still learning new things! If I jump the wagon and go straight to being a renunciant I don't think I'd be doing my relative incarnation any favors. I think there are different rates in our evolution- what a child needs for its development an adult does not. Neglecting a body and mind born from nature has created imbalances that find ways to wreak havoc later in our lives. Then there are those, after having experienced their desires, are ready to let go of that which no longer serves them. What's interesting is that, progress or evolution has ways of looking contrary to others. In the end, it's all progress and it's between you and God- though others may relate, our experiences are indeed special- this is your gift, cherish it.
I think I will be coming back to this thread and re-evaluating things as, "time" "progresses."
