It seems like as we get older certain desires become less interesting, I don't know if it's a consequence of seeking a spiritual life. What does a spiritual life even mean? But I titled this thread the spiritual life because I know members here practice meditation, kriya, and have listened to the guidance of self realized individuals. So I pose a question for the members, and anyone reading, and some separate but related contemplation.
Do you notice, your desires to appease your physical senses becomes less and less? Do you think this is a normal aging experience or is it one that comes about from meditation and kriya yoga?
I've been curbing another creature habit- masturbation. I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all, but I do think pornography has taken a turn and attempts to manipulate the psyche of the user. I do think there's plenty to disagree with concerning pornography- but I've talked about this before in a different thread and don't need to get into it.
What I'm seeing is... When I'm tired, the body and mind wants to fall back on creature comforts as a way to shut things off and feel "rewarded and relaxed". And so maybe we go to a quiet place and appease our habitual mind- whatever your indulgence may be. My Fathers and Sisters is drinking. My Mothers is talking on the phone. And not all creature comforts have to be negative.
And what I've noticed is that, in attempts to satisfy a mind that wishes to relax and feel rewarded- an irritability and impatience is produced when something gets in the way. Why should we get irritable? Because we feel tired and believe we should be rewarded? Rewarded how? By satisfying some habit that we sometimes find questionable, other times, regrettable? I guess I've come to see it as selfish thoughts. Nothing wrong with selfish thoughts, and we all deserve some TLC tender love and care... But we should not become irritable because Life would pull us away from pleasing our self in the moment.
Maybe we shouldn't identify the self-numbing as a reward. A quick example I can give is like when my Mom is trying to talk to my Sister or Father when they're watching their show. They get snappy, "I'm watching my show!" Who is right, who is wrong? Or maybe even when you're trying to meditate- or paint, or play music... And someone comes up to ask you a question. "I'm meditating!" Who is right, who is wrong?
When the attitude becomes focused on the self... Hazrat Inayat Khan says this is the source of all life's misery making. When we think about what we're owed, what we're missing, why we need such and such.
Anyways... The spiritual life isn't just out of body experiences, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. Sometimes its just working on our undesirable behavior and attempting to keep ourselves in a state of harmony within and with the world around us.
So I find, at times, my interest in appeasing the physical senses waning. Other times I recognize the need to appease- and there's an element of renunciation that comes into play. Some other wisdom shared by HIK is that no level of renunciation should be forced. That is not real renunciation. Renunciation comes when we willingly sacrifice- be it a creature comfort, or whatever. If you try to force it, there is typically a rebound effect. I should know, growing up I used to go 110% in whatever direction- forcing and learning, but not always understanding.
And I wonder, is this disinterest in certain bodily appetites just typical aging and maturing process? Or is this a part of the spiritual life?
Added to what has already been said is the conflict that often occurs when attempting to satisfy desires. We are just not able to satisfy all our desires as new ones are added daily. So we seek a way to circumvent them over the years. We find ways to limit desires and to extinguish them rather than nurturing them. This may have nothing to do with age, since we may even had more control over certain behaviors and desires when we were younger than even presently.
I find myself recognizing how important environment is in the appeasement and awareness of desires. And what experiences we have associated with desire, due to our behaviors, when we encounter resistance to our desires from outside factors and people. Many times we have to let others around us go, because our desires conflict with theirs and we are not able to satisfy their desires in a way that suits them.
