Closing Mind Gates & Starving Temptation
Chickpeas are soaked in water overnight for many hours so that it is less hard and can be boiled easily. You cannot eat the chickpeas if you cook them without soaking them in water. Soaking it makes it softer prior to being cooked. Likewise, there are some types of food that need to be softened or made tender before it is cooked. ‘ Temptation’ has destroyed the lives of many successful people in today’s world. That is the reason why it is so important to understand the temptations that attack us, so that we can take a wise and opposing approach to make them faint away. Even a roaring lion could be controlled by starving it for a sufficient period of time. A considerable issue that many of us face is that we tend to feed the approaching temptations instead of starving them. If a little child is allowed to do everything they want and they are given everything they cry over, some day they will become stubborn and unruly adults.
At the time when I was quite small, chicken was a luxury to us as we hardly got to eat chicken, mostly once a week or once every two weeks. The chicken tasted delicious to us, as it was a rare taste to our taste buds. As we grew older and got the opportunity to consume chicken more often, it became habitual that we lost the inclination we had towards eating chicken. Then our taste buds start craving for other food that is not consumed often. This is exactly how temptations grow in desire when you feed it.
Allowing your eyes, ears, tongue and sexual organs to go haywire in accordance to your temptations, your mind becomes stubborn and undisciplined before the truth. Even though a citizen of a country is obliged to obey the rules and regulations of the country, there are certain criminals who go against the rules due to the pleasures and comforts they taste from those illegal activities. Since they have given authority to the bad side to become the stronger elder brother and the good side to become the weaker younger brother of their mind, the bad side always takes control over them naturally just as an elder brother and a younger brother. Just as a government acts against terrorism in their country, so does every human being encounter a war between the black and the white within them. The most powerful entity of the two will capture more geographical coverage and end up ruling the nation. This is exactly what happens within our minds. The party that is given more authority will take control over the party that is given less authority.
Think for a moment, how many of us are actually feeding temptation whereas we should be starving it. A person who is intensely addicted to sexual immorality has not inherited this detrimental status overnight. He has been feeding his temptations since childhood by exposing his eyes to pornography. Every time he exposes himself to pornography to fulfill his pleasures, he feeds his temptations. Just as the aforementioned instance, chicken becomes a habitual dish for your taste buds, that it requests something tastier. When a certain temptation is fulfilled over a period of time, the temptation begins to request more pleasure due to the common human nature of discontentment. That particular person then seeks more advanced pleasures above watching pornography. Again, at a certain point this advancement becomes a normal pleasure that at another juncture he seeks even more advanced pleasures. Likewise, he will move on until he becomes a slave to the temptation, until it takes control over him and becomes an addiction.
Unfortunately, people think that this applies only for drugs, gambling and sex not knowing that many of them are controlled by laziness, gluttony, facebook, gossips, television, radio and many other white devils that appear as angels. People assume that devils are pitch black and look horrible. Well, that is the devil of the days gone by. Now, they have transformed in accordance with the evolving world. If you are unknowingly browsing through Facebook the first thing as you wake up in the morning, my dear friend, I am sorry to say that you are also a slave to FB. There are many other important things to do in the morning than browsing through FB.
If you are focusing on something that is insignificant over the things that are valuable to you, then you are drifting away and deviating from the true purpose of life. Youngsters, check your screen time on FB and adults, check how long you spend in front of the television. It will make you realize that you no longer belong to yourself. You have sold yourself to either FB or TV. Slavery was a big business in the history. Whoever has sold their masters, must strictly abide as per the master’s rules. If your bed, TV or FB is controlling you, then they have become your masters not you.
Whilst you were immensely careful about a black ugly devil, the white shining devil has trapped you with a range of temptations and now you are completely controlled by them. You are no longer contributive as your entire time and energy are invested on temptation. Therefore, weaken temptations the very moment it approaches you. Do not attempt to play with them as you never know when they are going to take control over you. When I started the second phase of my life, I rejected the calls I received from my previous friends and closed the avenues of temptations to drugs. I refused to surf the internet thus I closed the avenues my eyes had towards exposing to pornography. It was essential to behave in that manner to strengthen my inner self against the addictions that I was really vulnerable towards.
I also made sure I worked on a planned schedule so that I can close all the avenues of laziness and isolation. I made a decision not to go to restaurants, so that I can restrict the avenues of my cravings on junk food. When a thief is aware that your house is guarded against thieves each and every day, he will clearly be discouraged and forgo his attempt of stealing from the house. He will attempt to steal from another house that does not have a guard. Likewise, every time you weaken the temptations, you strengthen your mastery over the temptations. The moment you leave the house vacant, the thief will definitely break into your house.
Temptations are so detrimental, therefore, why not set rules for the eyes? Set a disciplinary structure for your ears, an obedience guideline for your tongue and your stomach so that those rules, discipline and obedience guidelines would act not only as a shield of protection for you but also as a sword that weakens your temptations. It is all about informing your mind who your real ruler is. Once you have appointed your master, your mind will act accordingly. If it comprehends that your addiction or craving is your ruler, then it will definitely pay attention to it as your history justifies that your master is your addiction.
On a different perspective, if you allow just a few thoughts of anxiety to enter into your mind and play with it, without your knowledge those thoughts of anxiety are certain to multiply in such a way that you would always have to live in fear. Living in fear for a long period of time will lead you towards dissatisfaction. When you are always dissatisfied you tend to feel compressed, I mean it makes you depressed. You eventually start giving up temporarily and you may ultimately conclude giving up completely. Recently, we all heard of the very sad story of a Sri Lankan who lived in Australia who committed suicide after taking the lives of his two beautiful and innocent children. The inception of that withdrawal is feeding thoughts of anxiety which led him towards fear and rejection that ultimately led him towards depression.
Just as feeding street dogs is an act of love, one must be vigilant whilst feeding them, as they might turn back and bite you. As we mature in life, we need to clearly set apart what to feed and what to weaken. We must make sure we do not strengthen some things that we ought to weaken. I have heard of many stories where people have lost their houses as a result of choosing ungrateful tenants to rent their houses for a lengthy period of time where they ultimately take the landlord to courts demanding ownership of the property. Similarly, if you rent out your mind to a few hateful thoughts, they will multiply in no time and create a root of bitterness that will steal your happiness from you. Therefore, be careful and vigilant of temptations. Identify where you have gone wrong in history. If you were bowled out by a doosra, it is always good to be attentive to the doosra forever.