Temptation

After writing the previous post, I started to think about how powerful temptation really is, and how it's everywhere at every moment of the day. I'd like to think that one day I can have the willpower to be totally independent of all of these things. Somehow this idea just seems like the "right" way to me for some reason. We shouldn't need things like TV, food, money, ego, drugs, or whatever to stay content. They may help pass the time nicely, but I just can't help but think how great it would be to just go for a walk or something and not be worried about anything, just entirely relaxed and happy as can be, even though I know it will probably never happen. Even with things like money, I wonder how it would feel to win the lotto, and just donate it entirely to something like charity, loved ones, etc. But I know I wouldn't do it (but procrastinate) because it's a luxury to have a lot of money. It feels good going to a dealership and buying a car in cash, or at least I would think so. I wouldn't call it a miracle or blessing, but just a luxury, because it has the potential to make or break a person, and it's usually the latter. It builds ego and ignorance especially. I guess this kind of goes along with earning things rather than them being given to you. A gift can seem good at first for a while, but earning things builds wealth and character, which is better in the long run. It may or may not seem like this is true, but I know I wouldn't be the same person I am today If I got handed a ferrari to drive when I got my license.

Trouble in The Garden

There is no paradise without some other place to compare it to. A world of peace and paradise is a world taken for granted by those who know no other place; this is why man can't live in The Garden of Eden. We don't always know what "good" is until we lose it, especially when there's no "bad". It would be hard to blame Adam and Eve for trusting the snake in such a perfect world, and no one wants to stay in the same place all their life never knowing what else there is to learn and experience. I think the lust for knowledge is the main reason we can't live in the garden. We as humans don't like to be bored or restricted. We want to know what else exists. If Adam and Eve lacked curiosity, they would still be in the garden today. I don't think we could have eternal life without learning the ropes of mortality first, because without mortality, eternal life is meaningless, and Adam and Eve demonstrate it in the myth.