Subduing the Desires of the Flesh

All religions agree that the seeker of Ultimate Reality must restrain his or her desires and subdue the passions of the flesh. Striking and weakening the body through rigorous self-control, fasting, sitting hours at meditation, etc. are all commendable ways to struggle against the flesh’s desires and ultimately to dominate them.

For most people, the most challenging of them all is sexual desire. Jesus taught that we should be ruthless, “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out…” to which we add a Buddhist story of a nun who did just that—to quench her counterpart’s sin, not her own. Buddhism promotes the technique of meditating on “the loathsomeness of the body” as a bag of fluids, lymph, bile and feces to help men curb their desire for the opposite sex. Father Moon also recommends summoning up an attitude of disgust for the body, calling it “Satan’s dance-hall.”

Related passages on self-conquest are found in Chapter 12: Self-Control; yet perfect self-control is nearly impossible to attain. Father Moon explains this predicament as a consequence of humanity’s impaired condition after the Fall. Extreme and forceful practice is required to do what does not come naturally. Therefore, religions developed to teach the path of intense and unrelenting efforts at striking at the body and subduing its desires. In some religions these practices became organized into monasticism; nevertheless people in every walk of life should be making efforts in this direction.