Despise Not the Body
There is no need to harbor disdain for the body or for earthly experience as such. Life is a gift; be glad in it. If you are meant to abstain from any thing for any reason, for a short time or for all time, it will be made known to you in one way or another. Know and face this truth, but do not deny your physicality simply to deny it, as though injuring yourself were a virtue in itself or suffering for its own sake put a righteous feather in your cap.
While mindless gluttony, frightened hoarding, and wallowing in constant comfort can deaden the spirit, a greedy asceticism can come to be its own end, just as dead. The temptation to fall to extremes on either side can be equally strong, and so equal vigilance is warranted if egotism, viciousness, and spiritual isolation are to be avoided.
Physical life causes us to experience ourselves, each other, all that is around us, and Ultimate Divine Spirit in a way different from any other possible. Our bodies become the interface between our inner selves and the outside world. We deal with rules, limitations, and opportunities we would not otherwise encounter. We make choices we would not otherwise have. We are exposed to joy and anguish we would not otherwise know. We are shaped by all we pass through and become what we otherwise would not.
One day, you will give up your body and make way for those who have yet to be born. While keeping proper care of the earthly house of your spirit is a virtue, holding it or any other material thing more dear than your spirit and its Source is both irrational and counterproductive. For the love of that which is far greater and more enduring, you must be willing to let go, throughout this life and at the end of it. With that in mind, bring together your willing pleasures, explorations, restrictions, and discomforts as you would the instruments of an orchestra. Let your conscious selection of what to embrace and when to refrain, where to be disciplined and how to be flexible, constitute a balanced approach that makes you whole in every way possible.
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