Self Satisfied

In the continuing saga of exploring Gandhi's Seven Deadly Social Sins, we find ourselves confronted with "Pleasure Without Conscience". Staggering to me that Gandhi saw the world around him in the 1930's and 40's and saw quite clearly that the world was headed towards a time where it lost its conscience. That's the world we live in right now, isn't it?! Corporate executives rape the businesses they run and then get multi-million dollar buy-outs. Global enterprises find the cheapest labor to produce the worst quality products that they can sell, and they don't care if it means tearing the top off of a mountain to get the raw materials. Humans in the U.S. are pursuing their own interests and satisfactions without regard to the impact of their decisions on others. It's all about the libido, all about pleasure, all about the self. It's a well known psychological fact that if we feed the Ego long enough without balancing it with empathy (i.e., narcissism), the Ego takes control and becomes a wicked task master - demanding ever larger sacrifices of time, money and self-worth. The world is constantly telling us to "just do it", to get all that we can because we only go around once, that there's no reason to deny ourselves anything - whether we can afford it or not. Movies and television reinforce this creedo showing us celebrities behaving badly and "Friends With Benefits" (a recent movie where two friends use each other for sex). "Hooking up" or "booty calls" are common, and not just among the young. I'm finding that recently divorced persons are also engaging in this kind of behavior - rather than opting for the effort it takes to form lasting relationships. People exist as objects for another to use up and throw away - we've become disposable! Relationships, especially healthy ones, require a great deal of effort and commitment, and the world tells us that we'll only get hurt again if we do that. What the world doesn't say is that if we really pursue pleasure without conscience, we will never, ever be satisfied - there's never an end to the uninhibited desire. Self satisfied...that's really the goal that we should be pursuing? All of the spiritual teachers over the course of millenia have warned against this self indulgence. They saw the decay of Rome and so many other "powers and principalities". They saw the ruin of uninhibited actions - actions that had no thought for the worth of others. They tell us of a differnet way, one that is disciplined and empathic. One that humbles the needs of the self for the good of the other. One that loves others more than it loves itself. One that searches for a message that brings peace and grace and wholeness. This week, examine what is driving your decision making. What are you spending your time, energy and money on? Are you finding yourself seeking ever bigger pleasures that bring you an ever smaller level of satisfaction? If you are, then you have become addicted to the thrill and have lost the ability to be satisfied. There is a different path and a different world view. You can find it if you try - it's as close as your nearest faith community. Peace for the journey, Dan