All human beings perceive, judge, and decide everything through the senses of the body—eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and so forth. Thus, every person judges and chooses according to the impulse and desire to see with the eyes what is more pleasing, to hear with the ears what is more entertaining, and to touch and possess with the hands and feet what is more enjoyable and convenient. The desires of all humans endlessly seek what is more comfortable, more entertaining, more pleasurable, and better. Because the desires that arise from the body continually stir up insatiable greed, no human can ever be free from the repeated sins and lusts that spring from the cravings of the flesh.
Take food as an example! No matter how much one loves a certain dish, if anyone eats the same food tens or hundreds of times in a row, they soon become tired of it and feel another impulse to eat something else. This is the very nature of the flesh—insatiable—and this nature constantly generates unsatisfied desire. Therefore, as long as one lives according to this fleshly nature, one can never escape greed and sin. The desires that come through the five senses of the body are endless. Because there is no true satisfaction, humans are driven to chase greed endlessly in order to fill their constant dissatisfaction. Hopes, ideals, and plans born from the desires of the flesh are nothing more than illusions stirred up by greed. Thus, people are led into the cotton-candy illusion that once all their goals, ideals, and plans are achieved, every problem will be solved and they will be endlessly joyful, delighted, happy, and content. Yet, in truth, human hopes, ideals, and plans are nothing but absolute delusions born of insatiable desire.
For example, most people marry believing that once they wed this woman or that man, they will live happily and without worry, eating well and enjoying life together. They dream of a happy ending, imagining they will look only at each other for the rest of their lives. Yet, not long after, they awaken to the reality that the happy ending they dreamed of was nothing but their own illusion and deception. Thus, husbands and wives who once seemed utterly devoted to one another gradually, without realizing it, find that dissatisfaction grows instead of contentment. Dissatisfaction turns into disappointment or feeling hurt, feeling hurt grows into hatred, and hatred swells into quarrels or even divorce. This is the reality of marriage for nearly all people today. When given the chance to meet someone who seems more beautiful, more sensual, warmer than one’s wife—or more attractive, more capable, more refined, or kinder than one’s husband—most married men and women cannot help but fall into temptation. Even if it does not always manifest outwardly, inwardly they harbor lustful thoughts, and in many cases they even fall into adultery. In other words, dissatisfaction born from disillusionment in marriage leads people to chase yet another illusion, another fantasy, another unfulfilled desire.
What seems to be gentleness, freshness, charm, or sensuality missing in one’s wife, or the kindness, depth, warmth, or manners seemingly absent in one’s husband, stirs up emotional illusions and fantasies. Living in a world where one constantly encounters other men and women, most people inevitably fall into such temptations. Unless the faults and shortcomings of the other person are clearly revealed, judgments based solely on outward appearances only fuel delusions and unhealthy attachments. Disillusionment with marriage creates dissatisfaction, which in turn produces yet more fantasies born of insatiable desire, pulling people deeper into deception. Fleshly desires that can never be satisfied produce sweet, cotton-candy dream, and following these illusions, people pursue unsatisfied sex and pleasure. This is why adulterous men and women are rarely content with only one or two partners. Though many may feel pangs of conscience and attempt to honor their marital duties, the vast majority, like anyone who instinctively turns to look when a beautiful or handsome person passes by, cannot resist the impulses stirred up by appearances. The very nature of humanity, governed by outward looks, is to continually generate desires that can never be satisfied.
Some may suppress or deny their cravings out of unavoidable circumstances, responsibilities as husbands or wives, or obligations as fathers or mothers. Yet, given the right circumstances and opportunities, most people will at least harbor lust in their hearts, if not outright commit adultery under the guise of “love,” even deceiving their own conscience. Such is humanity—living not by conscience in a spiritual life, but by chasing desires in an emotional life.
Most people pursue a life aimed at satisfying their unmet desires. This pursuit of satisfaction is what they call hope, ideals, and happiness. But the satisfaction and pleasure the flesh seeks can never truly satisfy; they are nothing but fleeting pleasures in momentary desires. Yet most people never cals the joys pursued by their own body “sinful pleasure.” Most reserve the term for extremes—addiction to drugs, gambling, drunkenness, debauchery. They fail to recognize that everyday indulgences—games, hobbies, smoking, traveling, eating, watching, learning—when pursued as a means of satisfying insatiable desires, are all lusts, sinful pleasures nonetheless.
People universally rationalize their cravings and goals under the noble labels of “happiness” and “love.” Yet the peace, happiness, and love they seek within their families are but illusions—phantoms born from insatiable desires of the flesh and the greed of man. In reality, the “happy endings” and joyful households that people envision, brimming with endless bliss, are mere fantasies born of human craving. They can never exist in lives governed by insatiable desire. Such happiness and love are illusions—like fairy tales where the prince and princess “lived happily ever after.” The peace, harmony, happiness, and love that humans imagine are but mirages, illusions of desire, never realities.
Most families, driven by unsatisfied cravings, quarrel dozens of times in a single day, tempers flaring depending on moods and emotions, living together more out of necessity than genuine harmony. In other words, all human happiness and love rest upon the unstable foundation of insatiable desire. They are nothing but illusions—like drops of water that vanish in the air, fairy tales of happiness, false dreams divorced from reality.
One thought on “1. The Human Body and the Five Senses”
I’ve read your piece thoroughly. It’s something I’d like to revisit several times.