Theos-Talk Archives (February 2001 Message tt00078)

Dear Louis,
> I would say that it fulfills one of it's purposes when it is INDULGED in
and
> overcome.

You might absorb your self in every vice till Eternity slumbers. We can
listen to others. We can experience vicariously.

Some have taught that by assiduously involving yourself in the vices you
might best rid yourself of them. The teaching of the Devil Tarot card
teaches us otherwise. That devil is an elemental being (or Tulpa) that those
two unfortunates have produced by dint of their own efforts. We can produce
these nasties and find ourselves slave to them. We are no longer master, the
vice is our master.


>. One must indulge in
> the experience of the opposites in order for the "overcoming" to have
meaning
> and strengthening for the traveler of the way.

This is true. By experience we acquire resistance to that particular
temptation.

Chuck writes:
>Why would we want to bother? Why not just enjoy >it? After all, what is a
>vice but some activity that

The thing is, the beast desires repetition. It becomes tedious, it becomes
boring, but we are locked in. We are talking about addictions here. That is
"vice" used in a narrow sense. A vice can be something like spitefulness for
instance. Also we talk of plants having virtues.

No, we don't all need to become ascetics. Pleasure draws the soul out and
into the world.

Best wishes to all,
Bruce