sophiaserpentia | (no subject)

A friend has asked me to write a post about something I said to her in person, though I have been struggling for a long time on how to put this into written word and perhaps tie it in with a number of other things I have been writing about.

Pleasure is sacred. Therefore:

pleasure is good, and

each of us has the responsibility to treat pleasure with respect.

It seems silly to me that I have to make a case that pleasure is sacred, but let me demonstrate why I think this is indisputably so. Let me start with this:

Pleasure receptors best known for helping the body respond to morphine and opium may also hold the key to mother-child bonding, scientists reported on Thursday.

Mice pups genetically engineered to lack these receptors -- doorways into cells -- were unable to properly bond to their mothers and did not show the natural distress when separated from her, the researchers said.

from Pleasure Receptor May Hold Key to Mother-Child Bond

These pleasure receptors would also respond to endorphins, the "natural opiates" our bodies produce. Endorphin release corresponds to the feeling of love and the pleasure of sex, and so is a primary mechanism whereby humans are capable of forming bonds with one another.

To come at this from the other end, neurologists investigating the new field of "neurotheology" have demonstrated that the parts of the brain which are responsible for mystical or religious experience are the same parts of the brain that are involved with human sexual response.

If "God is love," then God appears often in the form of pleasure.

It stands to reason, that if pleasure is sacred, that it can be profaned. And it often is; it is unfortunately all too common that pleasure is abused and misused. Addiction is a common form of misuse.

Considering how pervasive sexual abuse is among human beings, the cloud of evil that it casts over the human race is considerable. On many levels, sexual abuse makes it difficult, sometimes impossible, for the abuse survivor to form close or effective bonds with other people. Thus, in addition to the violation that occurs on the level of direct physical abuse, sexual abuse carries the additional violation of profaning one's ability to give and recieve love.

crossposted to my journal and crossposted to

the_pain_sutras

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It stands to reason, that if pleasure is sacred, that it can be profaned. And it often is; it is unfortunately all too common that pleasure is abused and misused. Addiction is a common form of misuse.

I would think that this very reality means that pleasure is not itself sacred. Rather, it can serve as a vehicle for the sacred. When that aspect which is sacred is missing, then pleasure is not sacred. If pleasure were itself sacred, then the negating of sacredness (profaning) would also negate the pleasure itself.

If pleasure were itself sacred, then the negating of sacredness (profaning) would also negate the pleasure itself.

In a way, that is actually what happens. People who are sexually abused, or who are addicted for a long time to pleasure-giving substances, find it difficult to feel or experience pleasure, either because it becomes tied in with negative feelings that negate it, or because the brain becomes endorphin-deficient -- which explains why some people with severe post-traumatic stress disorder are frequently addicted to drugs or alcohol.

However, at the same time, I know from personal experience that many forms and situations of physical pleasure are in fact far from sacred.

With that in mind, you could make the argument that spiritual or existential pleasure is sacred. However, you would have to acknowledge that not all physical pleasure is spiritual/existential/whateveral, and that physical pleasure is only sacred when it is a vehicle for this "higher" pleasure.

However, at the same time, I know from personal experience that many forms and situations of physical pleasure are in fact far from sacred.

I would propose that perhaps it is not the pleasure itself that was far from sacred, but the circumstances or attitudes under which the pleasure occurs.

Many times people seek pleasure in ways that are potentially very damaging. If the damage one receives from circumstances is greater than the pleasure received (and bearing in mind that pleasure operates by a law of diminishing returns) then that person is in effect profaning that which is sacred by virtue of its ability to form bonds of love and happiness between people, and its ability to lead us to mystical insights.

I'm not comfortable making a distinction between physical pleasure and "higher" pleasure, although I would allow a soft distinction between misuse or abuse of pleasure, and "higher use" of pleasure.

I would propose that perhaps it is not the pleasure itself that was far from sacred, but the circumstances or attitudes under which the pleasure occurs.

I think you are right. Like all good, it can occur simultaneously with evil, creating "gray" areas. The key is to properly tune oneself to not only be able to perceive the good, but also the bad. I think people - myself included - are pretty good at turning a blind eye to what they do not want to see. Sometimes people will ignore a whole bunch of bad to get a little bit of good .. and in doing so do themselves more harm than good.

What complicates this is that physcial pleasure is really so easy to elicit.

I'm not comfortable making a distinction between physical pleasure and "higher" pleasure

Actually, thinking about it more now, I think some distinction is useful, but not that distinction. I think recognizing the difference between spiritual, emotional, physical, intellectual and maybe a couple of other kinds of pleasure is a useful one .. especially since physical pleasure is so easy.

The natural conclusion would be that experiences that elicit pleasure on all these levels meets that "higher purpose. It would also seem that it is in compromising on one level that pleasure is profaned.

As is likely obvious, I have not really given this a lot of thought and my ideas are forming as they are written.

(deleted comment)

Thank you for the book recommendation .. I always like book recommendations. ;)