I want to shift gears here and make a rather bold statement: There is only one imperative need. By imperative, I mean irresistibly imperative. You and no one else who has ever lived can resist this need. You can stop eating (you’ll die but you can stop, its been done), you can stop breathing, you can stop loving, etc. but you cannot resist the one imperative need. In fact your body will go on seeking to fulfill this need even long after your dead! All things are subject to this need. All matter is subject to this need. Can you guess what it is?
One of the most obvious examples of this need is sex. This need is the driving force behind sexual expression. It is what makes sex so satisfying. To identify this need all you have to do is look at everything we do and determine the one common element of all our activities. What aspect of our behavior is common to all our activity?
When we eat something we are causing the food to be merged with out body. Our bodies absorb all that they want from the food and discard the rest. When we study a subject we are trying to absorb the subject, to make it part of us. The most obvious aspect about sex is the urge to become one flesh. What is the common characteristic of all of these activities and I believe of all our activities? They are all acts of union. Everything we do is an effort to unite to some degree.
What is this one imperative need? It is the need for union.
Everything you do is an act of union. Your efforts are constantly to unite with the things you desire. Everything we do is either union or separation. When you are separating you are only choosing to not unite any further with the object or person you are separating from. So union seems to be the primary or foundation motivator of all we do, separation only being the cessation of our seeking to fulfill the primary need.
When you die your body will continue to dissolve until it reaches a certain point. Your body like all matter is continually trying to unite with, by returning to, its primary element. A discussion of this primary element is not within the scope of this blog, perhaps in another. You can call the primary element God, consciousness, energy or light and you would probably be right. What is important is that we are made out of this primary element and therefore we feel a constant urge to return to it. This constant urge manifests itself as a desire for union.
It doesn’t matter what we are trying to unite with, it will give some satisfaction if we do. Some things however are more satisfying to unite with than others.
French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist Simone Weil (1909-1943) said the following: "If people were told: what makes carnal desire imperious in you is not its pure carnal element. It is the fact that you put into it the essential part of yourself----the need for Unity, the need for God----they wouldn't believe it. To them it seems obvious that this quality of imperious need belongs to the carnal desire as such. In the same way it seems obvious to the miser that the quality of desirability belongs to gold as such, and not its exchange value."
One of the most obvious examples of this need is sex. This need is the driving force behind sexual expression. It is what makes sex so satisfying. To identify this need all you have to do is look at everything we do and determine the one common element of all our activities. What aspect of our behavior is common to all our activity?
When we eat something we are causing the food to be merged with out body. Our bodies absorb all that they want from the food and discard the rest. When we study a subject we are trying to absorb the subject, to make it part of us. The most obvious aspect about sex is the urge to become one flesh. What is the common characteristic of all of these activities and I believe of all our activities? They are all acts of union. Everything we do is an effort to unite to some degree.
What is this one imperative need? It is the need for union.
Everything you do is an act of union. Your efforts are constantly to unite with the things you desire. Everything we do is either union or separation. When you are separating you are only choosing to not unite any further with the object or person you are separating from. So union seems to be the primary or foundation motivator of all we do, separation only being the cessation of our seeking to fulfill the primary need.
When you die your body will continue to dissolve until it reaches a certain point. Your body like all matter is continually trying to unite with, by returning to, its primary element. A discussion of this primary element is not within the scope of this blog, perhaps in another. You can call the primary element God, consciousness, energy or light and you would probably be right. What is important is that we are made out of this primary element and therefore we feel a constant urge to return to it. This constant urge manifests itself as a desire for union.
It doesn’t matter what we are trying to unite with, it will give some satisfaction if we do. Some things however are more satisfying to unite with than others.
French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist Simone Weil (1909-1943) said the following: "If people were told: what makes carnal desire imperious in you is not its pure carnal element. It is the fact that you put into it the essential part of yourself----the need for Unity, the need for God----they wouldn't believe it. To them it seems obvious that this quality of imperious need belongs to the carnal desire as such. In the same way it seems obvious to the miser that the quality of desirability belongs to gold as such, and not its exchange value."
I first saw this quote in Sam Keen’s book “The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving”. In this book he names this need; he calls it “Eros”. Eros was the first born god of the Greek creation myth arising out of primordial Chaos along with Gaea, the earth.
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of the English Language makes this statement regarding Eros (the Roman god Cupid): “He was regarded as a capricious child who could not be resisted by either gods or mortals.”
I believe Chaos is a representation of the primary element or the original state of things which I personally believe is light or consciousness itself. As soon as something is formed from Chaos, Eros arises as the urge to go back to Chaos. To put it simply we are all basically made of some primary element and we all feel the urge to return to it. This urge is the foundation of all motivation, all desire.
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of the English Language makes this statement regarding Eros (the Roman god Cupid): “He was regarded as a capricious child who could not be resisted by either gods or mortals.”
I believe Chaos is a representation of the primary element or the original state of things which I personally believe is light or consciousness itself. As soon as something is formed from Chaos, Eros arises as the urge to go back to Chaos. To put it simply we are all basically made of some primary element and we all feel the urge to return to it. This urge is the foundation of all motivation, all desire.
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