Desires: The Viruses of the Soul

7 minute read

Many will wonder what sort of viruses I mean: those connected with illness, or computer viruses. If you want an adequate answer, I mean both.

Our body, mind and soul have a clear representation in something created by humanity: the computer, and soon perhaps the android, the robot that will leave its static place upon a desk and walk beside us, becoming our 'slave' or our friend, who knows... much as we stand within this destiny in relation to divinity, our creator.

Desires begin with an idea, a physiological need or, at times, our personal genetic code. Recently it has often been claimed that everything we become is written in that code, including a predisposition towards violence or the sins of this century, such as smoking, alcoholism and sexual perversions.

Zeitgeist: Moving Forward advances the idea of genetic code, but locates responsibility for what we become in the society in which we live and, implicitly, in the education we receive from our earliest years. It reaches back as far as conception, suggesting that the future destiny is influenced while still inside the mother's womb.

We certainly all have desires, and this is part of what characterises human beings. Sometimes those desires lead us towards glory, and sometimes towards disaster. They are not only passionate desires, but also the desire to succeed materially or professionally, often by trampling people who are weaker, or too constrained by prejudice, so that we may achieve the ideal we have set. Material desires certainly lead nowhere good, because they alter the soul's path and produce suffering and inner unfulfilment. Many people obtain everything they want materially, yet remain unbalanced and alone, producing great suffering around them. Most must 'annihilate' their hearts in order to coexist with this society, because you could not live in 'paradise' while those who labour to sustain your 'paradise' sink into hunger and deprivation. The heart would not let you do such things. The saints born to wealthy families who gave away their fortunes and dedicated themselves to the inner search demonstrate this. The same is true of people with high salaries and 'golden' professions, whose money arrives and disappears into so much expensive nonsense designed especially for their desires. You tell yourself that poor people, or those doing humiliating work, did not study, work or struggle hard enough for a better life. The truth is that they struggled as far as their destinies allowed. Society also needs refuse collectors, construction workers and people doing simple jobs. Perhaps, in a not too distant future, these and other occupations will disappear and give way to future 'slaves' who do not become upset and whose consciences are not burdened by the work: robots.

This brings me to the analogy with computer viruses. The human microcosm represents the macrocosm, while the digital universe represents the microcosm. From here arises the idea that we represent divinity on Earth, though we are not yet evolved enough to accept that responsibility. Desires are induced by the body's needs, by influential factors around us and by the society in which we live. If sex were no longer regarded as sinful, for example, many diseased minds might cease to exist, because whatever blocks human nature tends to divert it into perversions beyond imagination. The 'sick' world of the so-called evolved society is the consequence of efforts to divert nature's normal course. How can one say that sex is sinful, that woman is the source of sin, or that a human being is born from sin? The world has nevertheless evolved, though centuries of struggle were needed to free thought from such ideas. The East has shown that when people are released from the burden of original sin, society is no more perverse or unbalanced than in the West. Yet it is not good to let thought give every kind of desire free rein either; we can see where the civilised world has arrived. The family has lost its value, love is being buried more deeply, and the human soul is close to being buried beneath materialism. Nor does the Eastern path leave much room for the human soul to evolve, because it is buried beneath traditions and false beliefs, while science does not please the person oppressed by religions announcing themselves as the supreme path to the soul's liberation.

I have said before, and I repeat, that technology does not exist to bury the human being and, implicitly, the human soul. It should help liberate the soul by giving people more free time for introspection and for the inner path, if society relieves thought of the burden of daily survival and dull routine.

Inner prayer is like a firewall protecting us from harmful thoughts and destructive desires that corrupt the soul upon its path towards freedom. Look within and observe how long you can remain without thoughts or without satisfying your desires, thinking only of yourself, your soul and the god within you, or at least trying to understand what is happening inside. How often are you conscious that you are eating, walking or doing some ordinary thing? How often do you admire the sky, a cloud, a flower or a tree, or simply sit in nature and listen to its whispers? I know... you have no time for such 'nonsense'. Yet these things are also a form of prayer when the soul is in the midst of what makes it happy. But you can spend hours before a screen watching a documentary, film or series, listening to music or, why not, writing a 'brilliant' article, because of course you move everyone around you with articles you believe are useful... First help your own soul, and then you will be able to help those around you. We imagine that by giving one leu to a beggar we have dealt with the burden weighing upon our soul. Or we imagine that a donation enriches others, or that saving one life from some illness resolves the problems of our society. How many people stop smoking because it harms them, or give up entertainment because it pulls the soul away from its path?

Look at the society in which we live... The desire to smoke is induced in us, even though it is known to behave like a drug and is made more harmful through chemicals; tobacco itself existed for thousands of years without producing the same harmful effect. Once it becomes sufficiently accepted by society, clever people appear to prohibit it, in reality creating another reason for taxes, making this induced desire more expensive and therefore immensely profitable. If drugs were prohibited, smoking should have been prohibited from the beginning. The same pattern appears in our need to consume, in electricity and in the harmful materials surrounding us in what we eat and use. We are told we have evolved, yet almost everything created has a harmful effect upon us, while the mentality of the winner tends to throw weaker souls into misery. Ecology now makes immense profits from our foolishness and from the manipulation of our minds. Plastic pollutes, but decades of consuming tonnes of paper remain invisible. Trees must approach extinction before the world feels this stupidity upon its own skin. Electricity pollutes, yet no serious measures are taken for alternative energy because it is too expensive; in truth, it threatens the pockets of those who rule this sick world from the shadows. More ecological costs are then placed upon us, as though we alone polluted by using what our 'clean' society created as a necessity.

To all who still believe that you are doing well, that you can luxuriate in this world and that your entertainment is exceptional, I must announce that the world is already collapsing, mentally and physically. Crisis is not far away. Only a spark is needed for this wonderful and evolved world to return to a primitive age. The problem is not for the incredibly rich, but for those who cannot afford the luxury of securing a place in the age to come. You can continue to 'sleep' peacefully, or begin the inner struggle for the liberation of your soul. Love can help you enormously by shortening the road towards this achievement. Although inner prayer may appear to do nothing, in reality it changes everything: both your inner life and the events around you.

Prayer in general does good to the soul. The Lord's Prayer is a remedy against the evil eye, to give an example familiar to most of us, but it is also a remedy for the soul. The closer the soul comes to consciousness of its existence, the more places dedicated to its creator will bring joy within us. This does not mean churches alone, although they are places filled with symbols. Nature, and drawing close to your soul through prayer and love, can also bring the inner fulfilment of which you have dreamed.

Prayer is not merely membership of a religion. You do not need a label in order to become religious. Prayer is also the pain in the soul when you think about nature and the harm our actions cause the Earth. Prayer is also our wish for the good of others, when we direct our love towards those around us without having to move a finger to help them, because only their inner life can give them the peace they need. Giving love to everyone around us is only a beginning. Afterwards, help will arise by itself. You will do good without even thinking that you are doing it, and that good begins within you.

For a moment, eliminate desires, beginning with the 'elimination' of thought itself. 'Pause' your thinking so that you can see the true 'I' within. Then prayer will appear by itself, like an effective firewall for a perfect system that needs protection from the actions of its environment and from the thoughts of others.

If inner prayer is the firewall of your soul, then consciousness of your soul's existence is the strongest antivirus, and Love is the perfect system upon which it runs.

First published in Romanian on 25 February 2011. This English translation preserves the perspective of that period.

Original Romanian article: Dorințele: virușii sufletului.