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1 Today’s subject is Temptation. We all see temptation as knowing we are doing wrong, harming ourselves, or engaging in harmful behavior toward ourselves or others. But gratification is more powerful than the knowledge that we are doing wrong.
2 We find ways to justify our actions, using words like: “Maybe tomorrow,” “Next time,” “I’ll stop doing that,” “Today is my last day,” or “Tomorrow will be my last day,” for we knowingly know that we are doing this for the main purpose of self-gratification and indulgence.
3 Let’s take food for example: We know that if we significantly reduce our food intake to keep our bodies in shape or skinny, we will eventually deprive ourselves of our basic nutritional needs to keep the body firm, healthy, and strong.
4 We know we are doing wrong, but our desire to see ourselves slim overwhelmingly overwrites our knowing and our desire, and we keep harming ourselves even though we know that we may eventually be paying the ultimate price—and are willing to pay the price. Then, we turn to blame it on our lack of will.
5 Lack of will now becomes that element we use as an excuse because we have indulged so much in one desire that it overrides all the elements, and we don’t want to let go. We fear that going back to normal will require us to lose what we have fought for so long. You see? Then, our state of mind becomes entangled in our desire to keep ourselves in the physical shape we want.
6 Let’s now take it to the other side: The compulsive eating habit of feeding ourselves beyond the basic need to stay healthy. We start engulfing ourselves in our youth when we learn our basic principles of eating and enjoying delicious foods that we can eat over and over again without gaining one ounce of weight. We don’t realize we are consuming excess food, but our high metabolic rate as we grow and daily activity keeps us from gaining weight.
7 As we age, we stop growing, and our metabolic functions are no longer at the same rate as when we were young. However, we keep the same habits of eating at the same rate we are accustomed to, although our daily activities decrease.
8 As we grow older our metabolism slows down, and we become more sedentary as we gain some pounds. That’s when we should decrease our food intake, but we can’t, as our impulse to eat is still strong.
9 That is when food indulgence plays a significant role in this scenario. Our desire to lose weight becomes a struggle. Temptation for food overwhelms, and losing weight becomes a struggle. We know that food becomes a temptation when we reduce our eating habits, the urge to eat takes over, and the lack of willpower becomes an excuse. In other words, we allow ourselves to be dragged by our lack of willpower.
10 We (CFKW) can talk about drugs, sex, work, laziness, adultery, lust, attachments, and healthy options—we can speak about those who live in fear but do not have the willpower to leave those constrained conditions, from marriage, relationships with friends, family, work and the like. We can talk about compulsive behavior like smoking, hazardous sports, exposure or damaging instincts, game hunting, compulsive behavior of all sorts, and the like.
11 Everything has to do with the fact that we know we are misbehaving; we know we are doing wrong, but we don’t have the willpower to change it. If we make it right, at first, many of us will find ourselves struggling with it, making and giving it a battle, but we will eventually overcome it when we realize that we have succeeded by knowing that we did good.
12 Success by trying to excel by knowingly stepping over someone else is not success but more of the same. Success is finding balance for a better life that you know is within you and what you must overcome.
13 For instance, if you are overweight and you know deep in your heart what your healthy weight should be, fight as hard as you can to reach your goal, only if it serves you well and does not harm others during or after the process.
14 If you are starving to death because you want to be in shape and you know you are doing harm to yourself, reclaim your normal weight and create balance with it. If you know that smoking is bad for you and you know there is a better way, fight and succeed. Follow any other example and find balance in life.
15 So, the question is: Where is balance? Balance is the acknowledgment that you are in balance. For instance, if you know that you are overweight and you don’t feel content with yourself, go back into balance. If, on the other hand, you are overweight and feel content with yourself, then you are in balance with yourself.
16 But the moment you know that your present condition is to the detriment of your health, and you become conscious about it, you don’t do anything about it, and you do not fear death, then that is your prerogative and way of living life for a short period of time. It is your choice. You see?
17 But if, on the other hand, you are conscious about your weight condition and you don’t do anything about it because you don’t have the willpower, then face the consequences. If you are willing to live with it, you are in balance, but if you fear and become distressed, you are not in balance.
18 If you have family and you are in balance but your family is in distress, you are out of balance because even when you have your individuality, like I said before, you are hurting others—unless you come to terms with them and they understand that you have chosen the path of living a shorter life and they come to terms in acceptance.
19 When you have family and loved ones who rely on you, you have to realize that although you are an individual, you are part of a collective force. In the collectiveness of it all we need to respond to what we do and how we may harm others. Therefore, you are in balance only if everyone in your family fully understands your intentions and in peace.
20 Let us now turn the tables and say that you have married someone. Let us say you were already overweight, and your spouse loved you the way you were but now complains that wants to see you slimmer and not the way you were when you got married. Here, there is an unbalance—an expectation of something you are not.
21 Should you comply? Only if you come to terms with that person because everything must be in balance and in conformity at all times. If, on the other hand, you have a spouse who has gained weight and physical attraction is lost because of the weight gain, then there should be a balance and conformity in the understanding between both parties. Not all should be one-sided but in conformity and balance.
22 If there is no conformity and balance, then you will have an unbalanced environment within you, and it is up to you to choose what to do in an unbalanced environment where none of you two want to give up, like a tug of war.
23 And the question is if you want to live in a tug of war, let go and comply, or let go and let it be. You see? It is a choice of balance within you.
24 The ultimate goal is to know that attachment is keeping you out of balance. Desire or temptation is like a tug-of-war, and you choose whether you want to be in balance, out of balance, or let it be.
25 In everything that exists, there are three possible outcomes: temptation can prevail, balance can prevail, or you can choose to let things be.
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