How much of our mental and emotional nature is driven by our physical, and, even as we struggle to overcome its influences, how much are we dragged back down into a responsive nature by the fact that we are always conforming to whatever our body chemistry has in mind?   If this is the case, can we ever truly be free of its influence and act in an un-physically-biased manner?   If not, where do we draw the line and cease trying to fight it?

There are so many aspects of our lives driven by the fact that we are physical beings.   Besides the metaphysical realities of having weight and height and being unable to walk through walls without serious lacerations, there are so many chemical and electrical impulses that our bodies respond to and that influence our mental and emotional states.

Just in case you’re not into thinking too much today, here’s a few examples:

Sleep – How many of you can go 48 hours or more without sleep?    Ok, college kids, put your hands down.   I’ll bet you’re mentally and emotionally changed by the time that 2,879th minute ticks by.    Science tells us that if you managed to stay awake for 5 days straight, you’d be dead.    I suspect 98% of us would be comically narcoleptic long before then.

Food and Drink — It’s just a fact that a gain or loss of food/drink in our systems changes how we think, feel, and act, no matter how you try to overcome it.    Sure, monks try to eat rice to make it as bland as possible, and they’re calm — but take away that Uncle Bens and I think you’d have some pretty pissed-off be-robed dudes.

Sex – Face it, you can be as new-age, modern, or celibate as you like and the drive to stick it into someone or have it stuck into you can still overwhelm us at the best of times.   That drive to at least aim for procreation can consume thoughts and alter our emotions and affect us physically — even when we struggle otherwise.

That’s just a few of the many scenarios that you could possibly come up with (I encourage you to make a list if you’re really that bored), but the point remains the same — there’s some forces that are physical that affect the mental. And we can’t seem to get away from it.

Meditation is often cited as that which can break us free from our physical bonds and give us complete control mentally, but the fact is when you’re done hummming and ooooohing all day long, you’re still as hungry as a bear.    Drop a deadly Ninja into a sea of slithering, oiled nymphs and I guarantee he’ll twig on.    It’s just the nature of things.

So — we have these massive physical forces that not even the best of us can walk through unscathed and unresponsive — why do we fight them at all?

Well, modern humans seem content on thinking that fighting one’s nature is a good way to improve oneself and to seek a higher state of thinking and being, since animals and plants obey their natures and don’t really rationalize their behavior, they just react.     This is why rabbits multiply like — well, rabbits, and eagles make lunch from mice.   I have yet to see a condor stop and go, “No, you know what?    I want the filet tonight, thanks.”   Humans are trying to get away from just reacting (except in the deep South), and I think that’s a good goal.

Therefore, we’ve determined that a) the physical affects us greatly and b) we’d like to break away from it if possible, or at least overcome it, so….c)   when do we say, “Enough is enough!”

This one is tough — when do you obey your physical nature over your mental?    Certainly I think it’s silly to say, “Eating is giving in to the physical — don’t eat!”     Everyone needs it to survive, it’s a part of the nature, and you can’t think straight without it.     But you definitely DO hear folks saying, “Sex is giving in to the physical — don’t sex!”    Silly, right?   But then again, we don’t have corner sex deli’s, either, and can’t grab a McScrew in a drive-thru.   (if you did, it’d clog your arteries, and not in a happy way).

So where’s the line?   Pursuit of a better, less-physically-influenced human is a great thing, but how far is too far?    Are we already suppressing our natures too much, or do we need even more restraint?   Obviously, these are important questions to figure out as we progress the human species forward for, if we are wasting our time sitting here philosophizing when we could be out eating, drinking, and “being merry”, why aren’t we clinking glasses already?

Your thoughts, gentle readers.    Soon to come:   The Controversies:   Nathan and Belief.    Stay tuned.