the devil

If achieving temperance, mastering the art of life, requires super-human skill, then seeking liberation from the devil is harder still. Human beings are naturally born into enslavement, with the weight of their problematic yearnings and turbulent emotional states tying them down to their physical essence without restraint. There are not many people who can achieve liberation from the forces that bind, and even fewer are even aware of them or would want to be aware of them. And this is the nature of voluntary slavery. It is almost as if without the weight of the chains that restrain us, we could become light as a feather and might immediately be able to rise up, both in defiance and in ecstasy. But part of our enslavement is our addiction to the dense heaviness of our earthbound nature, its sweetness, its drama, the eternal thrill, the masochism of body and soul. We may wrestle with the devil to stay alive and keep life bearable, but our internal whispering tells us that true liberation would probably stop us from being here at all. Because perhaps only the devil can permit our full humanity.