the Soul and the Senses

“Once I made a distant trip, right to the shore of the Eastern Sea. The road I went was long and far, the way beset by wind and waves. Who was it made me take this trip? It seems that I was forced by hunger. I gave my all to eat my fill, when just a bit was more than enough.” Since this was not a famous plan, I stopped my cart and came back home.“

I’ve been thinking lately about moderation and self-control. (food, drink, social, etc.)

When I am led by hunger, or the pursuit of stimulants, I am being controlled. I no longer have a say where I am going, but am following behind this hunger.

When I give God power over my flesh, I am free.

I then can choose, with God, where I walk and not be led by hunger. 

In this place, I can decide the best options for myself, I can avoid pain, and enjoy the value of the little things that I don’t see when I am focused on hunger. Life is no longer remote. I am connected, interactive and fulfilled.

I pray that God gives me the ability to feel healthy moderation in my spirit, to know when "just a bit is more than enough”. I pray then that he keeps my heart and my thirst for true adventure stronger than that of fleshly hunger.

Salvation- a lifelong process of being conformed to the image of God. Through the Incarnation, “God became man so that man might become deified.”- partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 2:14). In the words of St John Chrysostom, “when Hades came upon earth and found heaven, when it came upon a corpse and found God, it was embittered and spat Him out.” - as it will spit us out, it could not overtake him and it will not overtake us. Christ united even death, with God- uniting every part of us -redeeming the entire human experience including the fall- back to the divine nature- back to unity with God’s energies (grace)- back to freedom- to salvation.

The Jews fasted too, and profited nothing, nay they departed with blame.

“Fasting is a medicine; but a medicine, though it be never so profitable, becomes frequently useless owing to the unskillfulness of him who employs it. For it is necessary to know, moreover, the time when it should be applied, and the requisite quantity of it; and the temperament of body that admits it; and the nature of the country, and the season of the year; and the corresponding diet; as well as various other particulars; any of which, if one overlooks, he will mar all the rest that have been named.

Now if, when the body needs healing, such exactness is required on our part, much more ought we, when our care is about the soul, and we seek to heal the distempers of the mind, to look, and to search into every particular with the utmost accuracy.

I have said these things, not that we may disparage fasting, but that we may honor fasting; for the honor of fasting consists not in abstinence from food, but in withdrawing from sinful practices

 If thou seest a poor man, take pity on him!

If thou seest an enemy, be reconciled to him!

If thou seest a friend gaining honor, envy him not!

If thou seest a handsome woman, pass her by!

For let not the mouth only fast, but also the eye, and ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our bodies.

Let the hands fast, by being pure from rapine and avarice.

Let the feet fast, but ceasing from running to the unlawful spectacles.

Let the eyes fast, being taught never to fix themselves rudely upon handsome countenances, or to busy themselves with strange beauties.

For looking is the food of the eyes, but if this be such as is unlawful or forbidden, it mars the fast; and upsets the whole safety of the soul; but if it be lawful and safe, it adorns fasting.

For it would be among things the most absurd to abstain from lawful food because of the fast, but with the eyes to touch even what is forbidden. Dost thou not eat flesh? Feed not upon lasciviousness by means of the eyes.

Let the ear fast also. The fasting of the ear consists in refusing to receive evil speakings and calumnies. "Thou shalt not receive a false report,” it says.“

-St. John Chrysostom

“Imagine a facial recognition program in your glasses discreetly reminding you of the name and title of an acquaintance. Or picture a walk through a museum with an electronic docent embedded in your glasses, recognizing the art you are looking at and whispering in your ear…They will reportedly overlay graphics, ads and images into your field of view. They should feature some level voice control, while navigation around the tiny screens could also come from a tilt of your head…Google glasses — which may be released as a "beta” product — could put smartphone capabilities such as GPS maps, weather, time, Web streaming and more inches from your eyeball.

But even if Google doesn’t actually build a wearable computer into your shades sometime in the near future, devices like this are coming. Two small firms,Vuzix and Lumus Optics, already have working prototypes of similar devices..Vuzix aims to release a product aimed at consumers in 2013.

Yet–“The technical challenges are huge.”

They’ll need lightweight, translucent glass or plastic that could work as a lens and a screen. They will need incredibly precise geo-location technology and tiny gyroscopes. The cameras built into into these glasses will need to be sharp. Finally, the voice recognition will have to work to make them practical.“

(excerpts all tech considered npr)