Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: And I feel like sometimes we equate things that are not quite equal, so we have to be careful with that. We throw around things like concepts like Satan mythologically, or ego, or even dopamine, almost as if they're the same thing, but it's not quite like that. There is an overlap between these things, but they're not really the same thing. It's just that your demise, our demise, is when we let these processes rule instead of letting deeper values and principles rule. It's a top down approach where the top is always trying to control everything else. And that's where your demise is. That's our mistake. Our mistake is to let that dopamine rule us, is to try to strike that deal with the devil of, oh, if this, then that, no, there's a binariness to it, I'm just not going to eat that donut the second I'm beyond that. I've already lost the second. I.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: But is there never a time? So this is a very important moment. As far as which addictions need to be binary, which I don't make a deal with the devil at all.
It's a closed element. I'm never going to entertain. There isn't going to be a moment where I make some deal with the devil that allows me to inject myself with heroin. Let's say this is a guilty pleasure that is beyond. It must have a boundary.
The addiction coming from opioids perhaps needs to be binding. But maybe sugar, not so much. Maybe sugar isn't an addiction, or caffeine for that matter, or marijuana. Again, you define what your fear.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: It's an addiction, right?
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it is an addiction.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: But are there ruining your life?
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Are there addictions that must have a binary stop? Or is there a time where you want to entertain, where you actually want to make a deal with the devil? I want to propose a specific example that is a little easier going back to the donuts to maintain consistency. Maybe to wait until 01:00 to have a donut isn't as straight. Perhaps you might think again, different people define their fair shares differently. Maybe if I'm really active and I'm trying to maintain a certain level of health, even from a look standpoint, from the most materialistic element of health, to look good, I'd say I make a deal with the devil and say that I can have a doughnut if I complete 500 push ups in the next few hours, I can do 30 push ups here, 40 there, 20 here, ten there, I continue, or 200 pushups, whatever it may be.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: If I do 500 push ups, what is your sacrifice?
[00:02:58] Speaker B: I will have a donut.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: What is your sacrifice?
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Is this a worthy deal with the devil where you maybe even do it to a point where, okay, donuts is 600 calories, I'm going to make sure I burn at least 700.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: And then I can have this donut. Is it okay for some guilty pleasures to have to allow for a deal with the.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: It's certainly okay to experience pleasure. I don't think that we should demonize pleasure as a whole. That's why we don't want to equate Satan to ego to pleasure to dopamine, because there is a. Give the devil his due. There is a fair share of pleasure. You don't want to live completely.
What do they call, like, aesthetic. No, what's the word? Like a life with no pleasure.
Aesthetic life. You want to allow for pleasure to exist within your life. Even the Buddha, when he first rebelled against his structures, against the wealth and the kingdom and all of that, he chose a very aesthetic life and just stopped eating and then found the middle way where it's no. That he didn't find the answer there. In depriving himself of all things that wasn't his awakening came with a balance.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: With finding, with definition of what his fair share is. And it's probably not somewhere in the middle. It's closer to.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: But it's a balance. It doesn't have to be a middle of what, it's just a balance.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: The middle of where he was before he rebelled against the wealth of the kingdom.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, sure.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: His fair share is probably for the Buddha is a lot closer to the aesthetic lifestyle than it is to the wealth. Yeah.
