Edward’s Diary Entry 24 – Virtue 5: Control of the passions/senses

This was easy for me to represent, as I immediately found St George and the Dragon, representing the passionate nature of self under control, in my photos. I knew the story, too... If we do not have a Life Plan, the passionate dragon is in the dark cave, roaring away and devouring young maidens and killing faint-hearted knights, and generally creating havoc in life. He rages supreme, meaning our five senses or our passions are simply automatic, mechanical and we react to every passing thought, emotion, impulse, and to every action of others in our external environment. A girl passes; our eyes follow her curves. A man walks by; he may be a prospective lover or home-provider for a man-hunting woman. Sit on a terrace and watch. The asphalt jungle is full of hunters and the hunted (I wrote a true story about this a few years ago; if requested I’ll publish it). But “knowing the story” and actually being capable of cultivating this Virtue are two different things! First we have to train as knights, acquire our armour and lance, mount our steed and tame him, practice the art of dragon baiting and dragon control. Only then can we venture into the dark cave and bring him out into the open, where at lance-point he will begin to obey our controlling Knight-factor, one of our temporary ego-based “I’s” backed by knowledge and attention. And then, if we’re successful, the dragon will gently follow the requests of the Lady, the Soul, and allow himself to be led by as little as a silken thread. Edward, you have a long way to go; you’re still riding a Shetland pony! But studying this Virtue and investigating the theories at least I have found a method, which is promoting Self-Awareness, being alert, seeing, analysing and judging: Thought X is a-thinking in me (alertness); I see Thought X (seeing); I analyse Thought X based on Life Plan 1) Duties, 2) Morality, 3) Truth-Realisation (analysis); I accept or reject Thought X based on analysis (judging). Thought Y comes, Thought Z comes, etc. And so with seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and with mind and objects in general. Fun, eh?