From Thomas Moore –
“Being attached to the soul, to life, to destiny, to others, to place, to family, or to talent is the kind of submission, limitation, and harnessing that allow desire to perfom its rituals of exploration and that invite effective power. Without this bondage, human effort is Promethean, godless, off-track and soulless…Sade is the theologian of hell, speaking for the red angels of the fiery inferno whose job it is to urge and to tempt toward the pleasures of binding and of being bound.”
Dark Eros – The Imagination of Sadism
This puts a whole new spin on “oppression ousting” in that it challenges us not to disturb the type of bondage that delivers us into discovery and fulfillment. So, it could be said that ousting oppression includes ousting fear of our desires. I love it.
J. Ruth Kelly 
Good Lord. That is one hell of a brilliant brainfull! I read it three times over. I agree with Leslie in that Your take on it helped me greatly. In a world where almost every spiritual path asks us to become unattached, that there is a refreshing statement that, if taken to heart, could alleviate MUCH guilt about the things of form that have the capacity to send us soaring!!! Wow. You sure came back from the hills all on fire! Thank You for this slice of beauty. Biggest hugs and Cheers and Namaste. 🙂
I’m glad my comment on Moore’s gold made it more accessible. I’m sure reading the book would do it even more. It’s quite a read.
Don’t get me going on the world of enlightened unattachment. I can let go with the best of them (my current phrase…let go and let life) but as soon as I preach it at every turn as the grand solution, I’ve become attached to being unattached. And that’s a whole new box to put yourself in. And some issues need tenacious clinging in order to be resolved. Tell my kids I’ve found the answer as I walk up the great mountain to live “the enlightened life” and they scratch their heads wondering how to weather life’s tides without the presence of validation. There’s a time for everything. Commitment in many layers of life requires a measure of attachment and even insistence on success along certain lines. It’s a dance. We must both let go and hold on. We let go of the habitual clasping with the petty hands of fear and desperation, we examine what made those reaching clawing appendages in the first place, we heal their origins as best we can and we cling with the hands that nurture life’s best freedoms. And some of life’s best freedoms include the freedom to submit to writing a book, going relentlessly after that part in a play, hunting down a loved one, exploring new not-so-vanilla play with a lover, and insisting on the best for our children (which usually means facilitating their freedom). We can be intimately, passionately attached to all we treasure without being enslaved to those same treasures. I can love my children with an almost fierce insistence on their best and immerse myself completely in a vision of their futures as fulfilling for them, as releasing them into their individuality but attachment in fear is what we all must avoid, attachment that draws from a source of desperation or fear of loss is the thing to lose. The truth is…we BELONG to life. Life exacts some measure of requirement the likes of which we must submit to in order to get certain results…we can kick against the “bondage” of those requirements or release ourselves INTO it with pleasure in the now of fulfillment and in knowing the gain we’ll appreciate when we’ve finished the painting or planted the last seed in the garden or. or. or.
Ah, so much for not going off on that subject! you stirred my mind on this one! Thank you…I needed to articulate that to myself!
oxo…
Thank-you for this. I understood it correctly. I agree that there is a delicate balance as we are still here and coming into touch with our lessons and we need that ever-present force of this world to help us to learn. I must say there is, in me, a belief that I must feel grounded. It does not come of fear but the knowledge that I am still of this world. A very wise person that was helping me understand myself told me that there is real “fear” that makes us act accordingly to danger and there is false fear that impedes our learning who we are as individuals and stops our growth. Part of our lesson, here, is to learn what those are. I am learning from you and Bliss, JRuth.
I love how you express the ins and outs of fear and “fear.” So true. Thank you Leslie…same for me, I’m learning from you (and bliss too! and others.). It’s such a wealth of treasure…
Just a few more thoughts on this…it feels good to articulate…
Fear of some desires is healthy in that it provides a check for otherwise potentially destructive consequences. We can face things that might be destructive when we shed our fear of being nude with self about what we want. “Hey I reallly want to kick that man for what he just said!” Wellll…not a good idea to do that. But maybe it’s a good idea not to be afraid of admitting to yourself that this is how you feel and you might do well to examine why you react so strongly here.
Desires are sometimes not meant to be fulfilled as much as they are meant to show us how we can grow in response to what those desires represent. I may find I’m tremendously attracted to one man while committed to another. Do I run in fear from myself or do I face it privately and explore what it means about me and only me, what have I neglected to nurture, what might I feel exists in that other man that is really something I want to experience in myself and of myself? Maybe this is just an opportunity to be reminded of how desire can infuse a relationship with great vital energy and I can take this response and transmute it into a renewed passion for my man. So…”Why do I want this?” and “What can I do with this desire?” Not…”oh NO! I want this!!! WHat’s WRONG with me?!” This is what I mean when I say “without fear.”
Desire and fear are life’s haunting catalysts for change…how we approach them can be the difference between creativity and destruction. And even then, sometimes we have to actually choose to destroy one way of life in order to grow and create along other lines.
I’m thinking I should’ve made this its own post! And the heat and hills of Georgia have given me plenty of time to think as I visit my parents!
Exactly. You are very wise! I had to have help to learn some of these lessons (and I’m still learning)…….your intuitiveness and your vigor are so beautiful in trying times!
I am reading “Wolf Hall”, right now, and I get so confused.I saw your quote is by Thomas Moore and he is in the book. Even the quote sounds like the time period I am reading about. I am glad you translated the meaning of what he said because I found it difficult to understand. Thanks for this! I like snippets of things that go along with what I am reading, JRuth!