5) Asceticism
Every stimulation surges only to release from its captivity. Once an expansion, then a contraction; once a movement, then a void which sought to be filled—this is the play of stimulations which I have witness. But what is the scope of our minds? Can we comprehend the resolute existence which stimulation surges to reach? For what our lives will be, will we ever witness an end-in-itself? To be sure, we only have to ask ourselves a series of subsequent questions. Is not the effect of two dissolved and concluded stimulations only a cause for another? And can’t it be said that complete denial of stimulation is unintelligible?
Let us recall a famous story of denial—that story of when Simon Peter drew his sword to Judea. There can be no doubt that his allegiance was certain and his reactions predictable—but on the day of Jesus’ arrest there was another answer: “Then Jesus said unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” Henceforth, in the face of opposition, Peter found himself with an immediate and mechanical reaction—denial. Suffering at the hand of the opposition had not been invented for him. Jesus knew that Peter could not accept martyrdom, at least, until an example had been made for him to follow.
If stimulation swells and is met with lack of acknowledgement within consciousness, there can only be one resolution for that stimulation: an inward manifestation onto the consciousness. An inward manifestation can only lead to the greatest sickness of consciousness; equally, it leads to a malformation of physiology—I say, stimulation will have its release! Perhaps it was Simon Peter whose consciousness was the first to succumb to a reaction forced back onto its origin. Perhaps he wept not for denying his Lord—he knew no other reaction!—but for denying the stimulation to defend his allegiance.
