The misunderstanding which all too often occurs is to label the flesh, the malfunctioning ego/mind/identity as evil, or bad, and anything which is from it as evil, bad, or immoral. It isn't. What must be understood about it is that it is trying to do what it was designed to do, but that it is in fact malfunctioning. In this respect, it is as innocent as any animal can be.
Years ago, I was working as a laser technician for a company in Oregon using laser drilling equipment to bore microscopic holes onto circuit board layers. These holes would then be filled with copper and the layers joined to one another to create more possible connections where a one layer board would run out of room for both traces and components. These holes had to be alternately either .04" or .06" in diameter, and .04" deep with nearly perfectly straight sidewalls. To achieve this, the laser had to hit it with perfect precision in location on the board, power, and number of pulses. If any of these factors was off by the tiniest amount, the board would be useless.
One night, I ran a set of boards, checking the holes under a microscope like I always did. Once the sample looked good, I ran the entire series. The machine followed its program like it was designed to, hitting everything in the precise location, and the number of pulses it was told to. A few days later, I was called into the boss's office and told that the entire run was worthless and the customer was furious. It was eventually told to me that there had been a minor power surge in the machine which had caused the boards to create holes that looked something like an upside down "T" with a flaw that I couldn't have seen under the microscope. When they had tried to fill them with copper, they couldn't get the connection. Every board had to be rejected, and I was fired.
Was I doing what I was trained to do? Yes. Was the machine following the program it was given? Yes. But because there was a minor fluctuation in the power, every board was rendered flawed and useless by the machine even though it was technically doing what it was told.
The human brain is still, innocently like the GS-600 laser drill, trying to follow its original programming, so to speak. The problem is that there is a minor flaw in the parameters. If I'm right, it's the size of the amygdala as it communicates with the hypothalamus. But this minor deviation from the original specifications has rendered virtually every response and decision a human being makes subject to an overactive survival response system of fight, flight, feeding, and reproduction. Rather than only activating in actual survival circumstances, it renders every situation a survival circumstance in some way, seeking to protect the person from both real and imagined threats, both physical and psychological threats to their existence when it was only supposed to activate upon physical and real threats.
The flesh, in this respect is in no way immoral. It is amoral. It is doing what it thinks it is supposed to do, but with disastrous results, like my circuit boards. In dealing with the flesh, and in disengaging from it, we need to be aware of this, and be compassionate towards it rather than judgmental. Not giving in to it, not engaging with it or jumping when it cries out, but just treating it like what it is. A malfunctioning piece of well meaning equipment.
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