A Ramble About Enslavement

 You are a slave to whatever can command you. If your fear, your anger, or your craving for food or sex can command you, then you are the slave of your own flesh. If your attachment to a possession, a person, an idea, or your own self-dentity can command you, then you are a slave to that attachment. You are not free but have by choice enslaved yourself to these things. As Paul wrote, you are a slave to whatever you choose to obey. To whatever you present the members, the parts of your body as a slave to obey, you are that thing's slave to obey whether you admit that or not, whether that is a comfortable fact or not.
     The practice of the Way is a recognition that you choose to be either a slave to your malfunctioning mind, dominated as it is by a malfunctioning survival response system which treats everything as either a survival need (craving and attachment) or a survival threat (aversion), or you choose to be a slave to the Spirit of Christ with whom you are joined as one thing. The practice of the Way is the choice to submit to the Spirit of Christ instead of your own malfunctioning mind, to enslave yourself to the very nature and presence of the God who is love instead of enslaving yourself to a mistake in your brain's circuitry, a flaw which, instead of serving its original purpose of protecting the body, pushes a human being into suffering and towards their own self-destruction and death if it is obeyed. The malfunctioning flesh, as good as its own intentions might be to keep you safe, healthy, and happy, cannot accomplish any of these things any more than a malfunctioning machine can accomplish its original purpose. It can only cause mistakes because it is not working right.
     Enslaving oneself to the Spirit of Christ means freedom from all of these other things. It means operating, not from your fear, anger, or your body screaming at you to eat or have sex, but from the love, joy, peace, patience, trust, kindness, courtesy, and self-control that are inherent to the very nature of God Himself. It ultimately means losing one's attachments and experiencing what genuine love and happiness are, not rooted in temporary things you can lose, but in permanent things you cannot lose.
      To what or whom have you enslaved yourself to?