The need for purity and the balancing of opposites

The opposition to a certain old religious status quo which had a refined moral guideline and the curiosity that emerges after the fall of its major institutions has led us ever more to embrace vices that have imprisoned us.

A vice is an unhealthy coping mechanism turned into a habit that alleviates suffering and fills a void with different amounts of pleasure that you obtain via exchanging your attention, vitality and purity for it. 

The immediate urge to avoid pain at all costs is what is leading this and we use vices as a sort of sedative not to deepen our own suffering. But by the repetitive and mechanical habits that are in place to distract us from the truth of pain, we remain stuck in the same circle of hell with no advancement towards a development of acquired and integrated wisdom that could emerge from going through certain phases of suffering that would open the doors for a more authentic experience of life. 

The philosopher Slavoj Zizek downplays both the role of suffering and that of wisdom by dialectically twisting the true purpose of the first and  ridiculing the logical inconsistency and pretentiousness of the second. His postmodern approach with modernist assumptions does indeed capture something real, meaning the attempt by the ego to gain pleasure and recognition through its own display of virtuosity. But that interpretation sees only the malevolent intentions of the ego and forgets about the process itself which does lead to more authenticity and deepening of the soul. 

The aforementioned postmodern way of seeing things does help one become intellectually sharper, but ultimately it doesn't go to the root of that which it is actually supposed to analyze and it remains stuck in the same mindset which does not promote a renunciation of vices and a return to purity and virtue, which can be realized through the painful realization of how vacuous and damaging those coping mechanisms are.

The self centeredness of modern and postmodern man and the lack of a higher ideal which is not subjective, but absolute, is part of the problem. If there's nothing transcendent, there's nothing to look up to and everything is horizontal, everything is human and the subject, the ego, becomes the highest metaphysical point of reference, while its rejection in this same framework can lead only to a subhuman and animalistic orientation as an alternative. 

So purity, which is desperately needed, could come about when we allow suffering to change us so radically that we can see the shallowness of our own behavior and choices compared to the beauty of the transcendent ideal of authenticity and virtue which should be our point of reference.

Of course, these are just words and to apply them in practice is harder than it seems. Moods swing, tragedies occur and everything around us and inside us influences us for the best or for the worst. Just passively oscillating from one mood to another, from one feeling to another, is not helpful and not ideal. One should gain control over his or her own emotional states, especially over the negative ones, so that they don't interfere with one's true goals. 

The way in which this can be achieved is by first becoming aware of the feeling one is having at the moment if that feeling acts as a blockage. One should recognize it consciously and should see that it has a thought pattern attached to it. There's usually a voice associated with it which gives an argument as to why that feeling is justified and why you should persist in having that mood and being blocked from acting. 

Observing and describing what is occurring creates a slight detachment from the bad mood itself, but it's not sufficient to make you get out of that state completely. Taking conscious action is what ultimately changes the game and there is a method to it.

Every time you become aware of a bad feeling which is blocking you, you detach yourself from it by observing it and then you balance it with an opposite thought pattern to that which is attached to the bad mood which will bring about the opposite feeling. 

You feel fear? Hit it with courage. Find the correct and authentic arguments that allow courage to come about and defeat the arguments of fear. You feel desperation? Hit it with hope and reconnect to a realistic positive vision for the future towards which you can orient yourself. And so on. 

This balancing of the opposites by clashing them together strengthens your psyche and actually produces psychic energy as it functions as any other union or clashing of the opposites in nature which generates life itself. 

It's through this dialectic of the opposites that one can move forward and we, as conscious beings, should play the part of the active element that clashes with the passive. 

And it's only by having a good metaphysical framework which leads to a good moral system that we will have the argumentative means to balance out our thought patterns and our emotional states which will then lead towards a more authentic and pure way of living. 

That metaphysical framework is not to be found in modernity or postmodernity, but it needs to treat these two as dialectical elements to be integrated and overcome; not to outright reject them without hearing out their arguments, but to listen, understand and then come up with the correct and sensible answer that goes to the core of the issues.