[PrincessParasocks]

I think about pleasure a good deal. (Oh and do get your heads out of the gutter, though perhaps you shouldn't...)

I do it a lot, you know. I'm fond of pleasure. I love to feel good. I love the spoils of filthy lucre, I love the ritz of complete indulgence. Make it all tangible and voluptuous. Heap my sins about me. My little cellular phone blinks away, exorbitantly expensive on the polished wood of the table as a gorgeous and unnecessary a thing. No guilt here, my darling readers.

Pleasure seems a lost art of civilization. Why have so many generations been warned to avoid it? Pleasure isn't sin, it's the pain that's evil, that's clear enough. Pleasure is essential to happiness, in whatever form it might be found. No life should be founded on the principles of denial. I refuse to deny myself anything.

I once read there are four rules of pleasure, my pleasure-seekers.

First, you must stare down the disapproving. Check.

Second, keep it simple. There's more pleasure to be had in the sly press of cool lips to hot fragrant skin than in any manner of exotic carnal delights.

A third might be found in reciprocity. Those who give pleasure are more likely to feel it. That might seem like the precious irony of ironies coming from my bestial lips, but it's true enough. Use insight, sympathy and mutuality- swoon with them, my darlings- and in that there's a piquant pleasance.

Ah and fourth, is my favorite pastime; identify its possibilities. Find beauty and sweet pleasures in all manner of things. Find pleasure in scent, in beginnings, in the sweet exploration of finger tips; find it in reading a good book, in pain and the challenge of tribulation; find it in the unexpected familiarity. Know that pleasure is everywhere and open yourself to its kiss.

Hold on in! You might say. Yo, Vatman, pleasure isn't happiness. It's not the same thing at all. It's a thin veneer, it's fleeting, it's empty. Give me the real thing! Feed my soul.

If you are trying terribly hard to be happy then you're probably failing, and miserably. It just doesn't have as direct a connection to you as pleasure; you simply cannot be sure that any specific thing you might do will lead to happiness. It's not scientific or logical or algebraic. There is no formula. Happiness is a by product of your actions, it's fall out.

Now on the other hand pleasure is direct wired. Press the right button, get a jolt. Spirituality can be found anywhere, after all, it can be as simple as recognizing beauty, and beauty and pleasure are perfect bed fellows. I've never believed that denial and pain and prohibition lead to contentment, but true pleasure unfurls the soul and just maybe happiness will take up residence too. Sometimes getting what you want just ain't all bad. It certainly doesn't feel it.

So add to your talents. To your mental list of available Christmas presents, add the inestimable art of cultivating bliss. It won't hurt to try. (most of the time)

Second, keep it simple. There's more pleasure to be had in the sly press of cool lips to hot fragrant skin than in any manner of exotic carnal delights.

A third might be found in reciprocity. Those who give pleasure are more likely to feel it. That might seem like the precious irony of ironies coming from my bestial lips, but it's true enough. Use insight, sympathy and mutuality- swoon with them, my darlings- and in that there's a piquant pleasance.

Ah and fourth, is my favorite pastime; identify its possibilities. Find beauty and sweet pleasures in all manner of things. Find pleasure in scent, in beginnings, in the sweet exploration of finger tips; find it in reading a good book, in pain and the challenge of tribulation; find it in the unexpected familiarity. Know that pleasure is everywhere and open yourself to its kiss.

Hold on in! You might say. Yo, PrinceOfParadox, pleasure isn't happiness. It's not the same thing at all. It's a thin veneer, it's fleeting, it's empty. Give me the real thing! Feed my soul.

If you are trying terribly hard to be happy then you're probably failing, and miserably. It just doesn't have as direct a connection to you as pleasure; you simply cannot be sure that any specific thing you might do will lead to happiness. It's not scientific or logical or algebraic. There is no formula. Happiness is a by product of your actions, it's fall out.

Now on the other hand pleasure is direct wired. Press the right button, get a jolt. Spirituality can be found anywhere, after all, it can be as simple as recognizing beauty, and beauty and pleasure are perfect bed fellows. I've never believed that denial and pain and prohibition lead to contentment, but true pleasure unfurls the soul and just maybe happiness will take up residence too. Sometimes getting what you want just ain't all bad. It certainly doesn't feel it.

So add to your talents. To your mental list of available Christmas presents, add the inestimable art of cultivating bliss. It won't hurt to try. (most of the time)

[PrincessParasocks]

Oh darn, it seems I repeated a part of my overwhelmingly sin loving statement. My apologies *bows humbly*

[Pastor Ezekiel]

We don't sell indulgences here. We aren't papists.

Where did you plagiarize all that from?

[PrincessParasocks]

Indulgence needs no sale, it comes from the very spirit.

And although copied from a very sublime sort of place, I am in fact the author of it there as well, I simply am not used to this forum style and mistakenly copied an extra piece.

[Shinigami]

Originally Posted by PrinceOfParadox

Indulgence needs no sale, it comes from the very spirit.

And although copied from a very sublime sort of place, I am in fact the author of it there as well, I simply am not used to this forum style and mistakenly copied an extra piece.

This is by definition and by the textbook to be spam. Do you have any idea how much spam is bad for a forum? Filling this forum with blather and blasphemy such as this. What do you want that we CAN give you sir? Absolution? You will not find that here, son. Forgiveness is only from God and not from us ordinary humans. Introduce yourself and let us know your intentions, as this is a important thing we need to know. I am feeling good today and my beating quota is already in for the week. It's your lucky day, so go in peace and aware of your good fortune.

[Pastor Ezekiel]

I'm afraid the chink is right. All you're doing is posting mindless spam. This is a Christian forum, not some emo fag pickup site.

Take it elsewhere, nancyboy.

[PrincessParasocks]

I apologize if you think my words to be mindless dribble. I only wish to share my opinions. And as opinion sharing goes, I must respect yours as I hope you do mine.

As far as my intentions, I wish to simply understand the mentality of your community. I am a philosophy major at my local college and I find the types of discussions here meaningful and relative to the theological section of my studies. Though I am a nonbeliever that does in no way mean I cannot be tolerant and civil.

I assure you, I did not come to spam, I have never been "emo" though I may have had my off day and taken my share of poetry courses.

With all due respect,
~Vatman

[Pastor Ezekiel]

If you are interested in understanding Landover Baptist Church, please take a look at THIS thread and THIS one.

Also, read the Bible. That's the book we follow.

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

[Wide-Open]

I still wonder who that "Vatman" is. Can't find him in my KJV.