"So it is with the love of money, the love of power and the other maladies that affect the minds of men--you may be sure that it is when they abate and give every appearance of being cured that they are at their most dangerous." Seneca, Letter LVI.
What malady doesn't affect the minds of men? Sexual promiscuity? If there's ever been a physical sin only, that's it, but we all know sexual deviancy starts in the mind. Anger? Nope, anger is a mental thing, and for those of us who suffer that malady, it's always dormant at best.
But Seneca's point is well-taken. The battle is never over until you're dead. The devil came, perched on the holy monk's deathbed, and said, "You have beaten me." The monk replied, "We still do not know." Amen to that.
What is it about the mind that makes it so fickle? I have long been intrigued by ancient writers' attempts to distinguish among different faculties of the soul, some seemingly implying that the soul could be carved into so many pieces of pie, each piece handling a different element of our personality. The mind is such a complex thing. Neurology is just beginning to scratch the surface, and I suspect that, the deeper scientists scratch, the more they'll discover ignorance. The brain is merely the physical concept of our spiritual nature, and spirituality transcends all physical exploration. We won't get to the bottom of it any more than a rocket will plow into heaven.
