Murdering The Inner Chimp

Our animal nature has limitations.

We need to eat. We need to sleep. We need to fuck. We hunger. We feel hot or cold. We get afraid. We get angry. We desire to dominate. We need to socialize. We need to explore. We need to play. We need to serve and care for…

These are not social conditioning. These are urges that have evolved, and they manifest in your behavior due to the structure of your brain. They are recognized in psychology as motivational circuits.

It’s all part of the package. You didn’t ask for it. It came with the body.

Now… Based on the moral ideals and metaphysical speculations of many spiritual traditions, you are encouraged to overcome these limitations to a greater or lesser degree.

Some people do it by denial. Others by sublimation. Even others by elimination – they murder their inner chimp.

Of course, as long as you have a body, these motivational circuits will continue to function. And regardless of your fiddling with the mechanism through yamas, niyamas, austerities, meditations and chemicals; they will remain inalienable aspects of your life.

This means; the “spiritual” instruction to overcome your inner chimp is not only challenging, but it is also impossible.

But even if it were possible, would it be desirable?

I think not.

Let’s take sex for instance. Sex is one of the most profound delights of the human experience. Why eliminate it even if you could?

While we want to overcome our limitations, we don’t want to incinerate our inner chimp. We don’t even want to sublimate it (i.e. replace one expression such as sex with a “higher” alternative like painting).

Instead, we want to transcend with it. We want to save and savoir the aspects of our being that we enjoy. We want to pluck the fruits of our evolutionary past, while avoiding the thorns. And we definitely do not not want to burn the whole tree down!

Don’t listen to the religions or cults of the past, and their shortsighted, conflicted and frustrated ideas. Pretty much every one of their dictates has been terribly toxic and serve nothing but your servitude.

The spirit is stainless. What it enjoys through our inner chimp is not to be denied, but embraced, understood and exalted.

Of course: Such exaltation, obviously must have a transhumanist component…

For instance, birth control, pornography, virtual reality, sex enhancement technologies like various drugs and toys, and the entire sex industry come to mind when considering the exaltation of sex: the pleasures and virtues of the inner chimp need not be experienced as a monkey. We can use technology, science and wisdom so that we can have our cake and eat it too.

Don’t be stuck in the past. Transcend yourself!