The following story can be used as a metaphor for the dangers of worldliness.
The Sirens were sea nymphs in Greek mythology. They were represented in early Greek art by birds with the heads of women.
The Sirens lured approaching sailors by their enchanting singing. In some depictions, the Sirens also played the lyre and flute. The overpowering music caused the sailors to crash their ships against the rocky cliffs and drown.
Odysseus had all his sailors plug their ears with beeswax to that they could escape the Sirens. Odysseus himself wanted to hear the Siren’s melodies so he had his sailors tie him to the mast. He then ordered the sailors to untie him when he heard the Siren’s beautiful song, but the sailors ignored him. The sailor released Odysseus when they were no longer within earshot. (Odyssey XII, 39)
The Germans had a similar legend about a Siren name Lorelei who lured boatmen in the Rhine to destruction.
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Those who are free from vanity and delusion, who have overcome the evil of attachment, who dwell constantly in the self and God, who are freed from the desire to enjoy the senses, and are beyond the dualities of pleasure and pain, such liberated personalities attain My eternal Abode.
Bhagavad Gita 15:5
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There is no necessity for Latter-day Saints to worry over the things of this world. They will all pass away. Our hearts should be set on things above; to strive after that perfection which was in Christ Jesus, who was perfectly obedient in all things unto the Father, and so obtained His great exaltation and became a pattern unto His brethren. Why should we fret and worry over these temporal things when our destiny is so grand and glorious? If we will cleave unto the Lord, keep His commandments, pattern after His perfections and reach out unto the eternal realities of His heavenly kingdom, all will be well with us and we shall triumph and obtain the victory in the end.
– Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, 2011, Chapter 6: Becoming Perfect before the Lord: “A Little Better Day by Day”
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Millions of people today are pursuing the course of temporal pleasures. They seek happiness in desperation, but their broken lives are sacrificed on the rubbish heaps of a modern society. On the other hand, we observe that those willing to keep the commandments of the Lord find the real values, which the Lord promised would bring joy and happiness.
– President Howard W. Hunter
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Liberation from Materialism by Peter Marshall
Forbid it, Lord, that our roots become too firmly attached to this earth, that we should fall in love with things.
Help us to understand that the pilgrimage of this life is but an introduction, a preface, a training school for what is to come.
Then shall we see all of life in its true perspective.
Then shall we not fall in love with the things of time, but come to love the things that endure.
Then shall we be saved from the tyranny of possessions which we have no leisure to enjoy, of property whose care becomes a burden.
Give us, we pray, the courage to simplify our lives.
So may we be mature in our faith, childlike but never childish, humble but never cringing, understanding but never conceited.
So help us, O God, to live and not merely to exist, that we may have joy in our work.
In Thy name, who alone can give us moderation and balance and zest for living, we pray. Amen
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The Jew is a “resident” in the world, for the Torah instructs us not escape the physical reality but to inhabit it and elevate it. At the same time, the Jew feels himself a “stranger” in the material world — his true home is the world of spirituality, holiness and G-dliness from which his soul has been exiled and to which it yearns to return.
Indeed, it is only because he remains a “stranger” that he can maintain the spiritual vision and integrity required to reside in the world and sanctify it as a “dwelling for G-d.”
-The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994)
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See also:
Forsaking Worldliness: Old Testament
Forsaking Worldliness: New Testament
Forsaking Worldliness: Book of Mormon
Forsaking Worldliness: Doctrine & Covenants
– Tom Irvine
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