noun: something that seduces or has the quality to seduce
noun: the desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid ("He felt the temptation and his will power weakened")
noun: the act of influencing by exciting hope or desire
"Love life in such measures as to live the way that will make your efforts, and your mind, and yourself, flourish as the bay tree, that will make those things that have tempted you as nothing in your experience." [Cayce 378-22)]
Ralph M. Lewis
CONSCIENCE AND TEMPTATION
" Each desire, each temptation, causes us to assume new obligations. It changes, even though slightly, our relations with others and the things about us. If, then, we are faced with a decision each moment, we must be certain that in making this decision we do not degrade ourselves, dwarf our own moral growth or development as a being - that is, that we do not in any way retard our advancement. Since each second of our consciousness is a threshold of decision which we must cross, we can never go back. We must make the best of that decision. Having crossed the threshold in our mind, ultimately we experience either a feeling of righteousness or a feeling of remorse and regret. If we feel regret, then in all probability we did not heed conscience that stood upon the threshold of our consciousness at the time we were about to act or to decide. Therefore, on each such threshold of our consciousness, conscience stands as a sentinel of the subconscious mind, of the inner intelligence that permeates our being.
It does not command us; it is not an insuperable force that we cannot escape. In fact, we know too well that we often can and do oppose conscience. It is, however, the creative, positive influence of the Divine Mind within us." [Ralph M. Lewis, F.R.C., (1904 - 1987) - "The Conscious Interlude."]
Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth
"I - We - say to men and women everywhere - true Purity is only attained when you can be surrounded with every form of temptation and yet remain untouched by desire, unmoved by earthly feelings, untainted by earthly lusts, free of craving and longing for possession.
Purity in its every form transcends all earthly physical hungers. Purity is the ability to see temptation for what it is - grossness of thought and feeling which traps the senses of men and women into doing unclean things. A truly pure person desires only the clean and honest environment suited to their innate longing for spiritual love and beauty of self expression in every facet of their lives. That is true Purity.
However, true purity cannot be achieved unless there have first been the long years of temptation. It is a necessary part of your spiritual development; unless you have been sorely tempted at times, and have eventually come to understand that there is a higher road to walk, a road of self-denial, and of sincere concern and caring for a good woman, you will never attain a state of true purity.
You will be enslaved by desire and will be in a constant turmoil of inner conflict." [Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth, Letter 4, page 15]
"This is why there was a struggle between my humanly entrenched Ego and my 'Father-Mother Consciousness' during the very strident temptations I experienced at the end of my enlightenment in the desert. Satan had nothing to do with the tug-of-war which took place within my consciousness.
The war was waged between the
transcendent, yet with in me and which would gradually take over my individuality to an ever greater extent if I continually meditated and cleared my consciousness of selfish impulses." [Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth, Christ Letters - Letter 5, page 27]