Chained To Bodily Comfort

Why can freedom not come without prisons and pain? A thousand desires fill us, both good and deceitful, and the conflict of these phantoms brings a thousand tortures that leave us weary. Where is that sure faith that burns up all phantoms?” God answers, “The seeker of pleasure in you is your enemy and My enemy.
‘Do not take your enemy and My enemy for a friend.’
When your pleasure-seeking self is imprisoned, filled with trouble and pain, then your freedom arrives and gathers strength. A thousand times you have proved that freedom comes to you out of toothache, headache and fear. Why then are you chained to bodily comfort? Why are you always occupied with tending the flesh? Do not forget the end of that thread: Unravel those bodily passions till you have attained your eternal passion, and find freedom from the prison of darkness.”

Fihi Ma Fihi - Discourse 13 - A. J. Arberry