Can you live without passion?

[princesa]

I don't know anyone who starts the day because of a passion. We get up, work, take care of kids, feed them, do homework, yadayadayada....and go to bed to begin anew. On the rare occasion I get a moment to myself I have wondered seriously what i am passionate about and I'd have to say nothing. I would love to have a passion, for forms of art, for writing, for God, for family but nope not there. Can you create a personal passion that will last or is it something already instilled in you I wonder.

[princesa]

I don't know anyone who starts the day because of a passion. We get up, work, take care of kids, feed them, do homework, yadayadayada....and go to bed to begin anew. On the rare occasion I get a moment to myself I have wondered seriously what i am passionate about and I'd have to say nothing. I would love to have a passion, for forms of art, for writing, for God, for family but nope not there. Can you create a personal passion that will last or is it something already instilled in you I wonder.

wow, somebody was sort of cranky here. I think passions can be created anew. I'm interested in soap making and I feel like I'm beginning to have a passion for it if I could just get all of the supplies. So, yes, passions can happen at any stage in life I guess.

Still, that's material. I do wonder how I can wake up with a passion to live each day as God wants me to, to look forward every morning for Him to use me as his servant each day. That's a passion worth having.

[Teluog]

I recently wrote in a journal for my counsellor that I have successfully achieved what all Buddhists wish to aspire: no feeling, IOW, no passion/interest for anyone or anything. (Or is it Hindus, I always get the two confused).

It's terrible and is a defining trait of depression, when you feel either sad or don't feel anything. Being passionate, that is, your ability to LIKE and LOVE people and things is what defines humanity, as made in God's image, a Being who is Love. It's anti-human to be apathetic, especially towards other people, and makes it pretty difficult to live out the commandment to love your neighbour if you don't.......love them.

It's especially difficult for people like myself who are denied just about anything they want since being a little kid, and being taught that it's bad to merely "want" because so many people, places, things (essentially all that the term "noun" covers) are allegedly toxic. And then taught in church growing up that wanting things is sinful.

Oh, and being treated poorly by many people doesn't exactly allow you to be passionate towards others since fear of them gets in the way. I learned too, recently, that often what happens when people are treated poorly and denied their wants and needs is that their emotions and ability to attach to things/people around them shuts right down, and requires a ton of hard work to get it back up and running (and will likely never run at the pace it should have been this whole time).

It's taken me most of my life to finally realize that wanting/desiring/liking/loving/being passionate for/willing/etc. is actually okay, in fact it's flat out what God commands us to do as the greatest commandments.

One thing I at least like is scholarly and philosophical studies and thinking, and lately I've been working on biblical Greek. The Greek word thelo means to wish, will, want, desire, enjoy, take delight in. God has a will, and each of us has a will. It's our job to align ours with His, and that assumes that you actually have one. So no, you can't live without passion.

[disciple100]

Buddhism is anti-Hinduism. From what I understand, Buddha was originally a Hindu Prince and in an act of rebellion against his father founded Buddhism. His father was Hindu and rich, so a virtue of Buddhism was poverty. In Hinduism there are millions of gods, in Buddhism there are none, though Buddha did end up becoming deified. The ultimate goal, and hence the great irony, of Buddhism is to achieve a State of Desirelessness, i.e. you do not desire anything. That is Enlightenment, quite literally actually, when you have removed from yourself the 'burden' of desire you are 'enlightened.' But in order to achieve it, do you not have to first desire it?

[princesa]

I recently wrote in a journal for my counsellor that I have successfully achieved what all Buddhists wish to aspire: no feeling, IOW, no passion/interest for anyone or anything. (Or is it Hindus, I always get the two confused).

It's terrible and is a defining trait of depression, when you feel either sad or don't feel anything. Being passionate, that is, your ability to LIKE and LOVE people and things is what defines humanity, as made in God's image, a Being who is Love. It's anti-human to be apathetic, especially towards other people, and makes it pretty difficult to live out the commandment to love your neighbour if you don't.......love them.

It's especially difficult for people like myself who are denied just about anything they want since being a little kid, and being taught that it's bad to merely "want" because so many people, places, things (essentially all that the term "noun" covers) are allegedly toxic. And then taught in church growing up that wanting things is sinful.

Oh, and being treated poorly by many people doesn't exactly allow you to be passionate towards others since fear of them gets in the way. I learned too, recently, that often what happens when people are treated poorly and denied their wants and needs is that their emotions and ability to attach to things/people around them shuts right down, and requires a ton of hard work to get it back up and running (and will likely never run at the pace it should have been this whole time).

It's taken me most of my life to finally realize that wanting/desiring/liking/loving/being passionate for/willing/etc. is actually okay, in fact it's flat out what God commands us to do as the greatest commandments.

One thing I at least like is scholarly and philosophical studies and thinking, and lately I've been working on biblical Greek. The Greek word thelo means to wish, will, want, desire, enjoy, take delight in. God has a will, and each of us has a will. It's our job to align ours with His, and that assumes that you actually have one. So no, you can't live without passion.

amen! Beautifully worded.

[Epoetker]

A lack of passion, nine times out of ten, is due to a lack of knowledge. I have achieved that Zen unfeeling state only to have the passion return with a vengeance once seeing the answer to what was previously thought an unsolvable problem.

Of course, it also requires bravery to seek such answers, as they're usually found in areas not frequented by one's normal circle of influences. Not to mention the commission of nontraditional activities (and I'm not talking drugs and sex here, because those are more likely to cement your dispassionate status once all the easy biological callbacks to feelings without original inspiration are exhausted, it becomes difficult to wake up the original feeling again. Lots of meth users end up committing suicide once their pleasure centers are burned out, for instance.)

The best adaptation is to use that feeling to do all the things you wanted to do before but couldn't for fear of what others might think of you. You'll discover what's important enough to be passionate over soon enough.

[pancreasman]

I don't think Buddhists advocate a robot like non-feeling state. Instead they seek to fully appreciate each moment without holding on to it. When you eat an orange, you intensely experience eating an orange, but when it's over, it's over. I don't think you could look at buddhist art or read buddhist poetry and think there was not passion involved.

[disciple100]

I don't think Buddhists advocate a robot like non-feeling state. Instead they seek to fully appreciate each moment without holding on to it. When you eat an orange, you intensely experience eating an orange, but when it's over, it's over. I don't think you could look at buddhist art or read buddhist poetry and think there was not passion involved.

True.