NON-ATTACHMENT and PASSION

Thursday, April 5, 2012 § Leave a comment

The notion of non-attachment in Buddhist psychology might suggest to you that Buddha proposed to live without passion and thus avoid disappointment. That to live without passion is the price to pay to buy a degree of content. “No passion, no cry,” as Bob Marley might sing.

That’s a misunderstanding.

When we describe someone as passionate, we are noting the love, devotion, concentration and energy with which they DO something. Passion does not necessitate that they are good at it, nor that they are accomplishing something remarkable.

If you are passionate about playing the violin, you don’t care about the size of your audience, or the money it makes you. (You might still care for those things – to put dinner on your plate – but the rewards are not what drives your passion.)

Acting out of passion, you are not attached to the outcome or the appearance, but the act of your expression is itself your goal and reward.

Lifting your gaze from what you are trying to accomplish, and instead remembering what you love doing, is a good recipe to reawaken your passion.

PAINFULLY DISCIPLINED

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 § Leave a comment

You know someone who is exceptionally self-disciplined, say in a sport. They are following a gruesome regimen of training and races. When they speak about their harsh discipline, they are full of pride and self-worth.

They don’t seem happy and full of content though. Rather, they are so hard on themselves that there appears to be a degree of self-loathing. They might even sound addicted to the routine of training and accomplishment.

Self-discipline is necessary for self-love, but it is not sufficient.

If you are hard on yourself – pushing your physical limits by not sleeping enough or otherwise hurting your body – pause! Why are you hard on yourself?

An adaption of Monthy Python’s Four Yorkshiremen might go like this:
“I only slept 5h last night!”
“You lucky bastard. This morning, I got up an hour before I went to bed, ran 20 miles, brought the kids to school, finished my work and now have two more days of work to do in the next hour.”

The original:

Where Am I?

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