So I'm pleased to say my relative has an alternative perspective on passion (see previous post, and the one prior to that). Well, good. Lets consider it. To start, I agree with their comments. Yes, my desire for the things unseen are often weaker than those pleasures that are tangible, accessible, and available. And so, as the argument would go, my passions and desires for God will then be weak and insubstantial compared to the attractions of the world around me. I also agree that a desire for the things of the Spirit and God come from the mysterious human spiritual sense of rightness. But I do not quite agree that this is "yet another costly duty to be observed". A passion for duty is fine, but duty for a passion is the death of desire. However, let me back up and consider the premise that desires for the intangible are inherently weaker. This does not automatically follow, in my view. When the tangible and intangible are alongside each other, established desire for the real object will battle strongly with the emotions about the intangible, but it does not imply anything about which wins the contest. It depends on how I have cultivated my desires. All desires start in the mind. All desires, until experienced, are theoretical. It begins when something plants a desire, and how it grows according to the way we cultivate it. This determines the power it has in our decisions. Chocolate, until tasted, is a theoretical desire. Once experienced, especially once repeatedly experienced, the desire for chocolate can overwhelm almost anything. Consider then all those intangible desires that have caused wars, rebellion, and complete society transformation? What about desires for justice, retribution, freedom, and love? What about all those intangible and nebulous things that have caused individuals to accomplish the unthinkable -- both honurable and treacherous? Those desires can be stronger than any physical temptation -- they can lead to self denial for the sake of the inexpressible. I argue that desire is not about whether the object is tangible or intangible, but that desire is the product of the choices we make and what we cultivate. For example, consider a boy and a girl. One is initially drawn to the other, and dwells on the idea of the other person. They turn over in their mind the persons attributes, they fantasize scenarios, they dream. There is an investment of time, energy, and emotion, ignoring practical difficulties (even about whether the other person likes them or not) and focus on the beautiful. In time this grows to love and a passion that can build the most beautiful thing in the world, or when denied can destroy all it touches. Such a passion is called love or hatred and is immensely powerful, yet you cannot touch it, show it, feel it, or smell it. I think this is partly why we are created with brain, body, and soul. My brain is creative: I can choose to dwell on something, contemplate, explore, conceptualize, imagine. My body through emotions and hormones can both respond to and drive this thinking. And my soul can place a value on this. When my soul says "this is valuable", so my passions, desires, and actions conform. When we try and think our way out of the unimaginable, our behavior becomes erratic. But when we allow thinking to lead to experience, when we allow ideas to inform our cultivation of something visceral, organic, and internal, then our actions reflect an intensity of passion that touches all who we are. Suppress a person's imagination and creativity, and passion dies with it. And so I say, worship the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Choose this, and the heart responds to the investment. Then will our soul takes hold of the seed of desire and nurture a wholesome and holy passion. We are defined by what we worship (and therein lies a tale), not by what we think, feel or know. Some questions in my mind: is it because our technological society presents almost unlimited choice of stimuli (unless you're poor) that our capacity for imagination is dying? And if so, is this partly why rich people struggle to know God? Is this one reason why poverty often engenders spirituality? Is it because our minds are so weak willed from being sapped by the endless propaganda of the media, that we don't know how to invest in the intangible? Is this why in the west we see so little passion for justice, righteousness, and duty? And perhaps most of all, what does this all mean in practice?
1 Comment
Jane
28/5/2013 07:15:40 am
Weak desire due to lack of tangibility is different to desire is weak due to lack of comprehension...
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