Mini 20

Gist: If words could describe cosmic truths, then the term perfect passion might be a good way to describe the ultimate force of life throughout the cosmos—that ever-present, underlying urge to experience conscious contact with the source, to be one with the cosmos. Seeking oneness with the all-that-is… that’s the “perfect passion,” which is probably inherently understood by advanced sentient beings almost everywhere throughout the cosmos.

Spoiler alert: Perfect passion is impossible to experience during a lifetime on Earth, except under the very rarest of circumstances. But simply by understanding and acknowledging what perfect passion is, and by holding it close to the heart, we can start to refine our many earthy passions from day to day, bringing us ever closer to perfection with the selections we make. That’s what this article is about: Understanding perfect passion and locking onto it as a guiding light (even if it seems far, far away), then selecting from the countless earthy passions the ones that are most rewarding and move us ever closer to the perfect light.

The two notes above and the “Closing Thoughts” at the end contain, in a nutshell (and in my opinion), everything we need to know about passion. The other information below just fills in some holes by elaborating on the many imperfect kinds of passions here on Earth.

The Countless Earthy Passions Are All Flawed

There are various ways to classify the passions that motivate us. Here are three of them:

1) Positive vs negative passions, a dualistic look:

• Positive earthy passions can make life more enjoyable—exercise, reading, music, gardening, volunteering…. Most of us have some positive passions (but they usually have some built-in drawbacks as well, as we’ll explore in the “Closing Thoughts”).
• Negative passions* on Earth cause people to suffer—stealing, lusting, lying, hating, bragging…. They’re well known to western religion, to eastern religion, and, well, to just about everyone.

2) Harmonious vs obsessive* passions. Canadian researchers recently took a more scientific look at passion that is also dualistic. Harmonious passions strengthen relationships. Obsessive passions weaken relationships and are usually associated with addiction and destructive behavior. (Again, even the harmonious passions have flaws.)

3) Outward, inward, and in-beyond passions:

• Outward passions are stirred by things going on in the world around us (movies, games, attractive people, upsetting images of war and famine…).
• Inward passions* are stirred by things going on inside us (hormones, DNA, drugs, alcohol….)
• In-beyond passions are stirred by things going on in finer, nonphysical dimensions that are superimposed over our world (see the diagram below). They could also be called spiritual passions. Perfect passion is at the very core of those in-beyond or spiritual passions. It’s at the center of everything. (To get a better idea of the many spiritual passions that can influence our behavior from beyond the Earth, you might enjoy this article: Things To Do in the Afterlife, noting especially the emotional baggage that people hold onto after a lifetime, as they get settled in the worlds of spirit.)

Closing Thoughts

Acknowledging that faraway guiding light (which is really omnipresent but sometimes feels faraway) and holding it close to our heart—always—keeps us on a course of polishing our passions, getting us ever closer to the state of perfection.

Or, stated more accurately (but more mysteriously), we’re already perfect beings enjoying perfect passion—oneness with the source. We’ve just forgotten it because of the countless illusory dramas and earthy passions going on around us and inside us, distracting our five senses. All we have to do is remember our perfect birthright while holding the guiding light close to our heart… and the brilliance of our true, eternal, perfect nature slowly washes away the illusions and distractions. As painful, earthy dramas continue to bubble up in our lives, they become more fleeting… more powerless.

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*This little note is added as an afterthought—a basic, bitter truth about our humanness that we often like to forget or ignore. Since times long ago, humans have been powerfully motivated (whether through evolution or genetic tinkering or whatever) toward procreation and prosperity. Today that translates to obsessions with sex and money that just about everyone has to contend with, to a greater or lesser degree, at various times in their lives. Passions for sex and money are two of the greatest catalysts of predatory, parasitic, and competitive behavior among us humans—win-lose behaviors that spark conflict throughout society. Over time, those preoccupations with sex and money push humanity relentlessly toward overpopulation (too many mouths to feed), overconsumption (of products by people, of resources by society), and economic disparity (the very rich vs the very poor)… leading to an occasional apocalypse or general housecleaning or reboot of planetary life. Responsible governments try to address those inherent problems with limited success (family planning and population control in China last century, social democracies striving for equity through taxation and social programs….), but responsible government policies move in and out of fashion over time. Someday, perhaps, humanity at large will “see the light.”