Passion to Divinity
The painting depicted on the right is The Abduction of Psyche by William Bouguereau. The winged fellow doing the abducting is none other than mythical Eros. This is where the interesting part comes in: Psyche, of course comes from psychos, and means "mind." Eros is commonly mistranslated as "love," but its more literal meaning is "passion."So Bouguereau's work just as easily could be titled Passion Steals Mind for the same essential 'esoteric' value. Things that make you go: Hmmmmm....
Another pair of words, almost interchangeable with passion and mind, are emotion and reason. Newer psychological texts refer to three interactive human 'mindsets' - Rational Mind, Emotional Mind (the poles) and Wise Mind (the intermediary). When this was first presented to me in a training seminar three years ago, I guffawed loudy. The facillitator questioned my sardonicism and I stated "that's ("emotional mind") got to be one of the bigest oxymorons I've ever heard." (Of course I had to explain "oxymoron," which should have told me I was in for a beating, but I don't always listen well.)
(Bear with me, baby, I'm getting to the relevant part.)
For most of my mature adult years (Last 9 years or last 9 minutes, depending on how the score is kept :-) I have struggled with the reality of being what I term "emotionally retarded." This means that I seldom identify or "own" anything as a personal emotion unless I've had the opportunity to think about it, and very deeply. This is probably a developed defense trait, because Uncle Jah has been burned (scorched!) a time or two.
"The mind must overcome desire for you to achieve your potential."
It's been more than 25 years since those words were first given to me and they've been reinforced by research and experience every single day of that quarter-century. The more I let my thoughts guide me, the more I must suppress/control my feelings. The more I let my feelings guide me, the less reliable become my choices.
The formula was clear. If I wanted to be an intelligent man, I'd have to sacrifice my feelings in a lot of situations when that would be most difficult to do. (Can you say "understatement" like a mutha?!)
To make a long story (biography!) short, my personal philosophy is that mind, matter, energy, spirit and the time/space/gravity/formation element(s) are all byproducts (effects) of the same Primal Cause: Consciousness/Will. In the above, which will be convoluted to s/he who has never really contemplated the signifiance of origin/destination, and clear to s/he who has, I found the Face of God and my Reason for Existence.
(It's deep enough to merit a reread for perspective's sake. Really.)
The flip side of this is that in removing myself from my feelings, I have to admit that the new studies are correct that it (pure reason) sacrifices balance. That throws me yet again. Because, if balance is interchangeable with harmony, then I'm still missing the boat. If I'm trying to practice pure reason, I divorce emotion and therefore become imbalanced. If I allow emotion equal time with reason, I risk being the same fuckup I was during the first 35 years of my life...
Decisions, decisions. And that's ultimately what makes a man (Me!) a success or a failure - what he decides to do with his energy, talent and other resources. How to balance work and recreation, family life and career demands, desires and needs, strengths and weaknesses, virtues and vices - all these elements add up to determine whether he is content or miserable, fullfilled or empty, loved or despised.
So what happens when passion steals mind? For me, nothing I can ever predict. It's not always a tragedy, but it's seldom a stroke of brilliance. Despite my Sagittarian side (which is supposed to make me so happy-damn-go-lucky) , I have a pretty healthy dislike for unexpected shit. And I'm a creature of habit, constantly changing habit, so it's hard for me to open up (to myself!) and say I need to give my feelings some breathing room before I go bonkers trying to be super sane.
"Anything worth having is worth waiting for and worth working toward."
My mother said a lot of real shit to me coming up, but that may have been "the realest shit," as the late Tupac Shakur would say. Man, I have dreams that are so precious I hardly dare reveal them to myself and I guard them jealously. I moderate my behavior now, not only in response to Wisdom's counsel, but in the knowledge that keeping my options open could lead to the Realization of Another Fantasy.
Who says you can't be both passionate and smart?
Yeah, I read him, too - and he's another old fart!
All the aesthetics write about denying the bounties of the material, but only after they have grown to old to enjoy those bounties for themselves. The Road to Divinity doesn't have to bypass Passion - in fact, at some point, I'm certain that road goes right throught it.
posted by JahStorm @ 5:10 PM
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