165. Passion For Life

When an interest grows beyond the scope of mere curiosity it can transform into an obsession. An obsession forms because you want to possess the object of interest, you want to encompass it so fully that it becomes wholly yours. The intensity of your desire causes the obsession to be born and it quickly solidifies into a profound attachment.

It is attachment that makes an obsession dangerous. It causes you to lose sight of the world, to lose sight of yourself, to lose sight of everything that is not the object of your obsession. You become dull to everything and everyone around you. Your actions are directed only towards the obsession, with no energy left to respond sensitively to anyone or anything else.

You might argue you are only passionate about the object of your obsession, but passion is not like this. For passion is never directed towards anything specific. It has no goal or object. Passion, when it is present, arises in everything you are and everything you do. It is a way of orienting yourself towards the world. It is to open yourself to the whole of life and everything it has to offer. If you are passionate for anything it is for life itself.

To be passionate is to love life, and to live passionately is also to live compassionately. It is to broaden your awareness of experience and to help others broaden theirs. It is to take on suffering and to transform it into joy, even when it causes you pain and difficulty. It is to apply yourself to everything you do, with vigour, care, and sensitivity. It is to be free from attachment, including the attachment of obsession. To live each day with intense passion is perhaps the greatest achievement a human being could hope to attain.