Leidenschaft

Leidenschaft is the German word for passion and translates its Greek meaning right into your face: 'creates suffering'. It is just that as a German native you still forget that the word has a negative meaning since you associate a positive mental image with the concept of being passionate about something.

The Indian Gita is full of advice to avoid passion: do what seems right in the now without being emotionally tied to anything. Well, the Gita has been written for Gods; we mortals cannot help but to follow our passions like the bear is after the honey, and actually should continue on this path. If we were to suppress our passions in the name of spirituality, all we can do it to create a monster that will be soon out to get us.

When you are emotionally tied to something, you will get a lesson one way or another. So do the best you can do, express yourself creatively, look out for the impact of your actions on others, but just get it done with. Once you experience the feedback loop of the universe, you hopefully will in time grow out of your passion and are ready to transcend to the next spiritual level. To use myself as an example, I have always been quite indifferent about money and wealth, but I am still actively learning my lessons in the power and sex categories.

So while there is nothing you can do about your passions except to follow them, you can observe when your blood is bubbling up inside. Enjoy that micro second of sanity when you say to yourself 'Oh, I am being passionate again', before you trod down your honey path again.

The spiritual community prefers the word enthusiasm over passion, which means inspired by God in Greek. So my favorite notion of bliss is experiencing your tao moment by moment while drifting like a leaf in the wind without being swayed by your personal urges. The Germans have the word Begeisterung , i.e. the spirit (Geist) is with or inside you.

Well, may the Geist be with you,
Zeitgeist