Love And Passion - What Does It Do To Us?

[Revan]

thought I'd make another topic

Do you believe in love? that's just my first question.... secondly... I'd like to ask... what does love do to us? How does it effect us? I think he all know that it hurts when love is destroyed for us...

I am of the opinion that love free's us... yet chains us... not to the person you're in love with... but the emotion itself...

It's the same with passion... where would we be without it? Would we be human? I think we're slaves to passion and love at times... more so with passion... yet sometimes less so; in different ways.

How do the two relate? Where would we be without them? I don't think we'd be human with passion or love...

[Infelice]

Holy cow Darth.... what a topic to discuss. I believe in love most definitely. Love gives me a purpose, makes me feel safe, happy, secure, gives me a sense of belonging. True Love involves deep caring, selfless giving, complete trust. I dont often quote the bible but 1 Corinthians 13 sums up what Love is for me.

1 Corinthians 13


Love

1If I speak in the tongues[1] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[2] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

We can love and we can be "in love". Being "in love" I think involves passion. Passion to me is all about excitment, enthusiasm, zeal, enjoyment ... it sets your blood on fire, gets your heart pounding, gives you a rush.
You can be passionate about people, things, activities, pastimes, many things.
Love is enduring, Passion can be short-lived.

[Avatar]

Personally, I prefer Khalil Gibran, although he was almost certainly inspired by the same verses:

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."

And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Peace
--Avatar

[Avatar]

And on Passion:

And the priestess spoke again and said:
"Speak to us of Reason and Passion."

And he answered saying:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.

But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.

Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."

And since you are a breath In God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

[Revan]

heh, enough with the quotes!

Av, what are your thoughts on this? None quote sense.

[Avatar]

Aah, but the quotes say it so well!

Darth, I'm gonna have to think about it for a bit. What with the multi-tasking required to do my job, and have the excellent "conversations" that we've been partaking in today, at the same time, my brain is temporarily mush.

I'll make this my first stop tomorrow morning. In the meanwhile, read the quotes. I'm off home for the day.

Have a good one folks
--Avatar

[Revan]

I've now read the quotes. They are amazing. great to read Thankyou for sharing

though I mislike the talk of God in the quotes... I liked the quotes.

[Avatar]

Yeah, they're awesome. Simply substitute "God" for whatever you concieve there to be, whether it's Buddha or nature, the principle remains.

And now I'm really off.

Be safe, and Keep Smiling
--Avatar

[Worm of Despite]

And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make.

Sorry if the following comes off all cold and depressing, but I feel I'm speaking from honesty. Or at least safety. Here goes:

Do I believe in love? I believe it exists, if that's what you're asking. Personally, I have never experienced it, and, aside from family, I can safely say I've never loved another person. Lust, yes. Hate, sure. Love, no. I have friends here and friends in real life, and I enjoy interacting with them, but never do I feel anything that I think should be classified as "love".

That said, some might postulate that I haven't yet begun to live. I must disagree. Love can be more than between two people. I love life. I love music. Books, poetry. They are the heights that I scale; they are my tools for breaking through to glory. Make no mistake: the world never ceases to amaze me, nor does this life ever stop filling me with gratitude.

As far as human relationships, I believe love is what a person makes of it. Love can be a wild, spontaneous event you consummate quickly and end in a week. But love can also be a durable, well-tempered connection that lasts your whole life, gives you a sense of singularity. "Two bodies, one soul".

[dANdeLION]

Love affects us mightily. It can make us better than we could have ever been without it. Every time I watch Forrest Gump I am reminded of the power of a mother's love. And last night, on a reality tv show. A woman had a horrible house, and a pure soul. 3 years ago, she gave some bone marrow so a baby girl could live. The mother of the girl did not know who saved her daughter, but wanted to give her something back. She contacted a show where they fix up houses for people. These fixer-uppers were inspired by this story, and did not fix the house. They built a new house, in 6 days. And, they had the mother meet her daughter's savior. It was incredible. I am crying now, as I type this. This is love, and trust me, you don't need a spouse to understand it, but if you have children, or even better, faith in Jesus, you will never lack for it again.

[matrixman]

That's a beautiful story, dAN. It moves me just reading it.

[Avatar]

Well, as promised Darth, my first stop this morning.

Perhaps you should ask Ur-Vile to move the posts we made in the other thread about this to this thread.

Love is a strange thing. Of course I believe in it, I have to, seeing as I'm in love. But for a good part of my life, I too was under the impression that it was either an illusion, or a lie.

This is not to say that I'm neccessarily wrong about this, but it is an illusion that has encompassed me.
It is an illusion that serves a purpose, and makes us both happier and sadder than anything else.

As I mentioned in that other thread, I've been in a monogamous relationship for seven years now, and still as happy as ever. But when it first happened, no-one was more shocked than me. I'd pretty much given up expecting anything, and I think that's when its most likely to happen.

I think Lord Foul makes an excellent point in distinguishing "Love" from "Lust". It is the habit of both brain and body to easily confuse them. But as it's very hard for us to know when this confusion is occuring, we often don't realise that "falling out of love" may just be getting over your lust.

Love is real, it exists. But it takes an almost infinite variety of forms. Only time can tell.

Peace
--Avatar

[Revan]

Love affects us mightily. It can make us better than we could have ever been without it. Every time I watch Forrest Gump I am reminded of the power of a mother's love. And last night, on a reality tv show. A woman had a horrible house, and a pure soul. 3 years ago, she gave some bone marrow so a baby girl could live. The mother of the girl did not know who saved her daughter, but wanted to give her something back. She contacted a show where they fix up houses for people. These fixer-uppers were inspired by this story, and did not fix the house. They built a new house, in 6 days. And, they had the mother meet her daughter's savior. It was incredible. I am crying now, as I type this. This is love, and trust me, you don't need a spouse to understand it, but if you have children, or even better, faith in Jesus, you will never lack for it again.

Great post dAN i enjoyed reading every moment of it.

Passion... once in a Buffy episode... (Sad to bring this up, i know ) There was a line, "Without passion, maybe we would know some kind of peace.
"But we would be hollow, empty. Without passion, we'd be truly dead"

I thought this line has some truth to it, so I thought I'd bring it up. What do you think?

[Avatar]

Agreed, but we'd be just as dead with only passion...just more slowly.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Later
--Avatar

[Revan]

Agreed, but we'd be just as dead with only passion...just more slowly.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Later
--Avatar

Very good point... but some of us have no passion at all... Does anyone consider them "hollow?"

[Avatar]

Does anyone consider them "hollow?"

In a certain sense, yes. It's fairly easy to see when a peson lacks that internal fire that is passion, or drive.

They are the folks who are just getting on, existing when they should be Living.

It's pretty sad to see them struggling through their lives, possibly not even knowing that there is so much potential for wonder in the world, if they could only get past the inside of their own heads.

--Avatar

[Revan]

Does anyone consider them "hollow?"

In a certain sense, yes. It's fairly easy to see when a peson lacks that internal fire that is passion, or drive.

They are the folks who are just getting on, existing when they should be Living.

It's pretty sad to see them struggling through their lives, possibly not even knowing that there is so much potential for wonder in the world, if they could only get past the inside of their own heads.

--Avatar

Yes, completely right Avatar Passion is live sometimes... well... that's my opinion.

[Avatar]

You're rapidly becoming a favourite of mine Darth, thats at least four times today that I've seen the words "you're completely right Avatar."

[Revan]

You're rapidly becoming a favourite of mine Darth, thats at least four times today that I've seen the words "you're completely right Avatar."

Well you've made some excellent points!

[Avatar]

Why Thank You Darth Revan