I happened to leaf through a collection of Kahlil Gibran's writings and came across this small chapter on Reason and Passion in his famous book "The Prophet".
Let me reproduce a few lines from this exceptionally brilliant exposition.
These words were penned by the Lebanese-American author in the early twenties of the last century.
These words potray the perpetual dilemma people face in their lives. Should they be cautious or hasty, conservative or aggressive? move with deliberation or dive headlong?....
More often than not we ourselves or many others we observe in life, have chosen one over the other and paid a heavy price. Infact, both have an equal place in our lives.
For reason and judgment without any enthusiasm and action is plain and simple day dreaming. Management jargon typifies this behaviour as "Paralysis by Analysis". The end result is missed opportunities and immense frustration.
Similarly, excitement, passion and enthusiasm without proper thought, planning or direction leads to energy wasted and often poor or zero output again leading to fatigue and frustration.
What is called for is a happy mix of both ingredients....K Gibran says..."I would have you consider your judgment and your passion even as you would two loved guests in your house."
Is this practically possible in our normal daily lives or is this another of those utopian goals that many a "self-help" book lay out.
A state of mind where the passion and action is solely focussed on the task at hand guided by reason and judgment giving rise to perfect action and passion leading reason to challenge existing boundaries and establishing new benchmarks giving rise to change, progress and new discoveries.
I happily discovered that the purpose of yoga is to make all this and more achievable in our lives. What do you have to say......my dear friends???
"Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and appetite."...........
"Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at 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........................
These words were penned by the Lebanese-American author in the early twenties of the last century.
These words potray the perpetual dilemma people face in their lives. Should they be cautious or hasty, conservative or aggressive? move with deliberation or dive headlong?....
More often than not we ourselves or many others we observe in life, have chosen one over the other and paid a heavy price. Infact, both have an equal place in our lives.
For reason and judgment without any enthusiasm and action is plain and simple day dreaming. Management jargon typifies this behaviour as "Paralysis by Analysis". The end result is missed opportunities and immense frustration.
Similarly, excitement, passion and enthusiasm without proper thought, planning or direction leads to energy wasted and often poor or zero output again leading to fatigue and frustration.
What is called for is a happy mix of both ingredients....K Gibran says..."I would have you consider your judgment and your passion even as you would two loved guests in your house."
Is this practically possible in our normal daily lives or is this another of those utopian goals that many a "self-help" book lay out.
A state of mind where the passion and action is solely focussed on the task at hand guided by reason and judgment giving rise to perfect action and passion leading reason to challenge existing boundaries and establishing new benchmarks giving rise to change, progress and new discoveries.
I happily discovered that the purpose of yoga is to make all this and more achievable in our lives. What do you have to say......my dear friends???
3 comments:
Lovely lines by Gibran and nice explanation of them in this post.
Sort of like how the accelerator and the brake work together to keep a car moving smoothly along?
good one manju.
the point that came to my mind when i read your post was the " swoosh" the logo of the nike and and now it is time to - Ready, Get set, Go
Enthusiasm combined with discipline can result in miracles. I am all for Yoga is helping achieve this discipline and will power.
I have read the next post first, so let me add - a cool head is needed along with enthusiasm and passion.
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