There is no passion; there is serenity
Written by Xhaiden
There is no passion; there is serenity. That is probably the least talked about line of the code. Many new people to the Jedi path tend to think this line is the same as there is no emotion; there is peace. In actuality, there is a difference between the two lines. This line is not saying have no passion. You need to learn how to control your passion so it does not control and take you over. I can think of a few people in my own personal life that have destroyed or come close to destroying their own lives from having too much passion. It's great to have that drive in doing something but letting that drive take over and be the only reason you function each day is no good. Some friends of mine when I was at college would practice so often and were so passionate about their practicing they would sometimes forget to go to class, eat, make an appointment and so on. It's great they wanted to practice their instrument but it was to such an extreme that it began interfering with the rest of their life and causing problems. I have also seen this many times in the business world also. How often do people around you and including yourself become so passionate about one task or goal that everything around you gets put on hold or the back burner? Hopefully you answer never but I am sure at least one person reading this could or will answer yes to that.Now why do people at times become so passionate that the rest of their life suffers? There could be a couple reasons and I will just discuss a few of these. If there is one aspect of your life that is having lots of problems you dedicate your attention to one task to distract you from the other problem. I will use a personal example for this. Over the past few years I have been learning money management the hard way and now I'm finally recovering. It got to the point of being really bad and really started to take a toll on me. If I wanted I could have dedicated my entire days to practicing trumpet or studying to keep my mind off my money problems. I could have practiced my trumpet 10 hours a day. The urge is always there and still is but I also understand that many more things would suffer in my life if I went ahead and did this. Instead I dealt with my money problems head on and then used other activities as a relief; take my mind off of things for a little while. Don't use your passion as a way to not having to deal with another aspect of your life. Another example I have seen through talking with others that fell to this was someone who was traumatized as at an earlier point in their life whether they were molested or abused. They were so hurt by it that when they enter the working world they dedication themselves and become extremely passionate about their job. You tend to see these people quickly rise because of their dedication. They are at work for extended hours past what they are supposed to be working. They do this so for one, they keep their mind off of their problem and two; by working like this they don't have to go home and deal with the problem. The last one I will mention as an example is someone who becomes so passionate about something because it is the only thing they think they can do well. Many times these kind of people can't really make money off what they are spending all their time doing. Sometimes they are lucky and can earn some money but not all the time. Many of these types tend to have self-confidence issues. They don't think they are useful or productive to anyone so they find their one niche and that's all they do.
Now that is just a couple of examples. These are the ones I have witnessed through my own life or talking with others. There can be many reasons and other factors that lead people to do these things.
Part of being a Jedi is having personal responsibility and accountability. If you are using your passion as a reason to run away from something you are only harming yourself more. Eventually you will have to face whatever it is going on in your own life or it will only get worse. Why would anyone want to live this way anyways? Take some responsibility and accountability for your own life and deal with your problems head on. It is never going to be easy but who said it was going to be. Take a look at your own life. Is there a nice balance between all the things you do or is one thing receiving all or most of your attention. If you find something that is, figure out why. It's great to have passion for something but do not let it overrun your life or you will find the life you have made will fall apart very rapidly.