Passion

“Where admiration is lacking, both heart and work are weakened.” — Albert Camus, Writer

What does passion mean? For the average person it suggests unbridled romance, sexuality or lust, an insatiable even uncontrollable attraction towards the seemingly unattainable object(s) of our desire. Viewed this way passion can be interpreted as unreasonable, possibly delusional, even dangerous. But for the artist, passion means connection — a longing for the chance to explore, express and create something inside this world, inside this life. This kind of passion is compassionate, a passion born of deep admiration and desire for a richer and humbler understanding of the immediate world around us. It’s about taking each and every thing and moment at its fullest possible value. Nothing half-hearted or half-measured. A devotion to truly creative living means to live with passion— to love fully, play fully, and rest fully (and you’ll need less rest if you do!)

This is why it’s so often said that it’s not about doing what you love but loving what you do, not what you do but how you do it. Attitude is what matters most. We can, and should be, passionate about all things if we are to view ourselves as creative beings. Living truly is living truthfully, living with respect and with honor. Although truth may be a matter of perspective, the right kind of perspective can bring us real joy and fulfillment.

When passionate people perform — and yes, that is ultimately what all creation is, performance — they give it their all. Artists of measure, are constantly challenging their ability to focus, to experiment and to push boundaries. They also resolutely stay the course regardless of obstacles or opinions of others. Discipline, consistency and persistence are hallmarks of all the great artists in history. Whatever stage he’s at, the professional digs deep and digs hard into the work he does. And he takes the same approach to everything. It’s no wonder creative people, like many professional athletes, tend to excel across various platforms. Just as that top footballer also happens to be an excellent skier or tennis player, the accomplished animator is also an excellent painter, can storyboard, or build rigs. Why? Because he loves all that he does and applies the same level of focus and attention to the process, in all his interests. Excellence is a way of being.

“Once your thought, emotions and energy are organized, your very body will be organized.” — Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Yogi

Passion means balance too. It means aligning all the dimensions of our entire being — mind, body, emotions — and channelling all the energies along the same path, in the same direction. Only in this way, is there hope of peak performance, or flow. Creative people who take an unprejudiced approach to doing things slip into “the zone” much more often than regular people do and their body of work is often a testament to that.

“Your head is a tower with lenses where light rays dance.” — Paul Klee, Artist

With clarity of focus and dutiful preparation, we can allow our entire being to dance with the universe. Then magical things can happen. For creating art is no small wonder; it takes the most complete attention and at the same time the courage to be utterly vulnerable. When playing with powers beyond our understanding, we must always give our proper respect.

A friend once asked me, while admiring one of my larger paintings, why and how I had formulated it. I said that it did not come from me, but through me, that neither its original conception nor its execution was wholly my own doing. Being a highly rational-minded person, he said it still came from me, that it was really only me, while I insisted otherwise. The reason for my conclusion? The entire process was both a battle and a dream. Much effort went into its creation, but there was so much that was unknown (both before and during), so much serendipity, that the end result was not anything I had anticipated. When I finished it, I didn’t remember how I made it. I still don’t. I think our best work can only come about in such manner, the result of an interdependent concoction of will and destiny.

“The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive. The place occupied by figures or objects, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything plays a part.” – Henri Matisse, Artist

I don’t mean to infer that fine results are the result of luck, but outcomes require many elements to both exist and align at the right place and time. This is why the process is everything. We can only control what’s inside ourselves — and that’s why we work from the inside out for any other approach would be fruitless. Our passion is the vehicle to which we can use to marshal the internal with the external. Everything counts. Everything plays a part, both in our art and, in our lives. How we do anything is how we do everything.

At the end of the day, there’s only life. Sometimes it can all seem like an illusion. For life is so uncertain; only the present moment is real and it’s gone all too soon. In Latin, the word for illusion is “ludere” which means play. Perhaps this is why we must “play” with passion — irrefutable, unapologetic, unprejudiced passion. That’s what I call real living.

“Life is a dream. But it’s also real.” — Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev