[Ilya]

Originally Posted by albertlee25

But i would say the reason we cannot accept that we can have passion for anything at will is because passion comes with love. Love is something that we do not want to give to everything and anything. It is something special, if we hated something, we prefer to continue hating it!! If we love something, it must be special to us.

Originally Posted by Shamou

First, I do not believe that love is necessary for passion… I can hate with a passion… so can thousand of Talibans hating Americans… they will readily sacrifice their own life to destroy what they see as the sworn enemy… that’s passion… not enthusiasm…

I belong to the same school of thought as Shamou on this one. However I have a slightly different take on passion-love relationship.

I think this is a good point in a debate to look up the word in question.

I'll use the quote from dictionary.com - wikipedia has a rather simplistic definition.

1. any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.
2. strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.
3. strong sexual desire; lust.
4. an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.
5. a person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire.
6. a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: a passion for music.
7. the object of such a fondness or desire: Accuracy became a passion with him.
8. an outburst of strong emotion or feeling: He suddenly broke into a passion of bitter words.
9. violent anger.
10. the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, esp. something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior (contrasted with action).
11. (often initial capital letter) Theology.
a. the sufferings of Christ on the cross or His sufferings subsequent to the Last Supper.
b. the narrative of Christ's sufferings as recorded in the Gospels.
12. Archaic. the sufferings of a martyr.

Which definition we are talking about here? I think it is partially the definition number 1 and partially the definition number 6.

I quoted the other irrelevant definitions on purpose. I want to illustrate that whatever definition we take, they all share one thing in common - great intensity. And if we take the definition number one, we can see that love or hate are just the examples of passion. In other words, passion is the measure of intensity of love, hate or other emotion.
Understanding that, can be useful to those who think that passion equals love. I can understand the people who do not like to do love autopsy. But love and passion are different things. You don't have to dissect love in order to control passion.

Of course, love and hate are two most common examples of emotions that easily reach the intensity of passion. These are two emotions that allow all humans to experience the emotional intensity that associates with word passion. Lust is another example, although it is not as socially accepted.

One may argue, that unless love has reached the intensity of passion, it is not a true love at all. But it does not mean, that love is a prerequisite of passion.

Why would we like to be able to become passionate at will, to spark passion?
Being passionate has very powerful benefits. We gain courage, we gain more energy, we tap into our deep resources, we can overcome our internal barriers, we feel good and happy, we feel alive. We need less food, and less sleep, we enjoy increased concentration, memory, creativity, attention span. Our productivity soars (in the area that we are passionate about) If applied to physical tasks, we can notice the increased endurance, strength, agility, pain barrier. Not all of these effects happen simultaneously. They are just the most common.

There is no magic in it. Technically speaking, we are entering the altered state of mind that allows us to perform these feats.

But it is important to understand that these effects stem from the unusual intensity of an emotion. Any emotion. Imagine passionate passionate depression. Sounds like oxymoron, but it is possible. This is the most dangerous period in clinical depression - that's where the suicidal patients have enough intensity to actually take their own life. Obviously, I do not suggest that anyone practices intensifying negative emotions. But the range is much wider then love and hate.

Try passionate interest or curiosity. Try passionate persistence. Try passionate joy. Try passionate calmness or concentration. Hope, you get the idea.

To reap the rewards of passion, we need to spark it in a way that the state will become self-sustaining. One of the wonderful properties of passion state is that the more you tap into it, the more energy we get. So being passionate we can go on for weeks and months, while the same level of effort in a "normal state" will drain a person in a few hours.

Now, is there a way to increase the intensity of the emotions, so that they reach the level of passion? I believe there is and I have some experience doing it. It can be done in a form of meditation. This requires practice to achieve stable results, but it is possible.