What is passion?

Pontify wrote in his blog the other day about passion and it got me thinking on the same subject.  You can read his entry over here and this is my favorite part:
"Passion is seeing the hidden soul of a person, place, thing or event. Passion is reaching for something you don't know but believe is there. Passion loves for the sake of love.  Passion is emotion in action. The person who asked me to write something about this topic, is passion.  Passion is an unequivocal drive so consuming as to necessitate sacrifice."

Apart from words in a dictionary, what is passion?  I don't pretend to have all of the answers, but I will tell you what I believe:

Simply put, passion is a fever, a burning.  To truly have passion is to be willingly set on fire and scorched by the intensity of your own beliefs and emotions.  It is an unstoppable fervor of the mind, heart, and soul.  Furthermore, we would not choose to stop it even if we could because, regardless of the suffering it may cause, we are completely caught up in it.  In passion, the line between pleasure and pain recedes from our conscious mind as we direct all of our energy towards the object of our attention.  We will undoubtedly experience pain in the pursuit of our passion but this is more than acceptable.  In fact, it is the very nature of the word: "strong or violent feelings of emotion."  "Violent" does not refer here to harm to another but simply emotional intensity that rattles our very core.  In the face of all this we must remember to, as Che Guevara said, "endure without losing tenderness.

We experience passion in many ways.  Lately, this is a word often used to describe feelings of love and lust towards another individual.  This does not do the word justice.  "Passion" can indeed be applied to relationships but it is a fallacy to say someone is passionate simply because they love you or are energetic in bed.  In love, passion can manifest as a burning that realigns our priorities and makes our lover, or the pursuit of a would-be lover, the focal point of our thoughts and emotions.  Passion can connect two individuals in their love for one another and the pursuit of a joint dream for the future.

Passionate feelings are not limited solely to our interactions with other human beings though.  We can experience passion in the form of a calling to a particular vocation or path in life (and this can go hand-in-hand with passion for a particular person).  This passion is the result of our having come to some limited measure of understanding regarding how our time on this earth should be spent.  Knowing this, and carrying this fire inside of our hearts, it is nearly impossible to turn our backs on our callings.  The pursuit of our life path will be intense and often will involve suffering, but to refuse to pursue our passion would result in a decimating suffering of an even greater magnitude.  To deny what one's heart knows would be the greatest fallacy of all.

The word "passion" has become watered-down and thrown around too lightly these days.  The reason for this is clear though: it is a dangerous word and concept when one fully comprehends its implications.  To live with passion threatens the status quo of the present - the automatons in the assembly line of our society, doing our parts without complaint, existing without living.  Even the very definition of "passions" belies this threat to the norm: "strong feelings or emotions as an obstacle to civilized conduct or rational behavior."  Those words bring to mind a quote by Epictetus: "If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things."  Our actions may not make sense to others, but still we must follow our passions.  Our passions are a threat because the intensity of them overrides our regard for social norms and conventions.  Whether in passionate love or a passionate calling, the chattering drone about rules and expectations falls by the wayside.  We no longer care.  There is something more important at work, deep within our souls.  An indisputable truth that we ignore at our own peril:

We are on fire.