Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Eckhart Aurelius Hughes]

Besides Salsa dancing, what are you most passionate about in your life right now? Something that you can't live without doing. Something that you think about all the time.

Hi, Shirley Labzentis,

Thank you for your question.

I think you have falsely conflated (1) what I am passionate about with (2) what is required for me to live.

Some things that I (as a human) cannot live without are oxygen to breath, water to drink, and a relatively small amount of food. Of course, all of that only delays the death of this body a very small amount. In the blink of a cosmic eye, this human body will be dead and forgotten. In fact, in very short time, all humans and humanity as a whole will be dead and forgotten.

A little bit of longevity, meaning getting to live a few more years in one of these human bodies rather than dying right now, is merely a means, not an end.

In some ways, it seems as if your question almost flip-flops what's important and why.

What my body needs to live (e.g. food, air, and drinkable water) has no real importance to me in and of itself. It's merely a means to keeping this body alive for a little bit longer before it's inevitable death that is coming up very soon.

Similarly, those extra few years of life have no real importance in and of themselves, but--like money or physical strength/power/health--are only a means to some other end.

The money, time, power, etc. has no intrinsic value ( at least not to me, meaning the real me) but rather is what enables me to do things.

Perhaps the question is meant to ask what external joy, indulgence, comfort, and/or non-necessity would, if I couldn't have it, make me suicidal.

I doubt it, though, because that would indicate you think that if I was suddenly not able to do salsa dancing I would be suicidial and commit suicide.

Needless to say, no, I wouldn't become suicidal if I was suddenly unable to ever to do salsa dancing.

Indeed, there is nothing external that would steal my inner peace and spiritual freedom, meaning there's generally also nothing external that is needed for me to avoid becoming suicidal.

Likewise, there is nothing I think about all the time. In fact, I don't think all the time in general. I practice meditation, and so I engage in moments and periods of non-thinking.

More accurately, I never think. My body and brain think, and I hear it. My mind's verbal thoughts are like my heart's beats and my mouth's breaths. It's not something I am usually doing or controlling. It's something happening on it's own without my conscious will or attention. However, I can usually pause my thoughts and/or breaths by will, at least for a period of time.

One advantage of doing that occasionally is it helps break and dissolve any false identification with the breath,thoughts, heartbeat, etc.

If it ceases to exist and you are still there, then you become poignantly aware that you are not that.

One issue for people who think all the time (especially if they are very similar style thoughts about very similar and narrow topics) is that it becomes increasingly likely the person will mistake those seeming ever-present thoughts as themselves (the thing that is truly ever-present for them).

By eliminating the thoughts (or passion or obsession or hobby or creature comfort) for even a little bit can be a wonderful reminder that that thing is not actually always present nor does it need to be.

If I even started to feel like I couldn't live without something like salsa dancing (or that I thought about it all the time), that would be a sign to me that is was becoming like a literal addiction and would lead to me taking a break from it.

Thinking itself is an addiction for many people.

I recommend taking a break from it occasionally, finding the silent space between the words and thoughts, the ever-present proverbial sky against which the noise, words and thoughts are just covering clouds passing by.

When the sky is always full of clouds such that you can't see the empty sky behind the clouds, you can forget there is anything behind the clouds and mistake the clouds as the sky, meaning as you, since in the analogy the clouds are thoughts and the sky is you.

The clouds are the ephemeral ever-changing forms passing by, and the sky is the ultra-real ever-present omnipresent unchanging eternal spaciousness through which it passes.




With love,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes

[Rishaunda Lynnette Britton]

You have given a very detailed and insightful response to this question. I am amazed. This has really changed my priorities. Certain things are just essential for the sake of survival. Your perception of life and death is really remarkable.