An Insight on the Utility of Passion and Anger

 Passion and anger are attributes associated with Sith philosophy.  Those of us who think we have the "answer" with living by a Jedi Philosophy may dismiss these things as something to be avoided. 

Recent events have shown me that there is a limited utility to passion and anger, but it comes at a cost. 

In short, what I went through made me justifiably angry.  When I relate my story, others appear to get angry that such a situation could happen.  And while I was angry, and passionate, I was able to effect some change I was very driven.  But after a very short time, it left me drained. While passion and anger may feel powerful, it is not sustainable – at least not for me. 

When it comes down to it, my anger and passion were essentially self-serving.  I wanted to fix the situation I was in, I wanted people to stop mistreating me. But mixed in with it were desires that what was being done to me, would not be done to others. While addressing a systemic problem that affected me directly, taking steps to repair it would help those that came after me.  While anger and passion receded, the compassion remained.

This allowed me to reflect on what the benefit and utility of anger and passion, and what is the benefit and utility of serenity and compassion.   Where passion drained me, I found that compassion sustained me.  Compassion applied to the same situation seemed to grow within me with almost no effort, while passion kept having to be fed.  It is kind of an emotional inertia.  Anger can be very quick, and very fast, but at the same time, it can be just as quick to halt in it's track. Compassion while takes more initial effort to start, once it gets moving it takes very little effort to keep it in motion. 

I have learned what some may find appealing in passion and anger, but I have also learned that such benefits are fleeting, as are many of the gains once acquires when inculcating “dark side” attributes.  I will use the Force (inculcating the positive mental attitudes exemplified by the Jedi archetype) which seems to me, to have a much more sustainable benefit.