Happy new years everybody

And its another year, and I know it will be a great one.... For me, not necesarily everyone else. But I do send out good thoughts to everyone else in hope they can enjoy themselves as much as I will.

If you haven't been following my blog, I emplore you, please do. Because I say again, I am trying to publish a very helpful personal guide for fellow Buddhists and Martial artists. And you may or may not have similar experiences, but I hope this opens your awareness to my circumstance so you may be better aware of your own.

P.S: Apologies if this has been a bit zen-sided, my martial arts class has broken up for the year, but I will be returning shortly.

Now, my blog for today:
I was having a conversation with my step-mother just a while ago; I had described to her how wonderful it was being at the top of a snow mountain surrounded by blue sky with nothing but snow between you and the bottom of the slope, and how very exhilerating that is. She had never expressed interest in snow before (albeit a great love of my father, brother and me) so to my surprise, she said that she would give it a go. If I had had this conversation only a month earlier
her response to my heart-felt speech would have been something along the lines of: "My friend died on the mountains, so I do not wish to go there." But she explained, was that her new years resolution was to live more, and that is why she will let go of her previous inhibitions and go with my father, brother and me to the mountains.

This got me thinking... In Buddhism, it explains letting go, but over and over I hear of people feeling they haven't lived their lives or they have no passion any more, and passion is an important thing. So, then, does Buddhism ask us to detach from the passion in our lives? If we detach from that, do our lives feel good, do they feel like they are worth something? Passion of life is something vitally important to aid suffering, and my goal is to end suffering, yet, it does not end suffering, and Buddhism claims to. So what then, do I do? Do I employ passion, or do I employ Buddhist teachings in this life?

I think, the answer lies in the mid-way point. Let me explain; for my step-mother to gain passion in her life, she had to let go of the passion she had of her past. She detached herself from the passion of suffering, this is not a total detachment, but a detachment from suffering in one aspect of her life. But then, she grasps onto a new passion for life. This may seem just as attached, but she feels, if she lives her life in the moment, and really lives death does not phase her. As long as she lives.

I feel this is a step forward for her, but for some it may be a step backward to do the same (in the understanding that I realise this is in no way an offence meant, and she takes no part in Buddhism); for Sidhartha taught that to attain enlightenment, one must be self-less, and be empty of desire. This means the desire for passion also. Passion is an extreme feeling of ecstacy for one reason or another be it:physical passion, passion of the mind, or a spiritual passion, these are all feelings that are there because we desire them.

For one who is learning to be unnatached, this would not be a good step forwards. But I hope this may have helped those who have faced the same question.