For many years we have been complaining about the fact that our society is more and more passion driven. Passion itself is fine, we say, but passion for possessions is a different story. Passion for possession of material objects, technology gadgets etc. – and as a result we find ourselves desiring much less of the spiritual aspect of life.

I was wondering about this last night and it brought me to the great philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831). He first brought up the concept of two types of passion: one is the true passion, divine based, which inspire people to do great things. It is the best motivator, leader and guide. It is this type of passion, which brought us the most important discoveries of the human race. It is not based on competition or any concerns for other individual’s achievements, however it provides us with ideas, tangible or not, but always a betterness for all.

The other type of passion, according to Hegel, is egotistic passion. It makes people develop ideas, concepts or objects for very personal gains. To build ourselves, to become famous. A type of “look at me” approach to life. This type of passion deals with an attachment to our achievements. This is my technology, this is such and such method of healing etc. The effect of actions becomes inseparable from the person. This type of passion causes nothing else but a disaster for the creator. We must mention here, though, that those ideas or whatever else has been created may still be very useful and beneficial to others – like many Alternative Medicine modalities, which carries the names of the creator instead of the essence of the method, are still helpful.

Hegel said that the latter type of passion, leading to greatness of our ego, makes the person “to trample down many flowers” on the way. What should be the subject of our concerns or the core of a problem to ponder upon? Is it only about the moral standard of a person? Or should we care more if it brings expected results?

On the other hand this part of Hegel’s work proves that these kinds of problems and dilemmas are typical to our civilization regardless of the level of our advancement. Maybe then it is time to stop complaining about ego problem of others and think about how, regardless of what, they help us. Maybe if we could separate the advantages for humanity from low vibrational judgments, leaving theoretical discourse to philosophers, life would be a little easier. I love philosophers and believe they are our common consciousness bringing the most current (but not necessarily new) ethical predicaments to the surface, so we are aware of them. It is not, though, a reason to judge and disgrace others.

Are we not guilty as sin from time to time as well? Don’t we sometimes allow ego to drive our lives even if it is ‘only’ temporarily? And if so, then we are deprived of the rights to judge others. Since it is easier to observe and catch errors in others, we should be obligated to bring their attention to the problem. By the same token we should be grateful, not angry, to those, who catch our errors. They are helpers and friends, not enemies.

The question remains: are we brave enough to do that?