Sexual Pleasure, Passion, or Love?
Human experience opens the Path to various relational experiences.
We live relationships of friendship, family, romance, social ties, professional bonds…
We live relationships with more or less intensity…
We live relationships with more or less impact on our Happiness…
And it was this impact that led me to another reflection on Relationships.
I chose romantic Relationships because I felt they provoke the most inner conflict.
This inner conflict arises from the clash between desire and the ideals each of us adopts.
Some refuse to enter a Relationship with people who do not match their ideal;
Some restrain themselves from entering Relationships where no feeling exists;
Some decide they do not want to be the third element in a Relationship;
There are many reasons that lead us to resist desire, feeling, or the will to experience a Relationship.
These reasons reveal three types of romantic Relationships, defined by what sustains them—that is, romantic Relationships are based on sexual pleasure, passion, or Love.
Romantic Relationships based on sexual pleasure differ from the others because there is no feeling associated with physical attraction.
This type of Relationship consists of attachment to needs through the sensations that physical stimulus provokes, without any feeling!
In other words, the purpose of this type of Relationship is to satisfy the need for sexual pleasure.
Thus, such Relationships are usually short-lived; in cases where they occur repeatedly, they may evolve into passion.
When evolving into passion, our goal becomes the satisfaction of sexual desire combined with the need for attention, affection, and possession.
Indeed, romantic Relationships based on passion involve feeling alongside physical attraction.
Passion is attachment to needs through emotions and the sense of possession!
Relationships based on passion last longer than those based solely on sexual pleasure, though duration always depends on the dynamic created within the Relationship itself.
It can survive as passion for years or evolve into a romantic Relationship based on Love.
The latter also associates sexual pleasure with feeling, though it does not aim to satisfy needs.
Love is detachment from needs; it is the Flow of two!
It consists only of a conscious Choice of the Path we wish to follow.
At the risk of repeating myself, Love and passion are distinct feelings.
In passion, we seek intensity; in Love, we find Intimacy.
The best way to show this difference is in the state we assume in passion or Love.
When we experience a Relationship based on passion, we are infatuated.
To be infatuated is to be in passion with another person.
When we experience a Relationship based on Love, we are in love.
To be in love is to be in Love with another person.
If we look at the origin of the words “infatuated” and “in love,” we see a huge difference, though they may complement each other.
The word INFATUATED is formed by the prefix in, the word passion, and the suffix -ate. Passion comes from the Greek word Pathos, meaning suffering. The prefix in signifies distance, deprivation, negation, insufficiency, lack. The suffix -ate means to cross, analyze, or cleanse.
This origin guides us to understand infatuation as a turning outward, a distancing from ourselves, depriving our being of attention, Care, and self-value, denying ourselves the Love we need.
We are crossing our internal insufficiency with that of another, through a deep unconscious attachment we experience.
In other words, we try to satisfy our needs through the other, and unconsciously, we collide with the other’s suffering, prompting Awareness of the pain that this outward movement brings.
This is why I say that passion Awakens us!
The word IN LOVE is formed by the prefix in, the word Love, and the suffix -ate. Love has Latin origins and is associated with the act of sowing, though my interpretation of the word is to care for the seed. The prefix in signifies movement inward, a passage into a state or form. The suffix -ate, as previously noted, means to cross, analyze, or cleanse.
This origin is fascinating and fundamental to understanding being in Love as a movement that withdraws attention from the other and focuses it within ourselves, transforming our state through Care of our Essence—our seed!
In other words, by caring for our seed, we allow it to flourish, expand, and cross with other seeds, spreading the sublime fragrance of a healthy and happy Relationship based on the free Love that constitutes each of us!
This is why I say that Love Elevates us!
