Dispassion
A vital aspect of Orthodox spiritual formation is a practice called “dispassion.” This word sounds as if it suggests a non-emotive spirituality, and because of this, it is often dismissed
as being part of what some might call “dead” spirituality. After all, the common practice in North America today is to be emotionally involved in one’s spiritual life, and phrases passed around Christian circles support this concept. To be “on fire for the Lord,” “loving Jesus,” “turned on for the Lord,” “baptized in the spirit,” etc., all speak of this need to practice spirituality with zeal and gusto. Consequently, when one inquires into Orthodox spirituality and finds that we frown on such phrases, one becomes suspect of our intent [and we often get accused of being “cold”].
However, the meaning of the terminology requires clarification, because dispassion is, in fact, necessary to any serious spiritual formation. “Dispassion” doesn’t mean that we don’t have feelings for the Lord, or feelings in general. It does mean that feelings and emotions are not the criteria for measuring our faithfulness to Christ. Indeed, the spiritual life is to be devoted to shedding all dependence upon our feelings, our emotions, our “passions,” as the New Testament and the early Church called them. St. Peter tells us that we must “live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer by human passions but by the will of God.” [1 Pet. 4:2] The Christian life is to be devoted to learning discipleship, to being formed in the image of Jesus Christ, and this must be done regardless of how we feel.
Terminology such as “being on fire for the Lord” suggests that one have an emotional intensity driving one to be faithful to Christ. We know for a fact, however, that many times the emotions fail us in our service of Christ. We may feel intense joy and pleasure at times when we pray, for example, but there will definitely be times when we feel nothing when we pray. If our prayer discipline is based purely upon how we feel, then we will only pray occasionally, when “we feel like it.” However, if our prayer discipline is based upon self-discipline and commitment to Jesus Christ, then we will pray regularly regardless of how or what we feel. There will be then, times when we feel elation in prayer, and times when we feel nothing. Being faithful in prayer to the Lord without regard to feelings is a part of “dispassion.”
Another example might be the issue of forgiveness. Every Christian has faced, at some time or another, the matter of having to forgive someone who hurt him. We experience deep hurt or rejection, yet we feel that the Lord is telling us to forgive, and we certainly know that Scripture tells us to do so. Wanting to do what He requires of us, we obey; yet very often we don’t “feel” like doing it, and usually our emotions are urging us to not forgive and/or pray for the offender. In this instance, “dispassion” is to obey Christ’s command regardless of what we feel, to forgive because He told us to, not because we feel like it.
In the end, our “feelings,” our emotions, are not good guages of spiritual progress, and the only good measure of spiritual progress is obedience [and repentance when we fail]. The practice of “dispassion” is not intended to make us cold or indifferent to the Lord. Indeed, we can sometime experience intense emotions after practicing “dispassion.” Yet we can also experience nothing. It must be asked then, “What was more important, the feeling we experienced, or the commitment we expressed?
In the Orthodox Church, we are not interested in stirring up feelings of fidelity or inducing emotion-based spirituality. On the contrary, we are interested in building faithful disciples, and “dispassion” is critical to effective discipleship.